Sense8: A Christmas Special was actually my most excited episode of television for the year 2016, but the true question is did it hold up to my insanely high expectations? Without getting into spoiler territory I'm going to start off by saying this episode of Sense8 does not move the plot forward by much and has a much more lighthearted tone then previous episodes in the series. At the same time it does hint at a darker upcoming tone for Season 2 as all of the characters are facing much tougher times compared to when the show began. The episode is 2 hours long and at times it doesn't really feel like a regular Sense8 episode but more of a Sense8 film with many montage sequences, different pop songs while giving us everything we love about Sense8 in one go. The performances were perfect as usual although Nomi still seemed quite bland compared to the other characters. The story was just as engaging and the cinematography was simply beautiful. The show held up with its cinematic loom from Season 1 and the episode did have some of the best moments in he entire show's run. Highlights include the opening underwater sequence, the birthday-styled orgy, the Christmas sequence while Hallelujah was playing and the ending action sequence. The episode did somewhat lack on the action front as the entire episode only had one action sequence at the very end of the episode but at the same time, it was great. The episode's lighter tone did work in keeping touch with the spirit of Christmas and the episode did touch on a lot of values and morals regarding Christmas. It also served as an excellent entry point to a hopefully perfect second series by immersing us back into these 8 people's lives while setting up future plot points. The episode was a tad slow and there was some choppy editing and pacing issues but otherwise it was masterful.
Sense8: A Christmas Special gets a 9.3/10.