Dear Netflix,
On June 1st, you announced the official cancellation of your original series "Sense8." And on the most objective of levels, I get it.
But that doesn't make what you've done acceptable.
As a television streaming service, you should know better than most that television has become something far beyond a way to pass time. My shows are my escape, my teachers, my friends, and my passions. So when you cancel a show that is as impactful and monumental as "Sense8 ", those are the things you are ripping away from people. By forcing "Sense8"'s journey to come to an abrupt, unforeseen, and unfinished end, you didn't just rip away a job from a transgender actress or cut a black actor's debut role short — clearly, that wasn't enough for you. You also had to take away our hope... my hope. Let me explain.
"Sense8" is telling a story that this world needs right now. It could not exist at a more relevant time in history than right at this very moment. In a world so full of hate rooted in distinguishing what separates all of us, "Sense8" is a radiant beam of light that reveals what's possible when we see what connects us.
Everyone can see themselves reflected in "Sense8" because this show reflects the world. Every color, sexuality, religion, and gender. And it presents all of this diversity not as a weakness, but as a strength. It brings people who have nothing in common together through their most human and deeply intimate similarities.
And do you understand how fucking powerful that is? To see people who are nothing like you and nothing like each other binding together through empathy and compassion? When I say this show is my hope, that is what I mean. In a world like the one we live in, in a country being led by racism, homophobia, misogyny, and Islamophobia, we need stories like the one "Sense8" is telling. We need stories of hope, stories where all humans -- no matter how different -- can empathize with, love, accept, and understand each other.
"Sense8" has taught me how to be the kind of person I want to be. It's taught me how to exist in a world that tries to hide, change, and criticize things that make me the individual that I am. It's taught me how to imagine others as whole, unique, and complex human beings who are no better and no worse than me.
Stories teach us empathy. They give us the ability to envision life through another's eyes and feel the experiences that shape them, that we perhaps would never experience ourselves. "Sense8" achieves this in a way no other story ever has and ever will.
And that is why you need to be held accountable for the repercussions of canceling this series. I don't care how much money it costs; you are irresponsible to let a story this important go unfinished. I get that it "all comes down to the numbers," but if you have any concept of responsibility you will do everything in your power to save this series. How dare you have the nerve to tell fans you've seen and heard our messages -- messages from LGBTQ+ youths who found the courage and a home in this story; messages from people of color who see themselves, not their stereotypes, on their screens -- and yet continue to say there's nothing you can do. If you had felt this story's impact aching in your bones the way these messages should make you feel, you would never let this series get canceled. It's simply too important.
So congratulations. This is what you've taken away from people. You thought you were just canceling some lame sci-fi drama "no one" watches? Something no one would take notice of if it just disappeared? You were wrong. We are here, we are loud, and we are not going anywhere. We won't let our story be silenced. "Your life is either defined by the system, or by the way you defy the system."
Sincerely yours,
Sensates everywhere
