Polyphony and Limbic resonance in "Polyphony" Episode 4, season 2 of the Netflix series "Sense 8"

Abstract

The Netflix series Sense 8 poses the existence of Homo Sensoriums, more evolved human beings who are born and reborn within a cluster – a group of eight individuals interconnected via limbic resonance. The story is told from multiple points of view, individual and collective. Even when the concept of polyphony is mentioned in the series, there are no studies linking the idea of the polyphonic construction of the narrative in the Bakhtinian sense. This study attempts to explore to what extent it could be said that the story is told in a polyphonic manner. Adopting a qualitative content analysis approach, the characters, the special type of interconnection between them, and some scenes of the episode were examined. The analysis of the technical procedures employed in the narration of the events and their effect on the audience seems to show that several features of the series may be classified as what Bakhtin describes as polyphonic.