Sense8

There isn't a thread for this yet? Must be rectified.

Just finished episode 5, and so far, so fantastic.

LBGT and poly representation, a rainbow cast racially, actual gender balance.. and every single character is fascinating and well portrayed, an extremely compelling central storytelling conceit, a plot that is doing a damn good job of sucking me in and just beautiful cinematography. Far better than I can ever recall seeing on television.

I have, as you may have noticed, just found a new favorite tv show.

The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski are the creators of the show, so I'm guessing it'll be pretty interesting.

This and Daredevil actually make me want to get Netflix now.

I watched the first 5 episodes last night, it's pretty good. I really like Doona Bae's character.

Mainlined it last night, totally worth it.

If you haven't used your free month yet, I'd say definitely do that. If you have.. well, buying a month isn't that expensive ;)

Finished the binge last night. So good.

A lot of problematic tropes avoided here - I mentioned how well it did on diversity in the first post but I was also just absurdly pleased with how how Nomi reacts to the out-of-context situation that lands on her doorstep, and how Will doesn't just suddenly stop being a cop because of woo-woo.

And the mexican storylines are mostly such a breath of humor that livens things up. And as someone pointed out to me, Lito's films seem to be taking the piss out of the Wachovski's own ouvre, which is just priceless.

edited 6th Jun '15 11:28:42 AM by Izeinsummer

I picked up some of that about Lito's films, but only a few episodes in right now. I think the characters are great and the diversity in characters is refreshing. The story is a bit slow to pick up but I think that is expected given how many well-rounded characters they are introducing. Definitely intriguing and the filming and scenery are great.

In the middle of ep 2 atm, and a small thing that pleases me. Usually when Germans show up in US Media its one of three options:

• Prussians
• Bavarians
• Those Wacky Nazis

Which...irritates me a lot.

Here? Wolfgang seems to be a German of Russian descent (or "Russlanddeutscher") and his girlfriend(?) appears to be of Turkish descent. Given that he lives in Berlin which has sizeable communities of both, I just like that this is actually shown for once.

So what's the deal with Lito's sexuality?

Like, his boyfriend said he only likes dick, and he didn't deny it, but when Daniella came onto him in the first episode, it seemed like he would have gone along with it if not for him?

...maybe he's simply a homoromantic bisexual? He loves men, but would not be averse to sleeping with women? And maybe he's just going along with his boyfriends portrayal of him as purely homosexual because if his boyfriend was aware of the bisexuality and the fact that he's near-constantly around hot woman would just be...stressful?

Just a theory, had to stop my bringe for now after ep 2.

Or he wasn't actually turned on by her but was using that acting skill to make it look like the circumstantial being turned on stuff was about her rather than the connection. He seemed pretty uncomfortable to me.

Heck, it's even possible that the cluster being activated is messing with his sexuality. Or that it always was - The lot of them are actually bisexual, it's just that two of them are in committed homosexual relationships. Note that both of them are heads over heels in love with their SO's, so it isn't like we would see them lust after random members of the opposite sex.

edited 7th Jun '15 1:57:03 PM by Izeinsummer

To avoid saying too much, the show does have a bit more, uh, fun later on with the confusion of shared erotic feelings and differing orientations later on.

Ah yes, that was a great scene.

That was indeed a good scene. Yes. Indeed.

Yeah, watching back it's pretty clear that he is acting in the first episode, he is doing the exact same conflicted "I would love to, but my heart belongs to another" routine to Daniela in the next episode, and later in a more tongue in cheek way to the bartender.

I have to say, at episode 6 (and yes I saw the great scene wrt sharing of sensations and all differing permutations that can arise) so far, and I really like how they are making Kala's fiance into a seemingly great guy who genuinely loves her. I think it would have been rather lazy writing if he was a total jerk or someone she was being coerced into marrying (and I acknowledge there is the pressure of him being the boss's son, but his father seems like he would be all to happy for the marriage not to go through; so I think there might be pressure because everyone think's the fiance is such a wonderful guy, I differentiate that from coercion).

I also find it easy to see how Kala found herself in this place. She got in a relationship with a wonderful guy that everyone in her life adores and who only wants to make her happy, and it is easy to see how she could have found herself thinking that he's wonderful and she's been with him a while and there probably isn't anyone who can & will treat her better, and her family likes him, and yeah sure why not marry him. So we end up in a situation with two people planning to marry for totally different reasons: his is primarily romantic love whereas hers is more grounded in compatibility and convenience. Hard not to feel bad for the fiance and a little ticked with Kala for not being more upfront, even if it is understandable how from her perspective there never seemed a good time or reason to break up. Wonderfully complex and sympathetic characters.

edited 7th Jun '15 11:01:08 PM by denisewinters

So there's totally a bunch of Translation Convention going on, right? Because it seemed weird to me that everyone was speaking English, but considering Kala's... roommate? Sister? I'm not sure who she was, but whoever caught her singing "What's up" in episode 4 would remark that she was singing in English specifically, and Sun and Lito just caught each-other in the mirror and didn't speak to eachother in English, it makes sense that that would be the case.

Yep, Translation Convention all over the dang place. It gets more obvious in some later scenes. I don't mind it too much because I don't think writing a script in 5+ languages was feasible

edited 8th Jun '15 10:00:39 AM by odafangirl

It's both the translation convention and translator microbes - the power translates between the sensates, that's part of the package. Although they probably could all manage english, given their backgrounds.

Yeah, I figure they all know English. I just thought it was weird they were always using it.

That was Kala's co-worker/friend, not her sister.

I was kind of disappointed about the Translation Convention, as Lost managed to do entirely subtitled flashbacks when the characters could speak it. However the flashbacks rarely took more up than half the episode, I suppose even Netflix would balk at most episodes being subtitled. America gets two characters after all, some concessions had to be made. :P

to be fair, without Translation Convention almost all of Wolfgangs and the other non-americans Plot would be in german, indian and korean.

edited 8th Jun '15 12:54:23 PM by 3of4

Like, 5/8ths of the cast are in countries where English isn't the dominant language, so going with subtitles would have been interesting but probably not palatable for most of the audience.

English is actually one of the official languages of India. But then again, it kind of had to be, what with colonization by the British and all.

edited 8th Jun '15 2:20:28 PM by higherbrainpattern