Sense8
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I got very excited when I heard the Wachowskis were doing TV and toss in Freema Agyeman I thought it would be a done deal. I hate to have report it is boring me. I've watched the first 3 episodes and have fallen asleep during each one. To the point where I think I have to go back and watch again to be able to follow the story and doubt I will.
I got very excited when I learned that J. Michael Straczynski was very much involved of this. He is the creator and was very often the writer of the award-winning science fiction series BABYLON 5. He is also a novelist and a non-fiction author. He has been nominated for an Academy Award.
Let me also add here briefly that I am the founder of the oldest-existing GLBT science fiction groups in the world, now nearing 30 years old.
SENSE8 is solid science fiction. It is something that is complex, involved, thoughtful. It is going to be dealing with a lot of political, social, psychological, and philosophical issues as it tells its story about this 8 characters becoming one.
SENSE8 is about the sense of wonder.
This is a story about the formation of a group mind. This is NOT a hive mind like that of STAR TREK's the Borg. It is a mind where each person individually become part a greater whole. The best science fiction novel version of this is the classic MORE THAN HUMAN by Theodore Sturgeon.
The story can be confusing because it does have 8 major characters, each one important so it is telling their stories – as they become one. So this will change as the story develops.
One of the reviews here commented that there was nothing science fictional happening. On the contrary, this is great science fiction. SF does not need futuristic props or special effects or CGI to make it science fiction. One of the best episodes in the newer version of the "Twilight Zone" which came out 20 years ago was based on the concept of "What if people KNEW reincarnation was real and could remember there past lives?" The result was a nightmare society. Straczynski was involved in the production of that series as well.
SENSE8 can be fairly easy to understand when you watch it if you remember this: There are 8 characters who, as the series progresses, literally become part of each others lives. What you are watching at the start is the start of this. They start hearing and seeing what the others do. As this bonding grows, they start to see each other, what each other is doing and experience this together. AND they start to be able to become each other, to be each other wherever they are.
I'll be blunt and say this: SENSE8 is not for everyone. It is for people who can understand and enjoy well-written and deeply thoughtful psychological drama. It is complex as it is telling 8 different stories that will become one story. It is not shallow TV. It isn't "reality" TV. It is not for people who give up when a series or a show is difficult for them to understand. It is for people who want to push ahead, to challenge themselves to learn and to understand and grow to be better themselves. SENSE8 is everything that is NOT what STAR TREK has become.
SENSE8 is classic Science Fiction television that will become a classic.
. . .
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Yup, that sealed it for me. Let others waddle through the junk and report back on it. There is far too much quality telly out there for me to waste time on nonsense( 8 ).
So you changed your mind, and decided to watch this afterall?
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Yup, that sealed it for me. Let others waddle through the junk and report back on it. There is far too much quality telly out there for me to waste time on nonsense( 8 ).
So you changed your mind, and decided to watch this afterall?
I watched the first 3 episodes last weekend but drifted off during each episode. Some shows lend themselves to the binge experience, some do not and also my own frame of mind can play a part in whether I am engaged or not. I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones when it first aired (or again parts of it due to nodding) and wrote that series off. Tried again when with the first episode during the second season because of hype & again nothing. Third season hype seemed omnipresent so tried a third time, something clicked and I watched the series to that point in 3 days.
I have not returned to Sense8 BUT I will be. A few of the strains in it struck a chord slowly because I found myself wondering about it a couple times, was going to put the first episode on again but became otherwise engaged (got to love the random drop-in who fills the void television cannot). I can run hot or cold pretty easy and black or white seems to be my on or off.
Unfortunately I am unable to go back and edit thoughts expressed earlier like 'twaddle'. I am going back to Sense8 if for no other reason than I enjoy Miss Agyeman gracing the small screen. She certainly was a highlight in The Carrie Diaries which really was trash and yet I saw every episode of it…
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I'll be blunt and say this: SENSE8 is not for everyone. It is for people who can understand and enjoy well-written and deeply thoughtful psychological drama. It is complex as it is telling 8 different stories that will become one story. It is not shallow TV. It isn't "reality" TV. It is not for people who give up when a series or a show is difficult for them to understand. It is for people who want to push ahead, to challenge themselves to learn and to understand and grow to be better themselves. SENSE8 is everything that is NOT what STAR TREK has become.
No one 'story' can be for everyone, we are all unique little snowflakes. Let's remember it is 'just television' (friends of mine just felt a little weird because of me typing out 'just television' - twice now) and people who want to challenge themselves, learn, understand & better themselves are (or shouldn't be) relying on television to push ahead. Aargh I feel dirty expressing this and I think the TV is watching, waiting, about to blink out to punish me.
I learned my lesson expecting too much from television when Little House on the Prairie & Highway to Heaven had that cross over reunion special. Everyone was all like (retrozombieliketheverynextday) it was always a character study. Ya well the only character I was interested was The Island and I still to this day mutter "I hope your happy Jacob" every time I push through revolving doors. Oh Lost, we have to go back…
Sometimes I do let my fingers do the thinking and bla bla bla. I am going back to Sense8 (not tonight Hannibal as something special cooked up for me).
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I'm in LOVE with this show. I had to binge watch it and I just… It was so lovely. The actors are so diverse and the cast is awesome and I seriously think that Lito is my babyangel
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Is there any English subtitle?
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BOSTON POLAR: I stand corrected re: the hive mind. Had not watched it and was basing my words on second-hand impressions.
It is never a bad day to mention Theodore Sturgeon, one of the greatest writers in the science fiction field, but someone so good and so far outside the genre norms of his day that as a major literary talent he was absolutely robbed of the glowing reputation he deserved.
Especially in stories like "Thunder and Roses" and "Slow Sculpture," among others, the stories were s-f pretty much only because fans claimed him and mundanes did not. To call them s-f is a courtesy more flattering to fandom than to him, in the same way that Harlan would be considered a great writer if he had never written in the genre. Ask Dorothy Parker, who knew a thing or two.
Sturgeon is also the author of one of the first mass market stories about gay love– "The World Well Lost." When a friend conveyed to him how much the story meant to me, he was reportedly both pleased and moved.
Speaking of fandom, btw, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts (probably on some other thread) about the attempt coup attempt against this year's Hugo awards from conspiring reactivists. Ask not for whom the knuckle drags: it drags for thee.
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Speaking of fandom, btw, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts (probably on some other thread) about the attempt coup attempt against this year's Hugo awards from conspiring reactivists. Ask not for whom the knuckle drags: it drags for thee.
I like threads which are loosey goosey and not confined. I just read up on the Hugo awards and like one would think $40 would be a deterrent, it would be for me but then I am not promoting backwards thinking.
Update: I have not returned to Sense8 & did not see Hannibal, instead woke up this morning to porn. Oh the shame.
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I'll watch the final episode tonight, maybe.
Overall, Sense8 is not a great show. It just about crosses the line to being good, however. Maybe. Tossing a coin might help.
The writing is subpar, and the acting suffers, too, in a lot of places. What really drags this show down is that there are far, far too many characters. Mind you, now that I'm on the last episode I have some favourites, some I kind of like and others I wish would just die. Because there are so many characters the pace of the show slows to a crawl; their individual stories are spun out through the episodes, and if that wasn't bad enough then the frustration is compounded by the fact that many of the eight story lines do not touch on the overarching sensate mystery (OSM) (that is, the puzzle of Angelica/Jonas/Whispers). I'm sorry, the Indian woman is quite pretty, and I like her character, but god-fucking-damn, her life, her story, her issues, do not make for compelling viewing. It might have, if this were a different show, with a different focus; as it stands her issues pale to the troubles of some other characters, and moreso when compared to the OSM.
It's probably easier to say the characters I enjoy: Will, because not only is he a cutie but he's right there with Jonas, he's working to untangle the OSM; Nomi, although I find her acting to be cringy at parts, and her dialogue makes me want to roll my eyes into the back of my head, but she's also right there in the thick of it so far as OSM is concerned; Sun, though not involved in the OSM, is still a fucking badass, bless this woman, and her skills come into play time and again, the group would be totally lost without her; Lito, but moreso that ridiculously attractive partner of his, Hernando (like, goddamn, Hernando commands all my attention when he's onscreen, it's not fair how distracting he is), and I enjoyed their relationship, although it didn't touch on the OSM, it was a nice (if predictable) treat; and Capheus I like, if only because the actor imbues such unadulterated joy in his character, it's infectious (but his storyline does not touch on OSM, so it's unimpressive, it's plain fare).
Everyone else can fuck off.
If push came to shove, I'd be fine with Will, Sun and Nomi's storylines being the only ones kept alive (with Hernando kept on, because like I said, this guyyyyyyy
). Anytime the show touches on the OSM, that's when things become interesting; in every other instance, the show suffers, because what's being offered isn't worth the hype, the attention, it's not strong enough on its own, not particularly well done (jewel heist; marriage trouble; bus shuttle woes; DJ woes, or whatever the absolute fuck it is Riley is even doing on this show, god, how I loathe her story). Hopefully next season the writers, the directors, whoever's in control, they'll sharpen the writing, increase the pacing and trim it all of unnecessary padding.Sense8 offers a fascinating opportunity to make creative use of story and style. This first season has focused too much on style, IMO, with forgettable substance.
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BBbanditz 2 questions for you:
1. Do you think spacing out episodes in a more traditional television viewing manner would alter your opinion? I was initially very disappointed but now I am blocking out time to return because I think when left to mull my curiosity is up again.2. Next question, for the record, what are some of your great shows? Maybe some mediocre ones as well?
Tell me what a man watches on TV and it makes the spit or swallow debate much easier for me
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BBbanditz 2 questions for you:
1. Do you think spacing out episodes in a more traditional television viewing manner would alter your opinion? I was initially very disappointed but now I am blocking out time to return because I think when left to mull my curiosity is up again.2. Next question, for the record, what are some of your great shows? Maybe some mediocre ones as well?
1. Nah, had they spaced out the episodes my reaction would be even worse, actually. The thought that I'd have to wait six weeks in order to get through the mediocre first six episodes… I would have been extremely frustrated and unimpressed. After the sixth episode I recall my attitude towards the show warming up, although there's still a lot of unnecessary baggage. (Besides, I love to binge. I binged the first two seasons of Hannibal and hooooooly hell, it felt glorious. I'm also now permanently terrified of/in love with Mads Mikkelsen.)
2. Great shows I've watched, in no particular order: The Wire; Hannibal; Mad Men; Utopia (C4); Deadwood; True Detective; Peaky Blinders; Breaking Bad; Justified; Orphan Black; House of Cards; Les Revenants; Vikings; The Good Wife; Avatar: The Last Airbender; The Boondocks; Bob's Burgers; Parks and Recreation. It's entirely possible I'm forgetting some other shows.
Shows that started off great but either turned to shit or failed to capitalize on their awesomeness or I just lost interest in: Battlestar Galactica; Boardwalk Empire; Lost; Continuum; The Fall; True Blood; Dexter; The Legend of Korra. Again, probably forgetting more.
Shows that aren't top notch/excellent quality but are still guilty pleasures: The Originals; The Vampire Diaries.
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ZOMG what's not to like? The first episode took a fair amount of concentration to get hooked, but it was intensely absorbing even though it took even longer to have it become less mysterious. The show IS mysterious, with a sense of magic showing up from time to time and, if you let yrself marinate in it a little, even the famous and overly rare Sense of Wonder.
Also, it has Ideas. Not just the connection between the eight individuals, but other things. East-West German issues. Bullying. Actually, lots of things are touched on and play a role, including lots of aspects of family. Perhaps the viewer is helped by having received a few clues ahead of time to establish a context that actual sequential viewing, with no advance hint, helps a little too.
Yes, some of the stories are less intrinsically linked to the "cluster" of eight. Having now seen most of the episodes, I still don't recall the closeted actor connecting with much of anyone except a couple of conversations. For example.
But I found the episodes gripping and compelling me onward. Once again, the issue is figuring out the backstory, which seems to be the operative factor for lots of shows these days (Lost, Dome…) But most of the highly diverse characters in their highly diverse locations are actually quite interesting, at least to me. Certainly it is hard to understand how someone could pay attention enough to know what is going on in the first couple of episodes and find himself falling asleep from tedium.
Also, this is one of the gayest things ever seen outside of movies directly made to titillate a niche audience. The actor is a shaggy hunk (and reportedly some people like his intellectual companion). The jewel thief is my idea of handsome, as is the cop. To name just three who are very easy on the eyes. Why, there is even full frontal nudity for a couple of the principals -- though not in the orgy scene and not involving enough of the attractive principals, but still more than usual. There is a bunch of TV sex on camera, some fairly explicit lesbian scenes, and the orgy in episode six which is not nearly long enough.
It was a beautiful thing to watch, almost a carnal ballet of glistening bodies, but it was not so much sexual as sensual, and like some of the other sex, fairly loving and emotionally connected, rather than "mere" physical connections. And there are gay bars, bathroom sex, MMF sex, lots of views of the Castro and SF Pride. All of the romantic and sexual activity is shown as equally valid and just another part of life. The various arrangements, couplings, accommodations are sufficiently varied as to suggest that every one of us has something going on so let's all accept it and get over it and get on with it.
Obviously, not everyone had or is having as much fun with the whole thing as I am. And not everyone seems to think it is a story involving a lot of ideas and issues, of which sexual orientation is not necessarily even the most significant, though there sure is plenty of that. Also, since it has not really been mentioned, there is some fine whizbang, which may not be as innovative as Matrix, but can still be pretty fun. And some of the story lines are dramatic and suspenseful apart from the action sequences.
Will see where it all goes from where I left off to write this, but so far it seems as if the various individuals with their stories are, in fact, all meant to be aspect of a larger whole, an exploration of the idea of a "cluster" that Michael Valentine Smith might have appreciated.
A brief footnote on the Hugos, the venerable science fiction awards currently in controversy due to a reich-whinge takeover attempt.
The $40 cost of a supporting membership for the World SF Convention itself provides not only the right to vote against the regressive troglodyte agenda, it also includes a substantial downloadable collection of the novels, shorter fiction, graphic novels, and other material that, for someone interested in the field, may well be a fairly cheap workaround for local libraries that don't cover the ground, and saves you from tracking down lots of individual magazines and books which might well be more expensive even a year or two later when they turn up on the used market. -
So ya, Utopia on the list and sooner rather than later means I'll swallow. Hannibal Season 2 was almost like what I presume others report as a religious experience for me. I was okay with the first season and sometimes wonder if I shouldn't revisit it but season 2 is like Da Vinci making a mix tape that he plans to seduce Valentino with. I swear Gillian Anderson must pay them because she shines like a perfectly cut diamond and this season when she says
! my husband is very particular about how I taste I think actors have killed on the order of the writers for the chance to read lines half that.
The long and short is Sense8 is 'on the list' but with only so many hours in a day and my pornography based research project consuming so many of my viewable hours who knows how soon. The ill conceived release time just 1 week before OITNB isn't helping it's case either.
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A brief footnote on the Hugos, the venerable science fiction awards currently in controversy due to a reich-whinge takeover attempt.
The $40 cost of a supporting membership for the World SF Convention itself provides not only the right to vote against the regressive troglodyte agenda, it also includes a substantial downloadable collection of the novels, shorter fiction, graphic novels, and other material that, for someone interested in the field, may well be a fairly cheap workaround for local libraries that don't cover the ground, and saves you from tracking down lots of individual magazines and books which might well be more expensive even a year or two later when they turn up on the used market.Well thank you, that is like turning on one them there Hue lights on that situation for me.
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So ya, Utopia on the list and sooner rather than later means I'll swallow. Hannibal Season 2 was almost like what I presume others report as a religious experience for me. I was okay with the first season and sometimes wonder if I shouldn't revisit it but season 2 is like Da Vinci making a mix tape that he plans to seduce Valentino with. I swear Gillian Anderson must pay them because she shines like a perfectly cut diamond and this season when she says
! my husband is very particular about how I taste I think actors have killed on the order of the writers for the chance to read lines half that.
The long and short is Sense8 is 'on the list' but with only so many hours in a day and my pornography based research project consuming so many of my viewable hours who knows how soon. The ill conceived release time just 1 week before OITNB isn't helping it's case either.
I was about to start the final episode of Sense8 when I found out that OitNB had been released six hours early. I immediately sang praises to a non-existent god. Bless Netflix and bless that show.
More importantly: groovedware says he'll swallow! :cheers:
Hannibal's second season, though. Damn it, I'm getting all choked up. I was not prepared, I'd no idea there would be such a large jump in terms of the show's compelling nature from the first season. Put another way: the show gave me the best blowjob ever, and it continued to suck my dick even though I was overly sensitive afterwards— but it was alright, it was more than okay, it was an exceptional TV viewing experience. (Also, yeah, Anderson is ethereal, or something, I swear, she must sacrifice scores of goats for that radiance and elegance and presence; also, her line killed me. Jesus, it was so perfect.)
Speaking of which: I need to watch the latest episode. I feel tingly all over. As if a terribly powerful thunderstorm is heading my way. LET'S DO THIS!
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Sacrificing goats has no effect in the real world, money money money makes the world spin round which is why I am certain despite what you read anywhere else girl pays beaucoup dollars to be on Hannibal. There is absolutely no way on earth any other explanation is possible.
Episode 1 of Season 3 is still not fully absorbed here and so I have not attempted 2 though it is lurking me like a cannibal who has fed on Spam only.
Although Du Maurier is my brand of smoke she is my 2nd favourite aspect of Hannibal (& Janice Poon's Feeding Hannibal has totally dropped off the list now that she's marketing a book) and all the other aspects combined don't match up to the sound. Brian Reitzell knows G-d.
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Ok guys.. I'm about to watch it. Let's see if I agree with the general consensus here.. :afr:
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Ok here's my thoughts… I LOVE IT!!!!
1st Episode.. I was thinking "What the hell is going on?" It was too confusing for me to maintain my interest, but I watched it slowly and certain parts over again. I figured I would give it another episode.
2nd Episode.. My interest was piqued and I began to follow the storyline easier. When Netflix rolled into the 3rd Episode, I watched.
3rd Episode.. by the end I said "Damn, this show is pretty good."
4th Episode I was hooked. I felt comfortable with what was going on and wanted to know "how far down did the rabbit hole go." I actually cried at certain parts.
I'm starting the 5th episode and I'm excited. If you want to get into this show, my advice is to give it a chance for at least 3 episodes and pay close close attention to whats going on. I didn't on the 1st episode and lost interest. I watched it again slowly and started to build a mild interest. In my opinion it does have enough to be on this site because there's a lot of LGBTQ stuff going on in it (although it's not all LGBTQ).
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Update: I still haven't gone back, wanted to make sure I finished GOT before anyone spoiled it (although I already knew the major bit) and then instead I had OITNB spoiled for me by some random idiot on Whisper, bla bla bla
However, with regards to Sense8, I was working under some misinformation. I slogged through to episode 3 because I had read that was where it really picked up and the implication was because that was the episode that Tom Tykwer directs but I've just checked and it's actually episode 4 he directs.
There is so much television right now I may have to scale back the porn research…
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There is so much television right now I may have to scale back the porn research…
Nonsense. Porn research is terribly crucial for our survival as a species. I have any number of proofs to support this, but they're all a little…sticky. For some reason. So you'll just have to take me at my word.
Also, still haven't watched Sense8's finale, but I'll give it a go tonight.
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