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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jun 5, 2015 15:45:00 GMT -5
So since nobody else did it, and I just finished up the series, here's the Sense8 thread.
Arty Concept Trailer That Kinda Could Be An Orphan Black Series Intro That Also Probably Oversells The Show Just A Little:
Basically while people will inevitably compare this series to other works in the ouevre of the Wachkowskis - probably a whole lot of Cloud Atlas nods particularly, given the scope - and there will be inevitably a contingent that connects the series to the continuum of TV works involving Joe Michael Straczynski, like Babylon 5 and... truthfully we rarely like to talk about the others (though there are people who will go to bat for Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, or - more relevantly to Sense8 - his time on the 80s Twilight Zone revival) - it mostly reminded me of Believe.
You know, Believe.
Believe.
I'm sure somebody remembers Believe. The J.J. Abrams/Alfonso Cuaron series that premiered on NBC right around the time Cuaron was a Big Deal because Gravity had Made Waves (metaphorical, not gravitational.) Both series have characters experiencing sudden and yet intimate emotional bonds, while a shadowy conspirational force seeks to hunt them down and control them - both feel like 2010s shadows of the '00s boom of Lost clones, with 'guys famous because of Lost' involved in each (J.J. Abrams in Believe, although his Lost involvement is tangential past the pilot episode, and Naveen Andrews in Sense8, who had a slightly longer term commitment to the program.)
Slightly More Explanatory Sense8 Trailer:
Both shows are also exceedingly earnest, in ways most people found cloying and corny in the case of Believe, but which are a little more divisive in Sense8 - I for one was more than willing to go along with it and found it occasionally really quite moving, although others haven't apparently. Sense8 breaks away from the comparison in that Believe tried to make its approach episodic and procedural (so the little girl with powers of profound empathy fixes a new broken soul every week) while Sense8, an arced show, drops in on the eight different stories of the titular Sensates and how they relate to each other has some long term impacts. Sense8 ultimately just seems to have a clearer idea of where it wants to go with its premise, when Believe - which also had some fantastic visuals and strong casting choices - collapsed under the aimlessness of its premise by the show's end.
Every character has a trailer. This one is Will's.
Granted, 'better than a TV show you don't remember and never watched' is not a high pole for Sense8 to vault, rest assured it's a visually fantastic series that completely commits to its premise and which I, for one, found entertaining throughout its run. It's earnest but its earnestness always seems to be coming from a place of sincerity; it cares about its characters and invites you to care too - and when they're put through the wringer, as all of them inevitably are, it tests just that. An early arc around the character of Nomi Marks, the transwoman ex-hacktivist played by Jaime Clayton, goes to a pretty dark place very quickly and wanting to not see it go to crap reels one in.
Nomi's Trailer.
The mythology is admittedly sparse - mostly delivered by Naveen Andrews; whose character has a zen like regard for the entire situation so he can remain on-point as a plot point dispenser - but you're usually given just enough to follow what's going on, and how the Sense8 operate between each reality.
Netflix's tentative forays into science fiction have tended to be stuff they co-produce (like Between) or license from elsewhere (the 100 is a 'Netflix Original' in Canada, I'm told) but Sense8 is rather damn good shot at bringing the genre to Netflix and is really rather unlike anything else on TV.
Yes, even Believe.
Lito's Trailer. Let's leave you with a joke eh?
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jun 7, 2015 4:31:44 GMT -5
Up to ep. 10, which had me in tears. More when finished (prior appointment only reason I wasn't up until 4AM finishing!)
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jun 7, 2015 7:23:04 GMT -5
Post-Lupin God I love that bit. Birth and Beethoven. This show has so many good bits like that.
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Post by sarapen on Jun 7, 2015 8:16:10 GMT -5
I've been watching a few episodes a day and just finished number 7 last night. It's certainly intriguing. I'm fine with the conspiracy being overlooked so far in favour of exploring the characters' lives. There are lots of sci-fi thrillers out there already. I do remain annoyed that the Asian is by default the martial artist.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Jun 7, 2015 8:39:11 GMT -5
Post-Lupin God I love that bit. Birth and Beethoven. This show has so many good bits like that. Agreed! My favorite was the singing sequence, which is extra impressive because I am really not fond at all of the song used. |
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jun 7, 2015 8:50:21 GMT -5
MrsLangdonAlger Yeah one of the most persistent themes about the show is how characters interact through culture, high and low, fantastic and terrible. In Lito's plot characters are always taking cornball lines from Lito's movies to make powerful emotional points (his boyfriend Hernando in particular has an easy catholicism of taste), Wolfgang's friend Felix turns the first Conan the Barbarian film into a battle cry for the underdog, and there is, of course, Capheus' pure, passionate love of all things JCVD.
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Invisible Goat
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Post by Invisible Goat on Jun 7, 2015 11:18:53 GMT -5
Only through 2 episodes so far but I'm definitely on board. Assuming the different storylines will even out in screentime eventually, have had enough of the boring Chicago cop and want to see more London DJ and Bae Doona.
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Post by disqusf3dme on Jun 8, 2015 1:08:09 GMT -5
I've seen the first three episodes so far and it feels like it's starting to come together. I love the show's use of music during the sequences where their senses and experiences start to collide. It makes things feel very dreamy and hypnotic. The action scenes are pretty great too, they have a lot of fun playing around with those. What was a solid but simple car chase was elevated by the warping between vehicles, and then you had the mindbending fight scene at the end of the third episode. Good stunt work too. Some of the storylines feel very disconnected, like they're from a different show, but when everything comes together it works quite well. I'm eager to watch more. And hey, Joey Pants!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2015 12:58:07 GMT -5
"JOEY PANTS!" is exactly what I exclaimed when he showed up as well!
Mrs B and I are enjoying this series a lot. We're about 5 or 6 episodes in right now.
I really enjoy the Wachowskis' work, especially high-concept stuff that a lot of other people seem to dislike. (I loved Cloud Atlas, and really liked Jupiter Ascending despite its flaws.)
I also like how this show is sex-positive in all its forms. That's something the US especially needs more of.
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jun 8, 2015 15:56:19 GMT -5
Seen the lot.
So much going on: the usual Lana/Andy & JMS flaws are I think overridden by their strengths. Parts of this had a proper visceral connection to me, and some parts I plain wept with joy.
Considering how it plays out, I'm thinking of this as a 12 hour pilot for a show that, if it gets the run it wants, will probably become a lifelong favourite.
Maybe we should have a separate Spoiler/Speculation thread?
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jun 8, 2015 16:14:12 GMT -5
Post-Lupin We can just use spoiler tags, I think that should be enough.
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Jun 8, 2015 16:34:23 GMT -5
I might have to check it out now that you all are so high on it. I couldn't tell from the mixed reviews whether it was insane in a good way or a bad way.
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jun 8, 2015 16:39:35 GMT -5
Post-Lupin We can just use spoiler tags, I think that should be enough. You're the boss... SO MANY THINGS. Just looking at the dangling plot threads already; What are the Sensates really, how long have they actually existed, what's the birth proportion of Sensate/Mundane, to what degree have they influenced human history, how far does government knowledge of them go? And, how often can they be birthed, and who by? Does part of the Mother - in this case Angelica - survive death in her progeny? What happens to the Cluster when part of it dies, generally? Are they related to Bicameralism? How much of Jonas' exposition was misinformation? Where's the rest of his Cluster? Where's the rest of Whispers' cluster? How involved is Big Pharma generally, and Kala's family specifically? How the hell can Our Cluster keep anything from Whispers now? Are they just going to dump Will somewhere he doesn't know the location of? What's with the early appearances that Will and Riley had? Chew on those for now... there's a show wiki of course, but sparse at the moment. |
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jun 8, 2015 16:58:21 GMT -5
Post-Lupin Well let's start with what we know about Clusters: We've seen six Sensates not from our cluster: Mr. Whispers, Jonas, Angelica, the Icelandic woman whose name I forget, and the lobotomised man, and apparently the little girl Will remembers him his childhood (as a man who looked like Mr. Whispers he remembers seeing experimenting, and she continued to 'visit' him after she was gone.) We know of two more presumed Sensates - the subjects Metzger lobotomised who died.
Now, if we assume Jonas is not lying about how Clusters are formed - that is, born on the same day - then the little girl cannot be part of a Cluster containing any of the other Sensates we know. She must be part of a Cluster that is around their age, and thus also may have recently come into awareness of themselves (alternately Jonas is lying about the number of Sensates and she is the lost ninth Sensate, but I prefer the former theory.)
Or it could be that she and he are pre-Clustered Sensates, as Angelica seemed to 'birth' their Cluster connection as adults but they already had the Sensate ability. I don't know.
The Icelandic woman seems to not be part of Jonas' Sensate, and neither seemed able to visit each other they may have never made eye contact (she seemed concerned about even being in contact with someone in contact with Jonas, so this may be deliberate.) We don't know anything about her group other than her saying someone died in it, but she does seem to know quite a bit about Whispers, Jonas and Angelica. It is possible given her age that she is in the same Cluster as Whispers; though if so she seems to be able to work against him without his knowledge so this may not be the case.
Jonas and Angelica I'm pretty sure were confirmed to be in the same cluster, anyway Angelica talks about them being so, and talks about the incestuous nature of love within a Cluster with relationship to them. It's not clear where the other six members of the Cluster are, but since Jonas is the only person to appear to Angelica in the prologue, he may be the last person in her Cluster left alive. If she is our Cluster's Mother, does that make Jonas their father? Who knows.
This finally leaves the lobotomy subjects. They are the closest we get to an idea of whar Whispers wants - people who can put on as easily as putting on a pair of shoes. He is more than willing to swiftly discard the only lobotomy survivor so they may not be that valuable to him; there could be something in the brain surgery he is looking for he hasn't found. These three subjects could all be from the same cluster (having used one to find some others) and thus there could be Cluster survivors, or different Clusters, but who knows.
As for the origin of Sensates Jonas' theory suggests that Mundanes are the aberration; that originally humans were Sensates and then we evolved away from that. But who knows?
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Jun 8, 2015 17:51:21 GMT -5
I really am glad I'm not the only one who liked this so much. It certainly has it's faults and silly moments but it has a lot of lovely moments, is diverse and open about sexuality (yay!), and is one of the few shows that I feel benefits from a binge watch.
I'm excited to see where it goes next if there's more.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jun 8, 2015 17:59:19 GMT -5
MrsLangdonAlger I've honestly never wanted a Netflix series to have a second season as much as I want Sense8 to have one.
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jun 9, 2015 8:10:43 GMT -5
On the not-spoiler comments, let's have some love for the scoring of Tom Tykwer & Johnny Klimek. The soundtrack to the show is lush, evocative and carries the international flavour without resorting to too many 'exotic' cliches. There's parts which reference Tykwer's earlier scores - hints of Perfume and Cloud Atlas, and the piano riff in the chase scenes is pure Run Lola Run - and other aspects seem to echo my favourite director-who-scores-his-own-flicks, Jamin Winans. I'll certainly get the soundtrack album.
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Post by sarapen on Jun 9, 2015 9:48:12 GMT -5
On the not-spoiler comments, let's have some love for the scoring of Tom Tykwer & Johnny Klimek. The soundtrack to the show is lush, evocative and carries the international flavour without resorting to too many 'exotic' cliches. There's parts which reference Tykwer's earlier scores - hints of Perfume and Cloud Atlas, and the piano riff in the chase scenes is pure Run Lola Run - and other aspects seem to echo my favourite director-who-scores-his-own-flicks, Jamin Winans. I'll certainly get the soundtrack album. I started laughing at the first notes of Mad World, simply for how pretentious its use has gotten since Donnie Darko (it was used in a commercial for Gears of War, for the love of crap), but the tune stayed safely in the background. Actually the music in general for this show was noticeable in a good way. Also, in unrelated news I'd like to note that the cornerman for Sun's kickboxing opponent was Doo-hong Jung, who has kicked ass in such films as City of Violence, Fighter in the Wind, and Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War. I'd hoped he would figure in Sun's story but I guess his presence was just an Easter egg for aficionados of Korean martial arts films. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2015 12:16:21 GMT -5
Okay, wow... that overlapping sex scene with Lito, Hernando and Daniela; Nomi and Neets; Wolfgang and Will - I gotta admit, that was pretty damn hot. |
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Invisible Goat
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Post by Invisible Goat on Jun 9, 2015 18:37:20 GMT -5
Just watched the 4th episode with the "What's Going On" karaoke/montage. Definitely did NOT get choked up. No, not at all.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Jun 9, 2015 20:48:17 GMT -5
Just watched the 4th episode with the "What's Going On" karaoke/montage. Definitely did NOT get choked up. No, not at all. I had tears streaming down my face. Felt silly but oh well! |
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jun 10, 2015 3:39:36 GMT -5
Just watched the 4th episode with the "What's Going On" karaoke/montage. Definitely did NOT get choked up. No, not at all. I had tears streaming down my face. Felt silly but oh well! Not the only one, and not the only episode that had this effect on me. |
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jun 10, 2015 7:09:36 GMT -5
Invisible Goat It's the bittersweet conclusion that got me. "It's the perfect soundtrack for a lobotomy."
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jun 11, 2015 10:49:46 GMT -5
Oh fuck off Disqus: just had comment on ep 3 moderated for describing Daniella as 'Best Fag Hag Ever'...
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Post by disqusf3dme on Jun 13, 2015 10:49:22 GMT -5
I had tears streaming down my face. Felt silly but oh well! Not the only one, and not the only episode that had this effect on me. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't get choked up at least once per episode since the 4th one. I find this show to be very emotional, it's all the empathy. I realized how many scenes are just the characters telling each other about how they're feeling and why. It's very direct in that way, and in a surprising way for a sci-fi show, also very simple in its appeal. It's way more about the effervescent joy of a human connection than it is about its high concept. |
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Post by Carade on Jun 13, 2015 15:18:41 GMT -5
Four episodes in. Sold. Absolutely sold. Orange is the New Black is gonna have to wait. Right now, this is the highest praise I can possibly give. EDIT: Quick update for episode 5. Lito's whole running story is like the Alison/Donnie thing from Orphan Black, in that it carries 100% less dramatic weight than everything else, but also I kind of love it? EDIT 2: OH DANG, DONG ALERT. DONG ALERT THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Ball's in your court (so to speak) Masters of Sex |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2015 0:18:48 GMT -5
We're only on episode two, but I skipped all your comments to say:
Tuppence Middleton - great (fake) English name or the greatest (fake) English name?
Note - haven't done any research on her so maybe it's a real name. But I might steal that name for my next cat.
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jun 14, 2015 6:49:29 GMT -5
We're only on episode two, but I skipped all your comments to say: Tuppence Middleton - great (fake) English name or the greatest (fake) English name? Note - haven't done any research on her so maybe it's a real name. But I might steal that name for my next cat. |
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Jun 14, 2015 9:59:28 GMT -5
We're only on episode two, but I skipped all your comments to say: Tuppence Middleton - great (fake) English name or the greatest (fake) English name? Note - haven't done any research on her so maybe it's a real name. But I might steal that name for my next cat. I tried to name one of the cats in Neko Atsume after her, but they don't allow that many characters. I was extremely butthurt! |
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Post by Carade on Jun 14, 2015 14:43:28 GMT -5
 Probably more appropriate for the perv thread, but Tina Desai (who plays Kala) is outrageously attractive and I'm kind of in love with her. |
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