Hey, it's Rowan! And today we're gonna
be talking about the new TV show, sense8.
So sense8 is a new Netflix show by the
Wachowskis. I talked about it in my LGBT
summer TV to watch, and all of the twelve
episodes in the first season are currently
available to watch on Netflix.
So it got released on Friday, and it just
so happened that that was the first day
I'd had off in a really long time, so the
TV fate seemed to be with me and I
settled in for a marathon binge-watch of
the show. But I watched the first couple
of episodes and... Meh... I wasn't
hooked. To be quite honest, if the show
had been released weekly - episode by
episode - I would probably have given up
after the second week. I kind-of felt like
in a TV show, by the time the second
episode rolls around, I need to be more
invested in these characters. I knew
very clearly the plot. I knew what dangers
the characters were in within sense8, but
I didn't really get a sense of the
characters enough to care about those
dangers. I also found that the editing
in a show that I think, because it's about
inter-connected people, should have some
very slick editing between the different
locations, wasn't quite slick enough
in those first few episodes. And although
I didn't expect the stories to be
connected straight away, it did feel a
little bit disjointed. But I felt like the
identity of the different locations, at
first at least, wasn't solid enough, so
that it felt like a very distinct
aesthetics for each location. But because
all the episodes were there and I got a
little bit bored with my tuition prep
and marketing work and stuff like that,
I ended up delving back in, and by the
time I got to episode four, I was kind-of
hooked. Now if you know me, you know
I love a story about teamwork and
cooperation. And in sense8, we have that
in spades, but we don't have some of the
typical storylines that go along with that
kind of narrative, so we don't have that
idea of, these, you know, misfits, all so
different, they're brought
together, and they kind-of like have a
bit of friction at first, but then, in
that final act, they learn to work
together and kind-of overcome their
differences and power forward towards
the same goal. That didn't really happen
in sense8. There are some disagreements,
but ultimately they seem to come from a
place of empathy, so for example, Wolfgang
criticizing Kala and calling her out on
the fact that she doesn't love her fiance,
is coming from a place where he's seeing
something in her own mind which she
isn't ready to admit to herself. We also
have cooperation in the sharing of skills.
For the most part, this skill-sharing is
pretty much the only reason why they
survive to the end of the season. And
you can pretty much sum up most of
their contributions in terms of skills or
knowledge in a single word.
Nomi is tech.
Will is the police.
Wolfgang is ruthlessness.
Sun is fighting skills.
Capheus is driving.
Lito is lying.
Kala is science.
In fact, Riley is the only one who
doesn't really have a skill that another
person uses in any way, but I also feel
like the show doesn't condemn the idea
of y'know, you're only useful because of
the skills you might give other people.
In fact, the only scenes where all eight
of them are brought together are scenes
that are to do with Riley and her life
and the emotions that she's going through.
But like I said before, they need these
skills, like, these crazy kids get
themselves into a lot of shitty situations
and not all of them about the big bad.
They have their own personal dramas
which are dealt with instead. But
something that kind-of links those
personal drams and this main drama is
this sort-of thematic motif of crime.
>From the policeman to the woman in jail
to the numerous characters who find
themselves kind-of tackling some kind of
gangster organisation. And this a really
useful plot technique because it creates
a high tension, it shows you
that they are in an environment and
within groups of people who are not
constrained by morality and the law in
the same way. This ramps up the tension
quite a lot in the different storylines
because I feel like there's an element
of unpredictability there. So I said
before that there was a little bit of
disjointed story-telling in the first
couple of episodes. I really felt like
that tightened itself up by the end of
the series. I am a bit of a narrative
theory nut, and there were some really
nice bits of almost like meta-narrative
that came in that I really enjoyed.
There's an episode in this sort-of like
gap between act two and act 3, as it
were, where Wolfgang is walking
around the holocaust memorial and he
says something along the lines of "this
is the place I come to when I need to
make a big decision" and we see all of
the sense8s wandering around this
memorial because they are all making
the big decision that's gonna lead them
into their kind-of runaway-train action
for act three of their story line. I felt
like that was a really interesting way
of connecting the characters, not just
saying, y'know, these two individual
characters find themselves in the same
place, because they're in the same kind
of emotional space, but also the idea
that all of them are having to deal with
very difficult decisions, often very
isolated decisions where they're the only
ones who need to make it. They really
find, like, there's noone they can turn
to to help make that decision. When I'm
really hoping in the next season, if
they get a next season, is that we'll see
some of them helping each other make
decisions in an even bigger way than we
did this season. One of my favourite
scenes from this season is a scene like
that where Nomi and Lito are talking in
the art museum and they are able to
share their life experiences to
give each other some advice. So, yep,
overall I really liked it, but there were
some things that I was a little bit
critical of. So, for example, I think
that the total lack of incredulity or
shock from these people when suddenly
they are finding themselves in another
place or seemingly hallucinating strangers
who talk to them, I think this was a
reason why it was difficult for me to
connect to these characters sometimes
was I felt like they were all reacting
overwhelmingly in such an unrealistic
way that it was difficult for me to
connect to them in that kind of space.
I also felt like this would be really
useful for the narrative in terms of
the way the audience views it because
it would've allowed for characters to
kind-of be interested and invested,
excited, scared about their powers,
which often leads to experimenting
with their powers, um, and testing
limitations and working out what the
rules are. And when a character goes
through that, obviously the audience
does as well. Why is it that a character
can be seen to be lifting up the arm
of someone in a coma and none of the
people around that person in a coma
are like "hey, the arm is lifting!" Um,
also, ideas around consent and things
like that. How much consent do you
need to be able to essentially take over
the body of someone else? I also felt
like one of the most interesting sort-of
issues or side effects with the powers
that was brought up a little bit by Nomi,
was the idea that she was worried that
she would become, like, not herself
anymore, that she would accumulate
so much of the personalities, tastes,
skills, interests of these other people,
that she would cease to be an individual.
And I'm hoping that that's something
that they address in the second season
because it might have been a bit
weighty for the first season, but it felt
like, to me, with the way that they're
going it was very much established in
the first season that this is like a
really positive thing. And I'd be
interested to see maybe them playing
with the potential negatives in some way,
especially because being true to your
individuality and being your own person
was such a strong element of all of these
storylines. From the LGBT point of view,
there are like two proper OTPs in this
show. I absolutely adore both of them.
I felt like their storylines were kind-of
interesting and I know that some people
have criticized, like, "oh, how
stereotypical" like, you know, "an actor
in the spotlight who's closeted" but
it does annoy me when people dismiss
storylines because, on the surface, they
follow a stereotype, because people live
those stereotypes every day. But I felt
like there was more to that character.
I really, really enjoyed his relationship.
Because I felt like there was a real
honesty in like where he found his
attraction to his partner. And, similarly
with Nomi, actually, the idea that there
was more to the attraction than just
like "oh they got together a while ago"
You really felt like you understood why
they both loved each other so much.
Favourite characters: Nomi or Lito; I
think the favourite line I had was, I had
loads of them but I think one of my
favorites was, because it was the first
time that I'd had that moment of
like "Yes!" like really rooting
for a character quite personally was
when Nomi was trying to escape and
she says "I can't drive." And then
suddenly it changes to Capheus
and he's like "I can." And I was like
"YES, you people, working together!"
I still feel like there would've been
more of a pay-off if they had had some
kind of idea of there was a tension
between them or there was difficulty
with using their powers, or there was
something that meant that there was
a reason why that was like, more of
a yes moment, but I still felt like,
"Good for you guys helping each other
out!"
So yeah, if you guys have seen sense8,
and you liked it, or you didn't like it,
I, from reviews, I feel like it's kind-of
a contentious show - some people are
really into it and some people are really
bored by it. I'd be interested to see
whether people had a kind-of, a change of
heart like I did, part way through the
series. Until I see you next time,
Bye!
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