The Sword and Laser discussion

Don't bother. That first episode was, hands down, the most boring thing I've ever seen. After 20 minutes I started fast-forwarding, stopping at random places, each duller than the last.

It plods along and then comes to a screaming halt when a sex scene occurs. Possibly the least charismatic group of actors I've seen gathered in one place. This thing makes any given SyFy Original look like a masterwork. Sense8 feels like season 3 of Heroes, but without any of the good parts.

Cliched dialogue that feels ridiculously stilted doesn't help. It's beginning to look like the Wachowskis simply got lucky with the Matrix. I can't even believe J. Michael Straczynski had anything to do with this. Even the comics where he's working at half speed are better than this.

Please Netflix, make more Marvel shows.

I agree that the first episode was slow-paced, which I had heard going in. But I'd also read that things improved with successive episodes, so the wife and I gave episode two a shot, which led to catching three, four and five as well. Now, is it as good as Daredevil? I don't think so. But once we got more familiar with the characters, and their individual stories, I thought the show as a whole improved significantly.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the show, it's about eight very different people from varying places who are psychically linked together by a woman who subsequently kills herself (this happens at the beginning of episode one, so not giving much away) when she is about to be captured.

Don't think it will be everyone's cup of tea, and needing more than thr first episode to get into the series is a handicap, but I think some folks might find it worthwhile to give the second episode a look before giving up on the series entirely.

There's just too much stuff that's gratuitous for me to continue. The lesbian sex scene, for example. The Wachowskis have always displayed their fetishes onscreen but managed to dial it back. I really did not need to see a close-up of a used strap-on. All that does is waste my time.

I've watched the first two episodes and I'm actually finding it pretty compelling. It definitely moves slowly and focuses on character development over plot, but that's a good thing IMO.

I get how the strap-on scene could be seen as kind of gratuitous, but compared to half the stuff that goes on other pay cable shows, a strap-on between two people who love each other doesn't seem that bad.

I've just seen the first episode so far and it was compelling enough to continue - i just feel like there needs to be some exposition. i have no idea why any of these people are connected or what the actual limits of their connection is, nor do i have any explanation for the woman being killed in the first scene. Is curiosity compelling me to continue watching? A little, but just as much annoyance with the lack of explanation is driving me away. I'll probably continue it though.

The series certainly plays with one's mind. For example, is the lesbian couple really a lesbian couple? Society has been moving in the direction that gender and sexual orientation are not the same thing. If that's the case, is Nomi/Michael truly a lesbian? Do we differentiate between Nomi/Michael's gender (a female born in a male body) from her sexual orientation? After all, transsexuals tend to be seen by society as homosexual, that a male to female transsexual is expected to be attracted to men as a rule. So what does that make Nomi?

Now my brain's tired. :P

Walter wrote: "After all, transsexuals tend to be seen by society as homosexual, that a male to female transsexual is expected to be attracted to men as a rule. So what does that make Nomi?"

I can't speak as an authority as I don't have much direct experience w/ the transgender community, but my understanding is that you just go by how the person identifies. So a M-F transgender person who is attracted to women would indeed be considered a lesbian.

On the other hand it seems really odd to get so...taxonomical about it. Hopefully someday a person can just be a person without having to fit into a category.

What's really interesting to me about this show: I get the sense that how the show is depicting the connection is, to a certain extent, an imperfect representation.

I mean, they are experiencing each other's sensory input... That's tough to depict in film. When they talk to each other, are they actually seeing each other as depicted, or is it more of an abstract awareness of the other's presence?

The idea kind of stretches the limits of the medium, which is really interesting to me.

I just find it fascinating that in Nomi's case, categorization (for those who go that route) might interpret her sexual orientation as having changed as a result of her change in gender, which I'm assuming is a rare thing, though I don't have a great deal of experience with the transgender community either.

The one thing I do feel confident of is that these people are going to get very close, very quickly. Shared experiences can form very tight bonds, particularly when the experiences are traumatic. I see these people becoming like family to one another, since they cannot help but empathize deeply with one another due to their connection.

And if the burgeoning love affair we're being teased with is consumated, how will that affect everyone, both individually and as a whole?

I think that it feels to them as if they are actually seeing/feeling/etc. one another, based on what I've seen so far, even though they're not actually there, since onlookers can't perceive them.

Which would help with the aforementioned love affair, since those two are so far apart geographically.

Walter wrote: "categorization (for those who go that route) might interpret her sexual orientation as having changed as a result of her change in gender,"

That's a great observation...I think this is where it's important to distinguish between sex and gender; i.e. Nomi's gender did not change when she transitioned, it was her sex that changed to align to her gender. So in a sense, she was always a lesbian? Maybe?

Again, I'm semi-out of my depth here so if anyone cares to correct me, please feel free :)

...I should probably stop checking this thread to avoid spoilers!

Well, I've tried to be vague and non-specific, except with regards to Nomi, as they established her gender/sexual orientation issues in the first episode. But I'll try to scale things back, or else use spoiler tags if I'm unsure about anything.

I don't know what to make of the pilot. It needed more exposition of the story and less trippy "wtf is going on" moments.

Do those when you have hooked me in, not while I'm still on the fence.

Plus they may have too many ball in the air with 8 main characters.
Sense4 mightn't work as a title but would be better story wise.

Agreed that eight characters is quite the ambitious undertaking.

It does provide for the occasional fun moment, though. There's one scene that began in a karoiki bar which, by the time it was over, reminded me of the Clone Club dance scene in Orphan Black. :)

I've seen half of the show and I'm loving it. Mostly because it's a character driven show and the sf element is there to make everything interesting but isn't the most interesting thing by itself (I mean secret war between two secret factions, oh so original)

and even though dialogues are occasionaly stilted, actors make it usualy work. I mean Kala's plotline is barely existing, but somehow I'm loving it.

this show is much more fun and bizzare than I ever expected it to be, not to mention I actualy like every main character.