nausicaa83: (<p&p> lizzie)
[personal profile] nausicaa83
Another review for you! I'm starting to regret that Netflix subscription, as it's cannibalizing my precious free time. Although, seeing that today's real life time was spent on doing my taxes, hurrah for free time. Even when it keeps me awake until 2 am because I'm binging a new series. :D

Today's tv show is Sense8, a Netflix series by the Wachowskis. It's twelve one-hour-long episodes about the lives of eight different people across the world who one day find themselves telepathically connected. It's sci-fi that can be appreciated by fans and non-fans of the genre.

Why it is awesome: the eight sensates are four men and four women. Half of them are POCs, one is a gay man in a committed relationship, another one is a lesbian trans woman, played by an actual trans woman, whose girlfriend is played by Freema Agyeman, which is the reason I first checked this series (lesbian Martha Jones? sign me up!). The connections between all of them are played beautifully: by feeling each other's thoughts, they instantly love each other, and wish to protect the rest of the group. It's a story of love and acceptance, of empathy in its purest sense. The sci-fi aspect is really intriguing, and the villains are some of the scariest I've ever seen. There's also Naveen Andrews, who is even handsomer than I remembered. The Sensates are from the USA, Korea, Germany, India, Kenya, Iceland, England and Mexico, and all the scenes are shot on location. There's a profound respect for each and every culture, even when describing their problematic aspects. And they turned most tropes on their head in a wonderful way: Kala is an awesome scientist, but she's also girly and sweet, which is something you don't see very often. While the fact that Nomi is trans is an important part of her storyline, it's not the main focus: Nomi is primarily a badass hacker who fights the Feds with the help of her awesome girlfriend. These are all layered characters, who are never reduced to one single aspect of their personality.

There being 8 main characters who all need the same screentime, it takes a couple of episodes for the story to start making sense: at first it's basically a series of vignettes of their individual lives, and it takes some patience on the viewer before we can see them truly interacting with their psychic powers. It's so worth the wait, believe me.

I'm hoping we'll get a second season soon, because it's a beautiful, beautiful series and judging from the ending this is just the beginning of these characters' adventures. And the cast is so diverse and wonderful! ♥

Date: 2015-06-10 08:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kryptyd.livejournal.com
Sounds good. I like the fact that they have a trans actor. We have a long to way to go towards acceptance of trans people.

Date: 2015-06-10 09:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nausicaa83.livejournal.com
I hate the fact that I still have to specify it. It should be the only way. I hate it so much when they use a man to play a trans woman, it's so offensive.

Date: 2015-06-11 09:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] florealpolla.livejournal.com
I blame you! And Netflix XD
Ho visto i primi 3 episodi tutti d'un fiato, belli davvero! ^___^
Cerco di recuperare gli altri il prima possibile, mannaggia al lavoro e alla vita reale che non mi lascia tempo per il cazzeggio ;D
I personaggi sono uno più bello dell'altro, e sto morendo di curiositààààà XDDDD

Date: 2015-06-12 07:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nausicaa83.livejournal.com
Lo soooo, a 'sta serie non si può resistere! Credo sia l'unico caso in cui adoro ogni singolo protagonista, e ogni singola ship è la mia otp. :D

Voglio abbracciarmeli tuttiiiiiii!!!!

Date: 2015-06-13 04:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stardust-made.livejournal.com
Oh! I've had the page dedicated to the series on tv.com open in a tab for about ten days now. Thank you for the review! I was curious about this project, but as some blogger or other said before it aired, it was the kind of thing that could really go hit and miss. I'm so glad it works, it sounds fascinating. Putting it on my list.

Also, Freema Agyeman, yay!

Date: 2015-06-13 05:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nausicaa83.livejournal.com
It's really good! It's basically a celebration of empathy, with a good dash of sci-fi. At its core, the message is that if you could hear the thoughts and feel the feelings of another person, even if they were completely different from you, by race, religion, sexual orientation, your only possible reaction would still be to love them deeply, and want to protect them at all costs. Hate would never be possible. It's a simple message, but very powerful, and very dear to my heart. ^^

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