(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. Sense 8

Well, finally saw the season finale of Sense8 and...I was disappointed in it. It felt a bit cluttered, which I guess is to be expected considering they had to cram a season's worth of stories into four hours. But, the show had some of the same problems it had in the second season, which was overly convoluted plotting, pacing issues, and too many subplots for the time involved. Also, it felt bit too much like fan-service in places? There were bits that just didn't quite work or felt contrived.

I liked S1 a lot better in some respects.

That said, enjoyed most of it. And I do recommend it. It's the most innovative sci-fi series I've seen in a while.

2. Great British Baking Show -- this is another season of the British Baking Show that most likely aired in Britain about three-four years ago. I hadn't seen it, because it hadn't aired in the States yet, and wasn't accessible. It's not the most recent, because we still have Mary Berry, Sue and Mel involved.

It's comforting. I need comforting.

3. The worst thing about the current immigration situation is...the realization that there are people out there who have no empathy or soul.

I made the mistake of reading a comment to the Governor of New York's post on FB about how he'd written to Pence about ending this horrible situation, and not separating or hurting anymore children. And oh dear the comments..one woman actually posted, along with several others, who loved her comment -- "That these were undocumented immigrants, illegals, and therefore criminals. And not honest folks who paid their entry fee through Ellis Island. So deserve whatever they get."

My blood pressure went up. And I jumped back on the fanboard, where we are just arguing over who the body is that a mobster character buried.

When I read comments like that, I....have no words that are printable on this page. That's the line I draw in the sand. Those who continue to support and enable the actions of Monsters are Monsters themselves.

Comments

[dar_vidder]

I was disappointed by the Sense8 finale, too. Visually speaking, I thought the special was as lush and atmospheric as the 2 previous seasons and I loved getting to see all the characters again. There were moments that were fun and exciting and gorgeous, but plot-wise and even characterization-wise, it left a lot to be desired imo.

In terms of the sensates, Lito and Capheus got the short end of the stick. Lito served as little more than the comic relief which the actor excels at, but it would've been great if he could've also had a meatier scene, too, and Capheus got screwed (like usual tbh) by not having much of a storyline at all and also not having his friend/girlfriend/family pop up until the very end. They both felt like caricatures of the characters they'd been.

Most of the supporting characters did pretty well for themselves, each getting at least a moment to shine (Dani's speech to Whispers, Hernando coming up with the trojan horse idea, Bug walking Nomi down the aisle, Felix reuniting with Wolfgang, Amanita had a whole bunch of fun moments, but the wedding was especially cool for her, Mun kicking ass and being all flirty with Sun, etc).

Action-wise, getting Wolfgang back was a somewhat anticlimactic sequence and I wasn't a fan of it all happening inside a nightclub with flickering light that made it difficult to follow the action. The final takedown of BPO was fun when I watched the special the first time through, but if you think about it too much afterward, the plot kinda falls apart.

The Rajan/Kala/Wolfgang ending really, really bothered me. I think if I'd watched the show and liked all the characters, but was most invested in Will/Riley or Nomi/Amanita, I probably would've gone with the ending and been all yay, what a surprising twist! Kala doesn't have to choose! She can have them both! Love conquers all!

But...I did ship Kala with Wolfgang, and I cared enough about Kala's storyline from the beginning that I can't just pretend that two seasons of Kala repeating over and over again how much she *wasn't* in love with Rajan didn't happen.

Kala was never torn between Rajan and Wolfgang, she was torn between the life that was expected of her and the one she actually wanted. I mean, that was the whole point of her actions in the S2 finale? She chose Wolfgang and was planning on heading to Paris to be with him? I just don't get how we go from that to her suddenly being so indecisive all over again in the special. And what's even weirder is that the show had her continue to harp on about what a 'good man' Rajan was (which she already knew -- if you forget about his shady af expired drug dealings) as if boom, you can just choose to fall in love with someone you haven't been in love with for years out of gratitude.

The way it played it felt more like she just couldn't bear to hurt his feelings which is a shitty reason to stay with someone. And all of that's not even going into how jealous both Wolfgang and Kala have been when someone else showed interest in the other up until now. They're not exactly the sharing kind (orgies with clustermates aside) so having the three of them all jump into bed together at the end made me go WTF in a big way. I don't know, it just felt wrong to me on every possible level and like the show didn't want any conflict in the end so they just magically had sex (and pot brownies) be the solution for everything.

Hearing from J. Michael Straczynski that the original plan for the show if it'd gotten 5 seasons would've featured Rajan ultimately facing consequences for his shady business dealings and Kala/Wolfgang getting a HEA makes me so sad that Lana didn't just give us a truncated version of that instead of going for a poly ending that wasn't in character for any of the 3 characters involved.

PS The Great British Baking Show is one of my very favorite feel-good shows. I watch old eps of it whenever I'm stressed.

[shadowkat]

Hmm..agree completely with your analysis about what did not work in the Sense8 finale. It felt very OOC (out of character) for me as well, and contrived.

I think if I'd watched the show and liked all the characters, but was most invested in Will/Riley or Nomi/Amanita, I probably would've gone with the ending and been all yay, what a surprising twist! Kala doesn't have to choose! She can have them both! Love conquers all!

Eh, I liked all the characters and was evenly invested for the most part. And I had serious issues with it.

Didn't help that I also shipped Wolfgang/Kala, albeit not that strongly (but it was the only fanfic I read post S2 last year), because that was the direction of the story-thread (I ship with the story not against it), and didn't buy Kala/Rajan as a couple (the story-thread was against it.) In part because, putting Kala in a three-some or with Rajan and not having her choose goes counter to her character's arc. Wolfgang represents to Kala a break from her traditions and cultural security, a way to be truly herself. And Kala represents to Wolfgang the same thing. She was raised in rigid culture, as was he, if you think about it. Both are trapped in their culture's rigidity. Through each other, they escape that. Rajan is Kala's Nela in a way...he's pulling her back into that culture. The writers were paralleling the two.

Rajan loved Kala (so I did feel sorry for him, but he was a weak character who could not break with his traditions, and like Nela had fallen into easy and nasty practices), Kala only married him because it was expected and that's who she thought she had to be. (Part of the reason she didn't really love him is that he was a weak character.) Kala's arc was very much about finding her own voice. I also didn't buy Rajan leaping into bed with Wolfgang and vice versa. It felt like a thematic short-cut that didn't pay any attention to the characters, a flaw of a lot threesome fanfic and slash fanfic actually, where the writer pushes the characters to fit their fantasies or their values, without building up to it gradually and showing not telling the viewer/reader this is where the character is going. I realized it wasn't working -- when I felt nothing when Kala was shot. And rolled my eyes when both men helped her, and when Rajan popped out of the blue to help them save Wolfgang. Last year, I cared. But they built it better last year. This year...it was too rushed, and as a result poorly built and I felt disconnected from the characters somehow.

It felt to me as if Lana went with theme over character and plot, which reminds me of what Whedon has done in the past. Theme should NEVER truncate or come at the expense of character and plot. If you do that, it doesn't work and it feels like the writer is preaching to the viewer. It needs to be a result of character and plot or lead from it. It's almost better if the writer has no theme in mind when they are writing a story, and theme sort of organically results from it. Lana - I think - had a major statement to say about free love, which is fine and I have no issues with, but it worked better in the prior episodes.

I wish they had more time, and JM Stracznski had been more in the driver's seat, he's a better plotter. Lana Wachowski isn't really much into plotting, unfortunately...and you're right the plot falls apart if you think about it all.
It was much much better last year. Farscape did a much better ending to its series.

[dar_vidder]

It felt to me as if Lana went with theme over character and plot

YES. That's it exactly. It suddenly felt, especially in the final minutes of the show, as if Sense8 became about Making a Statement instead of giving closure to these particular characters we'd come to love. And when shows care more about What their show is about than Who, I tend to lose interest.

As an aside, another bit from the finale I still don't understand the point of was the reveal that Wolfgang's mom was his 'sister.' First of all, I don't think there needed to be some new secret reason why Wolfgang killed his dad and uncle. The abuse was reason enough. But second of all, why go there if you're not really going to go there? By making his dad the *stepdad* of Wolfgang's mom, instead of the biological dad, that meant that Wolfgang and his mom weren't technically related beyond mother/son. And Wolfgang wasn't raised to believe his mom was his sister so really, who cares? The reveal only let us know that his dad was a rapist who preyed upon his teenage step-daughter which was exactly the kind of man we already would've guessed he was. Am I missing something?

[shadowkat]

And when shows care more about What their show is about than Who, I tend to lose interest.

Exactly. It's a problem with the sci-fi genre and speculative science fiction writers, they have a tendency to get too into the "what the big message is" and forget the plot and characters. Why so many creative writing profs caution amateur writers not to even attempt it until they can figure out how to build character.

The Wachowski's have fallen into that trap more than once -- with the Matrix sequels, and a few other things.

And yep, I lose interest as well. I think you're better off if you are just writing the story without any theme in mind.

As an aside, another bit from the finale I still don't understand the point of was the reveal that Wolfgang's mom was his 'sister.'

I think my attention wandered during that whole section. (I probably should have re-watched the series from the beginning before watching the finale. Because it took me a while to figure out what was going on. The series assumes the viewer is going to rewatch it all from the beginning.) Because I didn't pick up on that bit at all. (Whoosh right over my head.) They did a lot of things in the finale episode that seemed to come out of nowhere or didn't make a lot of sense, while letting other stories sort of just sit there. I mean Rajan pops up seemingly out of nowhere, and so does Muni. Then Bug does. Then Puck. Then the Scottish Guy. And I'm like...okay, so the gang's all here? And what are we doing with the gang? Not all that much apparently.

I got a bit lost. (Again probably should have re-watched the whole thing from the beginning.) Took me a while to figure out what Wolfgang was flashing back on -- appeared to be his mother and father? But not his father? And his revenge scheme to kill his father because of what he did to his mother -- yet it wasn't really his true father, or it was? And his mother was his sister and mother (a la Chinatown...famous scene: "You're my sister!" Slap.. "You're my mother!" Slap.)

I think unnecessarily convoluted. I mean it's not like the series wasn't convoluted plot wise, already, but ...apparently Lana felt the need to make it even more so? (Sigh.)

Anyway I don't understand why they felt the need to do that either.