I loved seeing the different locations in general. I wasn't as interested in India at first since a plot revolving around marriage seemed so typical. But I grew to really like Kala and the Bollywood-esque scene was great. It got pretty interesting when it addressed religious/political tensions. I thought the stuff in Germany was the least interesting, but I also thought Kala made Wolfgang more interesting.
Well, I think I should be liking the stuff in India. I was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, went to that kind of school, so this conflict between religion and reality should resonate with me. I'm an astronomer in real life, she is a pharmacologist I think, which amplifies the conflict since pharmacology (all science) requires a mentality and psychology that is not consistent with traditional religion. There is further conflict to the pansexual, egalitarian themes of the show that is unstated since traditional religion is almost always heteronormative. I don't actually know about hinduism, but I'll assume it is without actually checking.
So in spite of these similarities and the automatic relevance to the plot and themes, I was mostly bored. The guy she's supposed to marry ... I guess he seems like a nice guy and he's well-groomed, but mostly we know he's great because all of the other interesting women say they would love to marry him. I don't feel it though. There might be more tension if they had given the groom character more material.
I agree that the Germany/India link between Wolfgang and Kala elevates both of them.
Re: Wolfgang (Max Riemelt), I wonder if huge cock was part of the casting call?
The birth scene has definitely remained with me the most. It was as graphic as the birthing videos they made us watch in high school biology.
You went to a better high school.
I was squeamish but then I felt like I shouldn't be grossed out by this, and should be grossed out by violence instead. It was emotionally powerful as well. Some of the Sensates had such happy births. Which directly contrasts Nomi's birth as we see, but not hear, her mother say Michael. And of course it ended dramatically with Riley's tragic backstory.
I'm pretty sure it was flashbacks to the cluster being born since we see the actress playing Nomi's mother.
Yes, I need to watch the series again. There are a lot of details which are easy to miss. Plus I was watching it while doing other things.
Anything with Sun was great too. She was super useful haha.
I liked her a lot and she was awesome, but there was an annoying voice in the back of my head problematizing the fact the Asian character had the best martial arts skills. I'm glad they added more to her, she has a warm relationship with her trainer, with her mother, she's well-trained at her job and very efficient, and she has a commanding presence. The way she busted into that strip club and told her brother to get the **** up was impressive. The warm, compassionate relationship we saw with her mother and her trainer helped us believe how she behaved in the prison, where she helped the other women out.
Why? I think she's one of my least favourites. Her backstory was very sad, but she was the least engaging for me. And she didn't contribute any skill to the group. Maybe season 2?
I don't mind that she doesn't have skill relevant to season one's plot. Presumably sensate assignment randomly samples the human population, so you can end up with just about anybody, knowing my frequently bad luck in life if it was me I'd probably end up with Dr. Phil in my cluster. Well, he' a different age so no, but you get the idea.
I might just like her because she was incredibly beautiful, and she's my kind of woman too, smart, talented, but also reserved. I can also appreciate sad stories though and I think her entire backstory is really sad, she's lost her mom, she lost her husband, she held her baby as he died in her arms, and her bad luck continued as the guy she was seeing in London turned out to be a complete psychopath. By linking up with Gorski she is learning and choosing to live, when everything in her life up until that point should have inclined her to withdraw and not to invest in people.
I have other positive predispositions toward her.
- I dig techno trance "DJs" like Armin van Buuren, Dash Berlin, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, etc;
- The blue streak in her hair is a nice little visual touch that adds continuity to the show, since Nomi's girlfriend also has a blue streak in her hair (this is minor);
- Good use of Icelandic cinematography. Hollywood has gone to Iceland a lot in the past few years because it's gorgeous there: Oblivion, Pometheus, Interstellar all use Iceland for shooting. We saw something different here, they contributed to the dialogue of beautiful Hollywood Iceland, lol.
It's hard to pick a favourite. I feel biased towards Lito since I'm gay and dating a Latino haha. I also really liked Nomi. And then probably Sun and Capheus. But they were all pretty great.
How could
anybody not like Capheus?
;-)
I didn't know it was organized like that! The show generally had such high production values in its various locales. It feels kinda like Lost, but even better.
There was a good use of lens flares. The cinematography looked nice. Just a huge amount of colour in this show.
. I really have to rewatch this.
) or the trademark all Asians know kung fu - even orphaned businesswomen, it seems a bit 'did not do the research.' In contrast the way that queer themes were explored was deep, sensitive, and crammed to the brim with cool. It's jarring to see them lead the curve on dealing with one social issue but almost insultingly sub par on race.
