Boundary

I have finished my binge and I must say there are aspects I love about this show, some aspects I'm iffy about and a couple of things I loathe. I don't buy Vincent as a villain. He's gifted so many things by the writers so much it has diminished him in my eyes. First of all, how did he survive for so long without being caught by the Director? In the 80's perhaps but not in the current digital age - if a supercomputer is looking for you, can you really evade it? And when our team finally exposed and got to him, the Director specifically let him escape (other than to return for the finale episodes, I can only think it was to preserve our team but that's no excuse to then lose track of him again). As if that was not enough, our team that defeated the Faction (who had vastly more advantages than Vincent), were somehow always one step behind. Next season they will be several steps behind. Agreeing to film to those confessions went against all their characters imo; sure they now care about their new families but risking and jeopardising the mission isn't something they'd have done, let alone the Director letting it happen - Grace, acknowledged as the best programmer somehow never gets the chance to help. The one time they seemed to be competitive was when they had that science guy, and they knew he was once high level, but they let him go prematurely (so that Vincent could just pick him up again - why did he let him go in the first place anyhow?) I love a good villain, they improve the heroes but I poorly constructed villain can potentially ruin a show for me and Vincent is the latter. Before I make sound like I'm dissing the whole show, I love a lot of aspects of it. I especially like it when they go on missions. I'm not so keen on the personal lives aspect of it (the drug addictions, David's saviour complex) but ironically I love it when the personal lives collide with the missions. I find it fascinating that the characters are allowed to "improvise", basically ignore the Director when it suits them, which makes the Director's calculations either redundant or much more complex. The Director obviously values this particular team, so how does that work and what would that mean? How would the other teams take it? I also liked the idea of the Faction, that a group of people would arise that believe in only free will. Incidentally, that also brings us to the question of why our team trust the Director so much. So, a lot to love and ponder.

If after rewatching season 2 you still need a sense8-ish fix, Netflix has just added a new Bae Doo Na Kdrama called Stranger (aka Forest of Secrets on other websites). She doesn't do a tonne of Korean tv drama, so this is pretty special and the show itself is sense8tional. I've been watching it elsewhere and I'll promptly do a rewatch on Netflix, not only because it's required viewing but to also give Doona respectable Netflix numbers, and maybe nudge TPTB towards a Sense8 season 3!! She plays a detective and Jo Seung Woo plays a prosecutor and together they try to untangle a web of secrets, lies and corruption within the top law enforcement, political and financial circles of Korea. Impressively it's written by a rookie; and together with Misaeng, Incomplete Life (also available on Netflix) and Signal (available elsewhere) it's one of the top rated Kdramas of all time. Well deserved too. If you don't mind subtitles, do check it out. [Be warned: pay attention, otherwise you'll be confused as it gets convoluted but without ever dropping a thread.]

Actually, Orphan Black was similarly ignored initially, until clamour from all sides led to Tatiana's well deserved recognition. Another factor is that I don't think Netflix submitted anyone for the major categories, I am led to believe the show was missing from the Netflix FYSee installation. Even though I love the show, to be fair only Doona would deserve to be considered this year.

I don't find the sketchy plan feasible - it was just a misjudgement. Netflix generally don't make dumb decisions but this was certainly one of them. They thought cancelling 2 expensive shows at once would give them a pass and overlooked everything else, especially the social media presence of fans. But the fan backlash was stronger than anyone could have imagined; whoever made the decision tried to stick it out but I suspect his/her higher ups, perhaps even Sarandos or Hastings themselves, saw the pummelling the Netflix brand was taking and decided to quieten fans down. Looking at it that way, a two hour special seems like a very cheap way out of a PR crisis, a full season 3 was in order (but that'll really also make us too greedy as fans, won't it?)

So happy right now. The net effect is I can now enjoy Okja without guilt!

Brian (let's call him Will Gorski) put out a heartfelt message to fans; it is sincere but it also toes the party line. Netflix really comes across quite badly - they made the cancellation decision quite early, barely promoted the show, released it during exam season for many and then announced the cancellation on the first day of Pride Month, for such a very "suave" company I dare suggest all this could be deliberate. I would really really love to reconsider my relationship with Netflix but I have The Defenders and Stranger Things holding me hostage. I will attempt to cut down the amount of time I spend on the app though. I must say the fandom on social media is immense. The idea of a cluster really took hold and Netflix has inadvertently cast themselves as BPO.

Very curious in how they are still not even trying to justify their decision...

Thank you for the tip, I've done the Request A Show thing and it makes me feel relieved that I've done something visible to Netflix. Honestly, if all of us sent in the same request, they will take notice and if they then decide to ignore us then that's a risky corporate decision on their part. With the way season 2 ended, they could easily wrap up the major storyline relatively cheaply and restore some goodwill. Better yet, how about committing to the original 5 seasons? Netflix might have to "lose" money for 3 more years but the Wachowskis and JMS will have to compromise as well: fewer cities, more indoor shots, quicker production schedule ... (but maintain a couple of spectacular action sequences the show thrives on).

Just yesterday Reed Hastings told Recode that he's urging his team to take more risks, and today they cancel one of the most Netflix shows you can ever have. When they cancelled The Get Down (most likely for cost reasons) I had a troubling suspicion that Sense8 might be in trouble for a similar logic but I desperately dismissed that notion. Now I'm devastated. I'd say this knocks the Netflix brand down a few notches for me.

Rarely do I get goosebumps, hair raising experience whilst watching tv but that autopsy and maggots is what I was waiting for all along. I knew Jane Doe was telling the truth but I just had a tiny bit of scepticism. But that corroboration? It means everything.

It's completely logical that they were all Africans and it would make more sense that they'd be in different clusters (though not necessary) but did they know each other beforehand? It would seem like our cluster has really been isolated - in addition to being very young. Maybe Angela and Jonas purposefully hid them. Speaking of Angela, why did she use heroine when she could have scored some blockers? It seemed like she was Whispers' right hand person at one time, surely she must have known there was a better method than heroine.

I agree, this show gets little wrong. Because of my reaction to that last scene, I think ultimately it was a good decision to go with the surprise factor. When they all decided to fly to London, I was sure their plan wouldn't work (like Sun being able to board her flight, or them infiltrating BPO with such devastating impact), so when we open next season, the natural thing would be to take a step back and show us how they pulled it off, as any heist movie would do. I once read that JMS and the Wachowskis sat down and mapped out all the science, big picture and mythology stuff before writing season 1. Also, it seemed like a deliberate choice that we the audience can only know as much as the cluster does at any given point in time. That's why the first 3 episodes of season 1 were so confusing and why Angela and Jonas seem to have deceived us (thus far). Basing on this, therefore, I want to trust Jonas a little bit longer ... until he explains himself fully in season 3. BTW, there's no way we aren't getting a season 3, because of the cliffhanger. In addition, due to the portfolio nature of the Netflix model, canceling one show to make way for another is a murky decision, unlike traditional tv whereupon each show earns its keep. The expense is probably a good reason but the time to cancel Sense8 was after season 1; season 2 had more cities, bigger set pieces and longer production and Netflix approved it all. With everyone in London, some costs will be slashed in season 3 but the danger is that the show might lose its spark if we don't have Dani, Jela or Detective Mun if the sensates don't go back to their bases.

Don't worry. This might not be an obvious blockbuster but the fandom is visible/passionate and Netflix execs won't piss us off like that (it's easier to cancel a Marco Polo or Bloodline with more sedate fandoms). Besides, I am much more grateful Netflix gets to make the decision - they seem to make all the right ones - and not the self righteous tv journalists who wrote off the show based on a 3 episode review and are now finding it professionally demeaning to make a u-turn. I liked that Rajan wasn't some kind of jerk (he seemed sincere in his apology about the expired drugs issue), giving Kala an easy out in order to be with Wolfgang. Kala has to own the decision to have an affair. Still, Rajan is involved in some major corruption, he can't be as clean as he professes to be (speculation: there's a link to Sun's brother, who is receiving a lot of money from abroad not accounted for).

I still need to grasp Jonas and Angelica's story more fully. They said Angelica knew she was 'pregnant' and that's why she ran away to birth our core cluster away from Whispers. But whether by design or not (I suspect not) the reason this cluster has gotten this close to Whispers is the mixture of skills they have. Without Nomi's hacking, Will's detective mind, Kala's pharma, etc. other clusters would have no hope of surviving being chased by Whispers, who seemed to be genuinely frightening to the other sensates. It also seemed like, in addition to being newborns, our cluster is deemed too dangerous, too revolutionary and everyone tries to steer clear. That mysterious sensate in Seoul with the power to order a quarantine intrigued me so much. I think it might be an extremely rare plot hole how Whispers made a leap in connecting Wolfgang to Will. Or it might just have been a sensible conclusion - how many sensates would there be with skills to help Will break Riley out of the Iceland facility? Plus we don't know how much information Lila scanned out of Wolfie. Is it only me who felt, not so much as let down but slightly disappointed that Wolfgang gangster storyline was so streamlined? We knew there was a looming gang war in Berlin, what with the 4 kings, and that Wolfie would at least be some kind of power broker (and how that would put a strain on his relationship with Kala). Lila and presumably other sensates' involvement complicated things in a good way but it always felt disjointed. Any action in one episode never seemed to carry any consequence in the following episode. I too would have preferred Lila's betrayal to be linked to gang politics rather than to romantic rejection. Finally, it was interesting to note that there were different factions within the BPO. The Chairman, Whispers and the Secretary all seem to be trying to undermine each other, with Jonas being used as the football. Also, Jonas made eye contact with Sun (and maybe Capheus), something to note. one more interesting thing to note: Sun is infamous in South Korea, Capheus is running for (presidential or local council?) elections with national coverage, Lito is getting a big break in Hollywood, Riley is presumably a well known DJ. What's with all the fame?

It might be money that enabled Sun's brother to buy all that influence but you need power too. Someone's standing by/behind Joong-Ki and I can't wait to see how that conspiracy unfolds.