Sense8: Useless Clusters

[LibraryOgre]

So, we were watching Sense8 last night, and I laughed inappropriately, as I often do, as a thought floated across my mind:

What if, instead of Sun, you had Sun's Brother in your octet? You know, not the bad-ass fighter and good businessperson, but the gladhanding drunk whose main skill is "was born with a penis." And that lead to us sitting around, talking about other, entirely useless, people you might have in a cluster.

What useless people can you think of to show up in a cluster?

[Cespenar]

A stereotypical college "bro" could be fun(!): randomly projecting feelings of drunkenness, horniness and epic bouts of headache at his cluster at the most critical turns.

Or an internet know-it-all who interrupts his cluster all the time, claiming he knows the stuff they're doing right now, but it turns out 90% of that knowledge are urban legends and general misinformation.

[DiscipleofBob]

I actually just finished watching the first season myself. It's lots of fun.

If Sun's brother was part of a cluster, at least he'd have some basic social and enough knowledge on how to...
murder someone and make it look like suicide.

As for useless members of a cluster:
- A corporate drone whose only skill is efficiently preparing those TPS reports.
- A geek with an encyclopedic knowledge of Dungeons and Dragons mechanics and nothing else.
- A white supremacist (or really any racial supremacist or nationalist) who has to share their body and sensations with people of ethnicities from all over the world.

[Landis963]

A drunk whose only skull is knowing who exactly to lob an empty bottle into a trash can. However, he can only do this when he's inebriated.

[Psyren]

I just finished S1 and I'm so glad it got renewed for S2. Hopefully it stays good and doesn't pull a Heroes (or more appropriately, a Reloaded.)

And yeah, the thought of useless folks in a cluster crossed my mind as well. (Though to be fair, Riley is pretty much that...) It just seems so coincidental that not only is everyone in the cluster highly trained in a very specific field (one is a great driver, one knows kung fu, two are good with guns, one is a biochemist, one is a skilled liar/con, one is a master hacker etc.) and they all just so happen to be attractive on top of it. Kinda silly as a premise, especially when they were likely chosen long before these skills would have become realized, but it does keep the plot going I guess.

In spite of that I do love the show with a passion and can't wait for more.

[Zrak]

A stereotypical college "bro" could be fun(!): randomly projecting feelings of drunkenness, horniness and epic bouts of headache at his cluster at the most critical turns.

I feel like for all their oft-deplored qualities, a bro would actually have a lot of fairly useful skills. Like, maybe it's just a Boulder thing, but I don't really know any bros who aren't crazy good at rock climbing.

[The Glyphstone]

I feel like for all their oft-deplored qualities, a bro would actually have a lot of fairly useful skills. Like, maybe it's just a Boulder thing, but I don't really know any bros who aren't crazy good at rock climbing.

I suspect these two things are indeed related.:smallcool:

[Zrak]

I would say that doesn't explain why all the hippies were so bad at it, but I guess that doesn't really need explaining.

[Cespenar]

I feel like for all their oft-deplored qualities, a bro would actually have a lot of fairly useful skills. Like, maybe it's just a Boulder thing, but I don't really know any bros who aren't crazy good at rock climbing.

Yeah, but when you need his help the most, he's either pre-drunk, drunk, or hungover. :smalltongue:

[Legato Endless]

I feel like for all their oft-deplored qualities, a bro would actually have a lot of fairly useful skills. Like, maybe it's just a Boulder thing, but I don't really know any bros who aren't crazy good at rock climbing.

Although that begs the question of practicality. It'd be more darkly humorous to get 8 people who are social elite in some sense, but whose career skills aren't actually eminently practical. Like there's an Olympian or two on the team, but it's the pole vaulting gold medalist, or the last scion of the art of Skijoring.

Well, Bob, I'm not sure we're ever going to need that, but yeah, if we're ever in a situation with snow, skis, and a trained animal, we'll be set.

The leading authority on Egyptology or some other historical period. A fluent speaker in 9 dialects spoken by tribes numbering less than 5,000 people. Or the world's greatest Harpist.

[DiscipleofBob]

Here's a related category:

Seemingly useless Sense8 skills that somehow become vital.
Someone very quickly needs to clean up a room, perhaps dispose of crime scene evidence, or hide the signs of a party before the parents get home...
...suddenly channels the skills of a curling expert.

[Psyren]

Since they apparently transfer physical strength and speed along with the mental information, I'd say an olympic anything would be useful.

And dollars to donuts, if you had a historian in one of the clusters, something the bad guys are desperately trying to find would be locked away in a ruin somewhere.

[Legato Endless]

And dollars to donuts, if you had a historian in one of the clusters, something the bad guys are desperately trying to find would be locked away in a ruin somewhere.

Certainly, but that's trending into once a season this looks like a job for Aquaman territory. Like the one time in Lost they needed the fertility specialist's job skills.

[Psyren]

Certainly, but that's trending into once a season this looks like a job for Aquaman territory. Like the one time in Lost they needed the fertility specialist's job skills.

Oh it'd most definitely be a Job For Aquaman :smallbiggrin: but that's the point, any niche skill you can come up with would end up being subject to Elan's Laws of Dramatic Convention and becoming absolutely vital to the heroes' success. That french baker in your cluster? There's a bank vault whose specialty lock is the exact size and shape of a half-baguette. The professional corgi tamer? A corrupt executive at the evil corporation the heroes need to infiltrate brought one to work, and only that puppy can bring a prisoner the all-access keycard. The part-time rodeo clown? The research facility containing the last piece of the puzzle the heroes need also happens to contain a pent-up and angry bull.

[mrcarter11]

I've watched this show like 5 times now and I love it. I really don't think anyone would useless, I mean everyone has some form of a skill set. Now, how usable it is, could be debated, but even Sun's brother is probably a charming guy when he needs to be, or that's the vibe I got.

Something that I've started to feel is really accurate though, is the idea that certain members of a cluster aren't there for their skills, they are there for their personalty. Capheus isn't that great of a driver in my opinion. I mean he pulled off the flip the one time, but I chalk that up to look more than skill. His outlook though, that positive nature, the compassion he has for others, that's what he brings to the cluster and we as viewers clearly see how emotions can be affected during visiting/sharing. Riley is much the same in that I think she falls as the spiritual center for the cluster. Whenever we see everyone grouped up, it stems from her. She is the person who can mother them, she is the one who can bring them together in a way besides sharing.

Also this is more of reply to something Psyren said, I really disagree that the majority of the cast is really attractive. This is of course a really opinion based thing, but the people I've watched it with thus far has considered 1-3 of the cast members to be attractive. Super small sample size of 4,but I still disagree with the notion.

[Psyren]

All the guys are, certainly. I mean, one of Lito's skills is being ultra suave/seductive to... well, any gender really which no matter how you slice it just wouldn't work if the guy he was piloting looked like a dog. And then you've got Kala and Riley. Really the only ones you could even say approach plain are Sun and Nomi, and even then it's Hollywood Homely (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodHomely) at best.

And Capheus isn't just a (very) skilled driver, he also hotwired an unknown vehicle in seconds so he's definitely bringing tangible skills to the table.

Also, the whole point is that there IS no "spiritual center." They all have heightened empathy just by being what they are; it's a distributed network, peer-to-peer. They're all the "nice one," even Wolfgang and Sun. So hopefully Riley brings a little more to the table than that is all I'm saying.

[mrcarter11]

Eh we disagree on several things. Me nor any housemates found Riley attractive. I actually thought a lot of cast was really plain looking, maybe in somewhat better shape then a lot of people, but not really attractive.

The driver thing, I really don't feel like he's proven to be that talented of a driver yet. Have to wait and see, thus far I'm underwhelmed by his skillset, but overwhelmed by his personalty.

I think they all have heightened spiritual connectivity, but I disagree that there can't still be a center. And I think Riley represents that center.

[Psyren]

We do definitely disagree, because "Riley is the spiritual center" implies that the others are somehow less spiritual than she, and that is definitely not what I came away from the show with. Sun's ability to fight did not reduce her willingness to sacrifice herself, and Kala's timidity and abhorrence of violence did not keep her from saving her friends in their time of need. What are those things if not spirit?

But since we disagree, I'll just ask you this - if Riley does end up demonstrating a more practical skill of some kind, something that ends up saving one of the others' lives, would you like the character less? Would a tangible area of competency that comes in handy for the other members of the cluster diminish her spiritual or moral outlook towards the others, in your view?

[mrcarter11]

In short, no.

[Psyren]

Then it sounds like we'd agree that her demonstrating some kind of practical ability wouldn't impact her "spirituality" in any way. Great!

[mrcarter11]

Then it sounds like we'd agree that her demonstrating some kind of practical ability wouldn't impact her "spirituality" in any way. Great!

Nope, it'd be kinda nice to see her do something useful in terms of skills, but I would still find her to be the spiritual center of the group. Which I believe is all I said originally.

[JoshL]

Useless cluster? A musician. It's all we frelling care about. Want to know how the second order harmonics on a tempered scale throw off a flatted sixth? We gotcha covered. But in reality no one ever wants to know that. And that's not even going into the more obscure realms of MIDI programming and NRPN values (what does NRPN mean? Good news! You never have to know or even care!)

Unless there is a Goonies-style keyboard puzzle, or some crazy obscure math problem, in which case we're good.

[mrcarter11]

Eh, in terms of typical day to day behavior, if you aren't trying to save the world, being able to play music reasonably well is always a nice skill to have. It just won't do much to save the world. Totally help in other ways though.

[JoshL]

Yeah, you'd think that, until your pan-global shared sexual experience is ruined by the one guy who can't stop thinking about the modulation in the chord progression of the song someone was listening to...and then that's all ANYONE can think of, and, well, it won't end well :smallwink:

[mrcarter11]

I'd still think it was useful, just slightly annoying at the time. :smalltongue:

[Cespenar]

Wasn't Riley the only (or first, possibly) one to see forward in time? That kinda makes her special.


I actually thought a lot of cast was really plain looking, maybe in somewhat better shape then a lot of people, but not really attractive.

Also, Lito disagrees with you. :smalltongue:

[BlueHerring]

A fluent speaker in 9 dialects spoken by tribes numbering less than 5,000 people.

This would actually be stupidly useful if you ever needed to talk in code. If they're strictly verbal dialects without distinct written forms, then it's considerably less useful than it could be, but it would still be effective. The odds of someone recognizing what you're doing is absurdly small.

[Psyren]

I found a nice review of the first season here - only mild spoilers.

It sounds like he agrees with both mrcarter and myself - he calls Riley "the group's emotional core" but is also dying for her to have a Crowning Moment of Awesome like the other 7 got.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWDAm46Mtow

[mrcarter11]

Not a bad review. I disagree with some of it, but opinions are known to do that. I do like the middle ground for Riley though, I felt there was a reason she didn't have one of those moments and I understood that reason, but it didn't stop me from wanting it.

[Zrak]

Riley listened to Hospice in the first episode. That's already cooler than anything any character could do except, like, if one had this sweet van with Jean-Claude van Damme painted on the . . . oh, wait.

More seriously, I haven't watched very far yet, but is Nomi's crowning moment of awesome that she learns to write a good essay or at least her relationship with her girlfriend evolving beyond a lovey-dovey exposition vehicle? I'm being kind of facetious, but right now the two things keeping me from watching more of the show are how much I hate pretty much every Nomi scene and the fact that I feel kind of bad for hating all the Nomi scenes so much. How many more voice-over blog posts am I going to have to make it through this season?

[mrcarter11]

Personally Nomi was always my least favorite character and I cringed my way through the vast majority of her scenes. Another character named Bug gets introduced in her storyline, I found him entertaining for the few scenes he's in. To answer your question though, she only does the one voice over blog. Everything starts getting intense right afterwards.

[Cespenar]

As couples go, Lito & Hernando were so more fun than Nomi & what's-her-face that it hurt.

[Psyren]

More seriously, I haven't watched very far yet, but is Nomi's crowning moment of awesome that she learns to write a good essay or at least her relationship with her girlfriend evolving beyond a lovey-dovey exposition vehicle? I'm being kind of facetious, but right now the two things keeping me from watching more of the show are how much I hate pretty much every Nomi scene and the fact that I feel kind of bad for hating all the Nomi scenes so much. How many more voice-over blog posts am I going to have to make it through this season?

The blog thing ends very quickly.

And yes, yes Nomi absolutely gets much more badass as the series goes on. It's such a sharp turn that it almost comes out of nowhere, but they do set it up if you're paying attention. (No, she's not a physical fighter.)


As couples go, Lito & Hernando were so more fun than Nomi & what's-her-face that it hurt.

Amanita, played by the indomitable Martha Jones aka Freema Agyeman :smallbiggrin:

(Am I the only Whovian in here?)

[Cespenar]

Amanita, played by the indomitable Martha Jones aka Freema Agyeman :smallbiggrin:

(Am I the only Whovian in here?)

Ehh. I know her from Dr. Who, but she wasn't the most memorable companion.

[Zrak]

The blog thing ends very quickly.

And yes, yes Nomi absolutely gets much more badass as the series goes on. It's such a sharp turn that it almost comes out of nowhere, but they do set it up if you're paying attention. (No, she's not a physical fighter.)

All right, cool, that's all good to know.

[LibraryOgre]

Nomi and her wife were some of our favorite parts. If pressed, I think my least favorite may be Whitey McCopperson... he's so BLAND.

[Zrak]

So far, my problem with Nomi and her wife are that all their scenes together remind me of the Tolstoy quote about happy families. Right now they just kiss, say gag-me sweet things to one another, and awkwardly bring up flashback ques. The characters themselves seem like fine people, Nomi basically reads as a grandiloquent but well-meaning goober, but their writing is just terrible. It's not that they aren't sympathetic, it's that they're almost aggressively boring and the dismally fail to convey and inspire the ideas I think they're intended to convey or feelings they're intended to inspire. Honestly, the truly abysmal blog entry has been the worst offender so far, and I think that's mainly a problem with TV writers, even very good TV writers, not often being great essayists or prose stylists; her blog is certainly no worse than the "genius" Hank Moody writing to which viewers are subjected in Califnornication, for example.

Who's Whitey McCopperson? Are you referring to Officer Babyface? He at least has some conflict with his partner, but he definitely also walks heavy in the shadow of bland cliché.

[LibraryOgre]

Who's White McCopperson? Are you referring to Officer Babyface?

Yeah, you know... Mr. Utterly Redundant.

[Psyren]

Nomi and her wife were some of our favorite parts. If pressed, I think my least favorite may be Whitey McCopperson... he's so BLAND.

I don't think they're married quite yet (Nomi introduces Neets to Jugs as her "girlfriend" IIRC.) But yeah, they might as well be.

I sort of agree where Will is concerned - but in this context, his being generic is actually a strength. The folks who stand to gain the most from watching a show like this (namely, cis straight while males) will get more out of it if they have someone to project onto. It's the same reason (or rather, one of the reasons) that having diverse backgrounds in the rest of the cast is beneficial for the minorities in the audience too.

[Zrak]

I sort of agree where Will is concerned - but in this context, his being generic is actually a strength. The folks who stand to gain the most from watching a show like this (namely, cis straight while males) will get more out of it if they have someone to project onto. It's the same reason (or rather, one of the reasons) that having diverse backgrounds in the rest of the cast is beneficial for the minorities in the audience too.

With the caveat that I haven't seen the entire series, I think his almost aggressively generic blandness is kind of a problem in that sense, though. Tying straight white cis males to normalcy, even an ambiguously (and probably accidentally) pejorative kind of normalcy, is sort of a problem. Why couldn't, say, Nomi be the trite "cop who tries to do right despite all the red tape" and Will instead be a former hacktivist who writes awful blog posts about, say, capitalism or something? I think it's important to stress that "straight white cismale" isn't synonymous with "normal" and being trans (or Korean or whatever) isn't inherently exotic.

[Psyren]

While I agree in principle, again the project is risky enough and pushing plenty of envelopes as-is. I'd rather it commit a peccadillo where the heroic straight white everyman is concerned (especially since the non-white non-straight non-men definitely get to be heroic too) and get the ratings it needs to keep being a thing, than to go one bridge too far and and not do so.

Similarly, the Asian character being the one who knows kung-fu is a stereotype, but one that will resonate with a broader audience, and serves as a jumping-off point for all the other ethnicities to kick ass too.