SciFi Weekend: Mr. Robot; Hannibal; The Flash; Sense8

Mr Robot Angela

Mr. Robot began with a flashback showing how Elliot first met the character who was killed last week, but overall the episode concentrated more on the other characters. (The initial scene did have me puzzled for a moment until I realized it was a flashback.) Angela is proceeding with her plan, but now must face the fact that it will put her friends out of work. Tyrell is increasingly looking like he is a far more warped character than Elliot, as one more character, although a minor one who was only introduced recently, has been  violently removed from the cast.

Earlier in the season there was a fan theory, suggested in the pilot, that Mr. Robot is an imaginary character, present only in Elliot’s head. Some have suggested that nobody was interacting with him other than Elliot, but more recent scenes have cast doubt on that theory. Another theory is that he is “real” but another manifestation of Elliot. For example, Alan Sepenwall noted:

Both of Mr. Robot’s scenes take place independently of Elliot, which can be read as a clear sign that he’s meant to be an independent character, or just more examples where we’re seeing Mr. Robot as an Elliot stand-in. And when Darlene and Trenton discuss what motivates the other members of the group, they don’t mention either Elliot or Mr. Robot, which makes more sense if they’re meant to be the same person — and the group’s leader — than if Elliot is just another guy recruited to fulfill Mr. Robot’s anarchic vision.

Hannibal Will and Hannibal

Hannibal continues the Red Dragon storyline, and returned Bedelia (Gillian Anderson) to the mix. During …And the Woman Clothed in the Sun, Will met with both her and Hannibal, and even had a chance encounter with Dolarhyde. While the Tooth Fairy doesn’t eat people as Hannibal does, he did show a strange appetite of his own. Hannibal is still locked up, but this is not enough to keep him with interacting with the outside world. Bedalia also was shown with a former patient of Dr. Lecter, played by Zachary Quinto, showing us the true story of the patient who died under her care. Plus there was a tiger–and we saw inside its mouth.

>The-Flash-Season-two

The Flash‘s new costume was displayed at Comic Com, and there is further news about the second season. Both Wally West and Jay Garrick have been cast, with Jay Garrick’s Flash foreshadowed in the first season finale. Entertainment Weekly also reports that we will not only see the Earth 2 Flash, but also see glimpses of the alternate Earth:

Well, it sounds like that singularity leads to a pretty familiar place. In speaking about the great care they took with making their version of time travel both easy to digest and complex enough to be exciting for the diehard fans in season 1, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg says, “We’re trying to do the same thing this year with Earth 2 and the concept of the multiverse and the concept of dopplegangers. We’ve been having a lot of fun with that and getting glimpses of Earth 2 probably sooner than people would’ve thought.”

Sense 8 Finale

Netflix finally announced that they are renewing Sense8 for a second season last week, which provides a good excuse to write a bit about the show. I’ll try to avoid significant spoilers, but those who want to go into the show without knowing anything about it might look away.

The story does develop slowly, with the first few episodes primarily being devoted to introducing the characters and setting matters up. The story centers around eight people from different part of the world: Nomi (Jamie Clayton) a transgender character played by the transgender actress, Will, a Chicago cop (Brian J. Smith), Lito, a telenovela star who is secretly gay (Miguel Ángel Silvestre),  Icelandic DJ Riley, who started out the series living in London (Tuppence Middleton), Korean business executive Sun (Bae Doona), Indian pharmacist Kala (Tina Desai) who is engaged to her boss, German safecracker Wolfgang (Max Riemelt), and Nairobi bus driver Capheus (Aml Ameen).

What is remarkable about the series is that each character has a life of their own, with supporting cast, and their scenes are actually filmed where they are said to occur. This includes former Doctor Who companion Freema Agyeman in rather explicit lesbian love scenes with Jamie Clayton, and a rather fun threesome in Mexico City. Plus there is ultimately an orgy involving most of the cast. Did I forget to mention that this is an R-rated series?

The combination of all these characters gets even more complicated as the characters find they are tied to each other and can interact with other Sensates in other parts of the world. A character involved in a fight might be helped out by another who is a better fighter, along with taking advantage of other skills processed by others. After watching the final episode it is worth watching the show on Netflix as to how the series was filmed. (I watched this immediately after watching the final episode as I was not ready to leave this world or these characters.) Rather than filming the show chronologically, the entire cast traveled together around the world.When a scene involved a connection between characters in two (or more ) parts of the world, the scene was filmed at separate times in each location and later put together as viewed.

The plotline might be simplified to a group of people with a special power who wind up being chased by an evil group. While this has done many times before, it has never been done like this. The show goes far beyond this concept in the development of each character and location. Instead of superpowers, the characters have normal abilities, other than their ability to connect with other Sensates. While sometimes slow, I found this to be definitely worth watching. If anyone is tempted to give up midway through because of some episodes which deal more with explanation than action,  the action does pick up tremendously in the last few episodes.

Sense8 Will and Riley

Just prior to the renewal news, J. Michael Straczynski was interviewed about plans for the second season, and working with the Wachowski brothers:

On whether the characters will take on each other’s abilities…

J. Michael Straczynski:
Yeah, we’re looking at expanding that as far as logic goes. What’s kind of fun about the characters is that what they’re sharing are not necessarily superpowers. They have ordinary abilities, and we’re trying to say that there is value and merit and power whether you’re an actor or you are a martial arts person or a bus driver. You have something to contribute. Some of the hardest parts of making that process work visually was in choreographing this entire thing. So, for instance, in the scenes with Sun, we had to stage her fights both in Korea and in Nairobi twice. She would literally start a punch in Korea and then finish that punch in Nairobi. That process of really making that work visually was very involved, very detailed, but sells the illusion of it…

On whether, if they are renewed for another season, there is a five-year plan for the show…

JMS: The way that the Wachowskis and I tend to work, as we created the show together, wrote it together, we are long-game kind of people. We look down the road to say, “Okay. We’re setting this up now. Where is this going to go?” That doesn’t guarantee we’re going to go five seasons, but for ourselves, for the writing process, we need to, kind of, know where we’re going, where this all pays off, what this means. So season 1 is like the origin story. Season 2 has its own particular arc. And we’ve figured it out from there. But to spoil that here would not be in the best interest of the surprises we have in mind.

On collaborating with the Wachowskis…

JMS: If they have their strengths, first it’s action and character, then plot and structure. I think they would agree that’s kind of their dynamic. I’m a structure demon, so I’m really focused on keeping the story going from here to here to here so it all makes sense in the end. Light on action, decent on plot. So the good thing is that you lay our two skills over one another, and it’s a perfect fit. So the collaboration process was a great deal of fun for all of us. We learned from each other’s strengths and compensated for each other’s weaknesses.

The full post includes also questions for some of the cast members.