I had forgotten about that one.  Yeah, I agree, that was the worst.  The first one felt more like a very dark drama, like you said, and not a Twilight Zone type of idea.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't representative of the series and not the best one to use as the first episode to introduce audiences to the series.

I agree, I tell people to skip it and go back later if they're interested in the series.  I'm just so glad that there's still a high quality anthology series out there.  Almost all of modern television is procedural or serialized.

Except for Keeping up with the Kardashians!  :) Just joking.

Oof, I wish you hadn't reminded me that exists.  My brain doesn't seem to categorize scripted and unscripted television as even remotely similar, and I usually just pretend reality tv doesn't exist.

The new Netflix original series Sense8 was created by JMS and the Wachoskis. It has a wonderful cast and some of the best trailers around trading it. I recently watched the entire series. I found it to be good but not in any of the ways that we would normally count a television show as good. I despised some parts, like the show's opening sequence, but other parts were deeply enjoyed. Being as the show doors not give itself a content rating, Netflix really should have put up some sort of warning; I almost made the mistake of playing this show in the background while my nieces and nephews were visiting. I watch a lot of freaky porn, but Sense8 has the honest to gosh strangest sex scene that I have encountered in all of my forty years. Anyway, I wrote a longer and more thorough blog review of the show. I offered to write individual reviews of each episode, but none of my readers seemed to have any interest in even what I already wrote. I saw mention earlier of watching Netflix, so I am wondering of anyone here has given Sense8 a try.

Kagura said she liked it in another thread, but I haven't seen it yet although it's on my list of things to watch eventually.

Talk about denying reality!  :)

Yep, my sister, firelizardkimi, watched it, and I saw a bunch of stuff about it on Tumblr so I decided to watch it too. I definitely enjoyed it immensely. I really really want a second season because I want to know what's going to happen with Will and Riley, and if the rest of the cluster are safe from Shadows and I want backstory on Shadows and Jonas and I want to know what game Jonas is playing with the main cluster and Shadows...

But I also would be okay if they ended it where it ended. There's always fan fiction for the sequels...

Is there really much of a Sense8 fan fiction community?

There is! AO3 has about 300 stories. FF.net has fewer at only 53 (currently). AO3 is generally considered to host higher-quality works compared to ff.net though. This is keeping in mind that the Sense8 series is very new, and aired on a non-cable platform, plus the fact that it is intellectual, fantasy, and touches on pretty much every single SJ topic there is.

So while there may not be 1,685,902 works, there are a healthy number for a show if its age and niche audience.

Wow.  300+ stories is far more than I though there would be considering how recent it is.  There's bound to be some good stuff in there.

Regarding Sense8:
I am genuinely surprised to learn that there are so many fan fics already.

I have a question about procedure. Should we move this conversation to the thread entitled "Spoilers" or continue it here? Where does it better fit?

Only if we're discussing the precise contents of the show should it move over there.  However, we're rarely strict about what type of conversation belongs where.

Yeah, we're not huge on procedure here in ASWoT... except for when people forget which game they're playing and go off target. Then we mock them (within the rules of the game) for a few posts before moving on with our lives. All in good fun, of course.

Am I the only one who really enjoyed Terminator: Genisys?  It wasn't Shakespeare, but I loved all the nods to the first two movies, and the action and twists were workable.  Wasn't the best movie ever, but definitely the best since the second one.  How it paid homage to the first two really made it appeal to me.

Of course, I'm also a big fan of Back to the Future II, which has a similar convoluted time travel storyline.

Can't say it really crossed my radar, having not seen the other Terminator movies.

Ant-Man is the next live action movie on my list.

You haven't seen the terminator movies!?!?!?!  The first two are classics.  Granted, the new one won't make nearly as much sense or be as much fun if you haven't seen those two first.

The first two Terminator movies are great!  I haven't sen Genysis yet, but I probably will once it's on DVD/Blu-Ray.  I personally think the two seasons of the Sarah Conner chronicles are the best thing the franchise has produced since T2.  The third and fourth movies are painful for me to watch.

Hey, this is a list I'm working on Fantasy books/series that someone should have read at least some of in order to be considered well read in the fantasy genre.  I was hoping some of you could suggest books to be added or removed.  Note that these are not necessarily the best books or the most popular ones but based more on how influential they were.


Minimum works to be read (Series dated by first volume):
50s:    Lord of the Rings
Chronicles of Narnia

60s: Wizard of Earthsea
The Last Unicorn

70s: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (First Chronicles)
Neverending Story

80s: The Dark Tower
Discworld
Seventh Son
The Belgeriad
Legend

90s: Wheel of Time
A Song of Ice and Fire
Assassin's Apprentice
Stardust/Neverwhere
Malazan: Book of the Fallen
Harry Potter

00s: Kingkiller Chroicles
The Cosmere (Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, etc.)
Dresden Files
Gentleman's Bastard
American Gods
The First Law

10s: **Not final but for now:
Lightbringer?
City of Stairs?

I don't know if I'd call Kingkiller, Gentlemen Bastards or Cosmere "influential". Good series, yes, absolutely, but far too niche to count as influential, I think.

Of course, that depends on how you're defining it, I suppose.

They're too new to tell for sure, but I think they're very high quality and popular examples of distinct types of fantasy differing from the norm.  In particular I think the Cosmere books are pioneering a whole different type of worldbuilding for high fantasy that I think is already becoming very popular.  A few rules heavy non-Tolkien worlds have existed before, but they've never taken on such unique and fully realized forms as Scadriel or Roshar.  Kingkiller is mostly on there because I think it stands out as extremely noticeable example of a return to a more classical fantasy setting and storyline when very dark low fantasy seems overwhelmingly popular.  I'd take it off if there isn't a resurgence in that type of material following its completion.  Gentleman's Bastard feels like a whole different breed of fantasy to me, but I don't know how influential it will end up becoming considering the ending is a decade off or so.

I will freely admit that I have not even heard of a lot of these.

Would The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini count? I would call these books influential because they repopularized a fading genre for new readers.

While I am at it, I will abuse the opportunity and give a shout-out to my wife's young adult novel series, the Crystal Garden Saga:  http://www.amazon.com/Frozen-R...n-Saga/dp/0988195127

While the Inheritance Cycle was popular among young readers for a few years I don't think it's significant enough to go on the list.  It doesn't do much of anything unique and seems like it happened to hit the market at just the right time and was marketed well enough that it got as popular as it did.  That said, if I was making a list specifically for children's fantasy I might have included it just for not being on Earth when so many popular children's books at the time went for the parallel Earth route a la Harry Potter.

I would add the Shannara trilogy from the 70s, as well as the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (which in many ways are superior to the original trilogy as far as revolutionizing the genre).

I think you should go back decades earlier and add the Conan books too.  Those were my bread and butter in the 70s, though they came out in the 30s or so.  They were influential on several levels.

I would also add some of the Dragonlance books and a Dryzzt book or two.  They brought the roleplaying genre and D&D to the novel realm as far as accessibility and new worlds.

Some of those books I haven't even heard of, and I've been around a long time.  That makes me think they are not influential, even though they may be very good reads.

Also, if you're going for fantasy that is not limited to medieval type fantasy, I would add:

Xanth series and Incarnations of Immortality books by Piers Anthony.  (His Apprentice Adept series was also revolutionary by going between a science fiction world and a medieval fantasy world throughout the series.)

The Changewinds series by Jack L. Chalker

The Practice Effect by David Brinn (which is both fantasy and science fiction)

As far as comedy fantasy, the Robert Asprin "Myth" series was popular and iconic in the 80s.

Back in the 70s and 80s, it seems like you couldn't turn a corner without someone reading something from Shannara, Xanth, "Myth," or Thomas Covenant.