Over the summer, I became obsessed with a one-season long Netflix original Series called Sense8. I love the sci-fi aspect of being able to communicate across the world and share the skills and talents of the group of eight (called a cluster). I love how they pack so much detail and action into only twelve episodes. But the thing I love most about the show is its amazingly written characters.
The eight people that the show focuses on is the most diverse groups that I’ve ever seen on any television series. Part of this is due to the seven different countries that the characters are from, but I mean in regards to politics, identity, sexuality, gender norms, and religion.
[Spoilers ahead]
We have Lito Rodriguez, an incredibly ripped Mexican actor who plays hyper-masculine characters in soap operas who is also very gay and in touch with his feminine side. He breaks the “man” stereotype when he handles a break up by crying into a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and calling his ex forty times. He, as a talented actor who contributes his silver tongue to the cluster, saving them from tight situations.
We have Kala Dandekar, a university-educated pharmacist and devout Hindu. Despite having a fiancee she doesn’t love and future in-laws with anti-religious ideals, she succeeds in the field of science and contributes her mind to her cluster defending them with MacGyver-like skills.
These are two characters out of the amazing eight, but my favorite character, hands down, is Nomi Marks.
Nomi Marks is played by the wonderful Jaime Clayton, an transgender actress known for her dynamic characters in Hung and Dirty Work, as well as her makeup skills in the reality show TRANSform Me. When the show premiered in June, Jaime voiced the objective of pretty much the entire show:
"My hope is the audience, as they're watching with all the characters, that they just sort of forget the color of their skin and who they're going to bed with and all of those things and just say, 'Wow, these people, they're helping each other, and they have these struggles that I've been through,' or, 'I know someone that has been through that,' and that they can relate to that in a certain way."
The character Nomi Marks is a hactivist and blogger who lives with her girlfriend in San Francisco. She was raised by a mother who constantly misgenders her and calls her by her birth name, Michael. Her sister is more accepting of her, but she appears in very few episodes. Growing up was not easy for Nomi. In the episode “Death Doesn’t Let You Say Goodbye,” she tells Lito about her experiences as a child, and how the bullying and abuse she received only made her fight harder to be who she really was.
What really solidified my love for Nomi was the blog entry Nomi records before leaving to celebrate in the Pride parade during the second episode. She says, "For a long time, I was afraid to be who I am, because I was taught by my parents that there’s something wrong with someone like me. Something offensive, something you would avoid, maybe even pity. Something that you could never love... I was afraid of this parade because I wanted so badly to be a part of it. So today, I’m marching for that part of me that was once too afraid to march. And for all the people who can’t march, the people living lives like I did… Today I march to remember that I’m not just a me, but I’m also a we. And we march with Pride."
The things she endures throughout the series only reinforce how strong of a woman she is, but something that makes the show one of my favorites is the fact that those in her cluster accept her immediately. When another character, Will Gorski, first sees her to ask for help, he immediately accepts her and pushes past that. He respects her, listens to her, and does exactly what she says, saving a life in the process. When she sees Lito after his breakup, she gives him advice and comfort, which he accepts gratefully. He understands that the push she gave him is the thing that ultimately saved his relationship. Even a man who knew her from before her transition, Bug, takes the change in stride. He happily gives her high tech hacking equipment as a thank you for keeping him out of jail years before.
As a cisgender straight woman, I can’t relate to many of the things Nomi went through in her childhood and adulthood. I can, however, appreciate her perseverance and her determination to succeed even when life seemed darkest. I know I can speak for a lot of viewers when I say Nomi Marks has taught me that sometimes strength does not make you proud of who you are, but being proud of who you are gives you strength.
Jaime Clayton has done an amazing job of showing everyone who watches Sense8 that everyone is human, everyone is important, and everyone has the capacity to love themselves. She’s received hundreds of tweets from both transgender and cisgender viewers and actors voicing their support and praise. I can’t wait to see what she brings to the table in season two, which is rumored to air in mid 2016.
“At a certain point I realized that there’s a huge difference between what you work for and what you live for.” -Nomi Marks, “Death Doesn’t Let You Say Goodbye”
