So, to follow up on my earlier post, I watched as much of the show as I could but it wasn't for me. I really wanted to like it; it had lots of ingredients that I love - JMS writing, Wachowskis directing. I liked Cloud Atlas, which had similar themes. Unfortunately I got to the end of the 4th episode and gave up. Having had time to reflect on it, there are two main reasons why:
1. Too explicit. This is completely a matter of opinion and yours may vary. I prefer my entertainment of the "pan away while the actors embrace passionately and return when they're smoking cigarettes" variety. Weirdly, that's exactly what they did when Daniela joined Lito and Hernando. /shrug
2. Too slow. The pacing for the show was far too slow for me. I found myself checking the progress bar on Netflix often to see when the episode would finally end. I think I just wasn't engrossed in the day-to-day lives of the characters and wanted to see the main plot of the show progress. It felt like there was 6 episodes of material stretched into 12. Looking back on my viewing history it's likely I'm just not into character driven dramas. I was expecting something more like a typical sci-fi show where the plot is first and characters are developed along the way. Sense8 was the opposite; develop characters then get into the plot. Not my thing, apparently.
I skipped to watch the final episode, and it was pretty good. Interesting character interactions and fantastic action sequences. If they have a second season, I'll give the first episode or two a try to see if they've changed anything. If it's more of the same, I'll probably give up on it.