Well, the Globes certainly were interesting, for the portion I was awake. Kudos to the team. Also, I loved Nikki Glazer. I hope she hosts more things. She’s so comfortable up there.
TV Shows Watched: Squid Game: S2E7 (Netflix) with audio description, earth Abides: S1E6 (MGM Plus) with audio description, The Agency: S1E7 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, 911: S8E5 (Hulu) with audio description, SNL: Chris Rock (Peacock) with audio description, Virgin River: S6E5 (Netflix) with audio description, and The Golden Globes (CBS) with audio description
Movies: Anora (Apple Store) with audio description, Beatles 644 (Disney Plus) with audio description
Best Episode (Tie)- Squid Game and Earth Abides- Neither show 100% landed their finales. I had problems with both, but both are so far above what I would put in 3rd place (The Agency), that I just tied them. Squid Game has put fans in an uproar (no spoilers) because it obviously knows it is getting a 3rd season. I’d argue that is less of a problem with the series, and more of a “No, that is not what a season finale looks like. that is what a penultimate episode before the season finale looks like.” It just ends in such a weird place. It feels like we are missing an episode. I even stayed through the credits to see what was up, and their little “making of thing” gave me no reflection on this odd choice. Meanwhile, when Heather recounts her story… do you realize how batshit crazy it actually is? like, they roamed the country, and ran into THAT guy. Not some guy. But THAT guy. Really? I’ve enjoyed the writing up until that point, and after, but man that took me out of it. And if it happens that way in the book, that clunkily, then the author also contributed to absurdity.
Best Performance: Chris Rock (SNL) and Nikki Glazer (Golden Globes)- Never underestimate the power of actually funny people giving a monolog to open the show. SNL as a whole was fine, with the usual “some sketches work more than others”. Even the Adam Sandler appearance was a bit much, treading into beating a dead horse. Then, Glazer just effortlessly understood the viewing audience. Glazer has never been met with a ton of success, so she’s a bit on the outside looking in. So she made jokes that felt like the audience at home thought those things. She brings an everywoman attitude that the Globes should lock down for next year.
Runner Up: The Cast Of Squid Game: Basically. The ensemble was so spread out in the final episode, that so many characters had great “moments”. I loved the season, but that just isn’t an actual ending to anything. It is barely an ending to an episode. But the cast, literally, killed.
Runner Up: The Earth Abides Ensemble: Instead of just Alexander Ludwig, I also want to bid adieu to a really strong ensemble around him, one that experienced loss and growth in the same episode. I’m sad this is a limited series. For the most part, it was fabulous.
Best Audio Description (TIE): Squid Game and The Golden Globes- Yes, Squid Game once again had a lot happening, with tons of bloody action, and some actual characters dying in the final episode of the season. It was a bloody mess, but Liz Gutman followed the hell out of it, and I I was right in there the whole time. But, also, shoutout to the Globes. It was well balanced, the narrator did a nice job of describing what people were wearing, and naming celebrities in the audience. She also navigated the show’s voice (the one that gives some random fact about the winner as they head for the stage). obviously, what that guy does is live too, and I’m sure navigating around when he needs to speak is a fun challenge. Considering SNL’s live audio description being ported to peacock is still screaming at me, I really appreciated this balance. My TV was at a normal level. Thanks.
Spoiler Warning Ahead!
Best Moment Of Audio Description: Squid Game: Lights Out. What an intense and brutal sequence.
Runner Up: Squid Game- After Lights Out, AKA Guillen’s plan realized. I felt like I was in a first person shooter. Fantastic work.
Worst Episode: Virgin River started treading a bit into its melodrama with doc and that emergency surgery he needed to perform. I’m still going to watch, but objectively, even including the movies, this was at the bottom.
Worst Performance: The Golden Globes- And I don’t mean necessarily just the voters. The Globes just gave out multiple awards to films that do not have an English Audio Description track. Honestly, I’m unaware if I’m Still Here or flow have ANy audio description tracks, but Emilia Perez has a Spanish one. So, the morning after, when sighted people look at what they now need to watch, a bunch will start watching Emilia Perez, Flow, and I’m Still Here, and get into conversations with their family and friends, and some of those will be blind or low vision, and they can’t jump in. The family wants to sit on the couch tonight and watch Emilia Perez? not if one of you is blind and not fluent in Spanish. If the Globes had an accessibility requirement, it would have forced these mvies to create the the tracks, thereby increasing the chance of seeing them in the future.As it stands, we got fucked.
Worst Audio Description: I mean, SNL is still screaming at me, but Anora has the opposite problem, where the audio description has a tendency to lose out anytime the characters go to a club or listen to techno/edm music. We focus a lot on the narrator being great, and the writing, but the audio engineers, AND also how the track is ported and uploaded to any given instance, is also extremely important. The final delivery. Both have solid narrators, great writers, but the mixing is killing me.
