Yesterday, I started doing a little side project that I think will hopefully bring more awareness. But, hopefully a catalyst for something more. Also, coming up this week are the streaming premiers of A Real pain (Hulu), Unstoppable (Amazon), and A Different Man (MAX). Of the returning shows, Severance (Apple Plus), Harley Quinn (MAX), and XO Kitty (Netflix) leapt out at me.
TV Shows Watched: On call: S1E1 (Amazon) with audio description, The Traitors: S3E2 (Peacock) with audio description, The Agency: S1E8 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Pit: S1E2 (MAX) with audio description, Virgin River: S6E7 (Netflix) with audio description, and The Rookie: Season Premiere (Hulu) with audio description
YouTube: The Awards Contender: (Worst Films Of 2024)
Movies Watched: Bird (Apple Store) with audio description, and Black Box Diaries (Paramount Plus) with audio description
Best Episode: The Traitors- Worst audio description, and I feel like I should choose a show that isn’t a reality show, but I don’t care. i rarely get fully hooked on a new reality show, especially one that isn’t talent based, and something about this show has grabbed me in a way that none of its competitors have. I’ve seen early versions of things like Survivor, and I made it through maybe the first 2 seasons. I have no idea why I want to watch this, but I do, and I also would love to play. I would suck at the challenges though.
Runner Up: The Rookie- I was happy to see it back, even if the show is getting wildly different from its original vibe. I still love the original cast, most of which are still here.
Best Performance: Michael Fassbender (The Agency)- But, technically, this is probably the best thing. Fassbender has been slowly putting in the work to get his character to this point, and it is showing. It is a bit of a slow burn show, with a fantastic cast, but the pay off is in the performances.
Runner Up: Lori Laughlin (On Call)- She’s barely in the pilot, but she is. And, it is really casting against type. Not that this show is brilliant, or that her work is Emmy worthy, but I applaud whoever thought “Lori Laughlin would be a great Police Chief in a new Dick Wolf cop drama”, and that she really is pretty good at doing this role. You go Aunt Becky! With offers like this, perhaps she can free herself of shitty TV movies where she falls in love with a guy who was hot on a TV show 20 years ago.
Best Audio Description (TIE): The Agency and The Rookie: I’m having a hard time picking. I think both are equally solid tracks. neither are necessarily achievements in audio description, but both are very solid tracks I don’t really have any issues with.
Best Moment Of Audio Description (Whilst Grading On A Curve): I’m going to be mean to the team doing The Traitors probably quite often, so I figured I’d throw them a backhanded bone. At the top of the second episode, after we learn that a certain someone is joining the game, we are shown these two cages holding two other players. When we are introduced to these players, to be fair, there was a bit of actual physical characteristics thrown in there. I got that one of them had a beard. Perfect. But…
Worst Of…: But… you still failed to mention why these people are here. What show? Where are these people from? Everyone on here is treated like they are either a recurring cast member on a long running show, and this is the 7th season, so we should know them by now, or they’re treated with unbridled reverence like they’re fucking Oprah, and need no explanation. What does Oprah look like? How dare you for asking. She is a goddess! But the reality is, that even though you add in a lot of these little things, and try to tell us when the fucking dog that means nothing is in the room, we still don’t know who most of these people are, or what show they come from. Since The Traitors stopped using normies in the US version, all of these people come from somewhere. Survivor, Big Brother, The Real World, The Challenge, American Idol, The Apprentice, Top chef, Real housewives, love is Blind, they all come from somewhere. And if you think *ANYONE* has watched every single reality show, and is familiar with every single person that is in the cast, or will ever be in the cast, so they need no introduction, you are playing to a very small crowd of one. the likelihood a blind person who needs audio description, has consumed so much reality TV (most of which doesn’t have AD, or has older seasons without AD) and would know everyone without you telling us which show they hail from, which appears on the screen with their name, you are wrong. If I don’t drag this show now, I’m just going to get a 4th season with disturbingly insufficient audio description. Do. Better.