Woke up this morning. Achievement Unlocked! +50.
TV Shows Watched: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: S1E5 (Disney Plus) with audio description, St Dennis Medical: S1E? (Peacock) with audio description, Paradise: S1E6 (Hulu) with audio description, Clean Slate: S1E4 (Amazon) with audio description, Cassandra: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description, The Kardashians: S1E4 (Hulu) with audio description, Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity: S1E15 (Amazon) with audio description, and Pop Culture Jeopardy: S1E10 (Amazon) with audio description.
Best Episode: St Dennis medical- Just the idea of watching nurses and doctors being asked to, and have to upsell was funny enough, but they roped in two other storylines that both had some bite to them. Creatively, this show has a lot of potential it continues to mine.
Runner Up: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man- Points for the Daredevil cameo. How much more he’ll be in the show is to be determined.
But Why Not…?- Paradise: We all knew where Jane was headed, but to see that she so easily convinced Presley in like two seconds was just odd writing. Presley went through all that trouble to find Jeremy, and be there with him, and Jane is like “I’m sad, will you come be sad with me?” And Presley wasn’t like.. I’m a kid. The boy is cute. I spent all episode trying to get to this point, but sure… leaving makes sense.
Best Performance: Wendi McLendon Covey (St Dennis Medical)- Not only did Joyce ask people to do the ridiculous upselling, but when she becomes convinced that a patient is secretly stupid rich, Joyce turns on her silly charm talking about all this stuff her hospital really doesn’t need like she’s going to get a windfall for being nice.
Runner Up: Murphy Guyer (Clean Slate)- Opal. The youngest cast member is the standout. She’s given the best lines, and her acting is the least awkward. Even when she’s being given something to say that feels like it has a message behind it, she still delivers it with believability while a lot of the lines just fall flat. I want this show to be good, it just isn’t.
But Why Not… Sterling K Brown (Paradise)- Honestly? He’s been playing it pretty straight, as his character is this stoic secret service agent. But, in this weeks episode, we got the most flashback time between him and his wife, and it was a chance to see a very different side of him. We didn’t get it. he’s still a bit of a stick in the mud, while his wife had a ton of personality. He slept walked through those scenes, and has had more of an emotional reaction to other things throughout the show, and arguably more chemistry with Gabrielle. Since the episode ends how it does, retrospectively I needed more.
Best Audio Description: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man- Mostly for the fight sequence, but also for the car chase sequence. Both were done well.
runner Up: Paradise- This show has solid description, and showed it off in a few moments, from things being written in the sky, to the shooting of flares, the cutting off of wristbands, and a really tense moment of whether or not someone should push a button or not. The description of darkness and light was well done. Lots of little things.
But why not.: Honestly, Cassandra has good audio description as well. It was really close. The series isn’t as interesting, but the description is just as solid as the other two. i still have no idea most of the time who is talking on the Kardashians, and St Dennis Medical likely will never be recognized for achievement in audio description.It is one of the weakest tracks I listen to right now. It does occasionally have some moments, which is why I wouldn’t say it is the literal worst, but it is in the bottom 1/4th for sure.
Best Moment Of Audio Description: It’s the devil! (Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man)- This show has no idea that it is intentionally diverse, but the audio description is ready to support the action sequences well enough.
Runner Up: The Devil’s In the Details (Paradise)- Just a broad recognition of what I was saying before. When Sterling uses a knife to cut off his wristband, we are also told he pockets the knife. When Jane is out doing her plotting, the ice cream purchase is really specific, and tells us exactly what she’s getting. When that operator is struggling in that moment to press the button, or when the lights go out and we describe where the ambient light remains. there are all these little things, but much like the “death by a thousand cuts”, shows are built through audio description tracks often by including a thousand seemingly mundane interactions, especially in anything science fiction where the rules are radically different from our own. An understanding of the world our characters live in is just as important as knowing who our characters are.
Worst Of…I’m not at a cancellation point for anything, but I’m struggling to get through Clean Slate, Cassandra, and The KArdashians. If my slate got too full, it is likely one of those shows could join The Pitt and happy’s Place in limbo, which is much closer to being removed from the watchlist. The only thing helping Clean Slate is that it is a half hour, and I’m already halfway through the season.
