The big news yesterday was in the Bond world where a deal was inked for Amazon/MGM to have greater control over the future of the franchise, which led to Bezos asking the world who should be the next James Bond. 10 years ago, I would have answered Idris Elba. Elba is now 52, only 4 years younger than Daniel Craig. In fact, since No Time To Die was released 4 years ago, Craig would have been 52. I know Tom Cruise is still making Mission Impossible films, but he’s also the only film version of Ethan Hunt. If you are looking realistically for an actor to sign a multi-picture deal, for a starting film that has no title, known script, or release year, you need someone who could relatively commit to at least 3 films, with the possibility of more. At this point, we definitely wouldn’t see a Bond film before 2027. My suggestion is Henry Goulding, who at 38 already feels like he’s somehow older than counterparts, but young enough to almost match Craig. Craig would have been 37 when Casino Royale hit screens in 2006, and if cast today, Goulding would be 40 when his first Bond film hits. He’s a solid actor, known well enough for a range of roles, across genres. He’s done action flicks, and he also would push the Bond franchise in an interesting direction. He’s British. For some reason, every time we think of diversifying the role, our imagination always stops at “black actor”, and never extends itself beyond that to actors like Goulding, or Dev Patel, who just beat the shit out of everyone in Monkey Man. It should. So, my pitch is Henry Goulding. Give me your picks in the comments.
TV Shows Watched: Reacher: S3E1 (Amazon) wit audio description, Win Or Lose: S1E1 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Will Trent: S3E7 (Hulu) with audio description, Love You To Death: S1E3 (Apple plus) with audio description, Cobra Kai: S6E12 (Netflix) with audio description, and The Masked Singer: S13E2 (Hulu) no audio description.
Best Episode: reacher- While the show did not pull the wool, like it thought it did, I am still super happy this is back, and I know the greater mystery is around the season long arc. Not trying to spoil, so I’m avoiding telling you what’s up. Just check it out for yourself, and see if you feel at all bamboozled. i certainly did not, and called it pretty early on. If you know, you know.
Runner Up: Love You To Death- After having an entire episode where our male lead, who might die from a hart tumor, is seen by a doctor who seemingly doesn’t notice or bring up his medical condition, we’re back in the world where he has this serious thing, and what is he going to do about it? Well, bucket lists. Starting with filming a fart commercial.
The Masked Singer update: Last week, I landed on Rose McGowan, because the clues about being mistreated, silenced, and a witch all pointed to her. Then they said Evan Rachel Wood, and that totally makes sense. While McGowan could still work, I can’t think of a song she’s topped the charts with, but Wood did do Frozen 2. And, her history with Marilyn Manson, plus her time on American Horror Story, or maybe they consider her Frozen 2 character a witch. Either way, I’m going with that. For the remaining male, a child actor who got some advice from Robin Williams. He’s known to adults as an actor, but to kids for his voice? Matthew Lawrence, who co-starred with Robin in Mrs. Doubtfire. The Lawrence Bros have a successful podcast, so he’s still very much around to accept an invite like this.
Best Performance: Alan Ritchson (Reacher)- I think it does have a lot to do with seeing one of my favorite shows return, but Ritchson is great in this role. I love how even though Reacher is as tall as he is, this episode managed to find someone taller than Reacher.
Runner Up: Will Forte (Win Or Lose)- While the show didn’t quite grab me, it did make me realize, especially after seeing him miscast in KKind Of Pregnant, that Will Forte makes for an excellent dad character. I need more performances from Forte where he gets to do this kind of voice performance.
Best Audio Description: Reacher- For consistency, this sho certainly hit all the marks it needed.
Runner Up: Win Or Lose- This one is really close. But, even though there were things I would improve with this track, it also really did have the standout moment, which swings the average in its favor over Cobra Kai, Will Trent, and Love You To Death.
Best Moment Of Audio Description: The Blob (Win Or Lose)- The blob is a manifestation of something else, but thre’s a blob, and it grows. One of the reasons I wanted to single this out is that since i started doing this, I’ve mentioned size relativity. When you are describing something that doesn’t exist in the real world, if you can compare it to something else so we know what the size is, we have a better understanding of this fantastical thing. And someone has been reading my stuff, because Win Or Lose actually does that. The blob is compared to diffferent sizes at different times, from being the size of a kitten, to the size of a trash can. It was far and away the best moment, or singular thing out of all the shows. I didn’t even love the show that much, and I would appreciate if Disney would allow the audio description narrator to indicate the beginning of the credits, instead of just cutting to music, and trying to hoodwink us into listening to credits you aren’t even allowing the narrator to read. The music is pretty. You want us to get to the end. Fine. read the credits. Describe random images like the Marvel shows. If you cut to music, it feels lazy.
Runner Up: Tall Drink Of Water (Reacher)- One of the things about Tom Cruises casting as Jack Reacher that drew ire from fans of the book is that Jack is mentioned definitively and often as being a tall drink of water. Tall, like noticeably tall. So, in this episode, when Reacher meets someone who “towers” over him, it really made me give pause to just how tall he is. Reacher is 6 foot, 5 inches, so if you are towering, you gotta be NBA Center tall. Details matter, and I appreciated just this little moment.
Worst Of…- I was mostly annoyed that Win Or Lose just disappears into credits, with no audio description of either the credits, or any images on screen. Eventually, you get to the title card at the end, so i get why Disney wanted you to stay, but at the same time, why would you choose to leave a blind audience in silence listening to music for that long? You realize, by giving us something, we’re actually less likely to back out of the episode? So weird. The silence was so profound. It bothered me more than not having AD this week on Masked Singer.
