For those who read me, make sure to check out the latest episode of The Dark Room podcast. Alex and lee are doing their third annual Oscars roundtable, with AD talent from five of the 10 Best Picture nominees, including One Battle after Another, Sinners, Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, and Train Dreams. Two nominees this year have no audio description, so they were represented by silence. The other three, F1, Bugonia, and Hamnet need to get their shit together.
TV Shows Watched: The Traitors: S4E10 (Peacock) with audio description, Strip Law: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, DMV: S1E5 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Rookie: S8e3 (Disney plus) with audio description, and Abbott Elementary: S5E8 (Disney plus) with audio description.
I also noticed I didn’t have a new episode of The Masked Singer this week, which i assumed was trapped in the third circle of hell with American Idol. However, they actually took a week off to have a cancer awareness special, and also a dedication to James van Der beek, who recently passed from colorectal cancer, and had recently competed on The Masked Singer. That’s lovely of them. Responsive programming changes. I appreciate that.
The Traitors- This is starting to feel very coached. I’m gonna need the producers to dial it back, and stop pressing narratives suddenly that make no sense. It feels like when the cameras aren’t rolling, someone is coming in and giving advice. It is becoming more evident as there are less contestants remaining. The audio description is still fun though. I love how Alan ripping the picture off the wall and smashing it on the ground was described. Infinitely better than the AD The Traitors previously had. My final four predictions: Rob, Eric, Mark, Mara.
Strip Law- Finally. A show about lawyers. This adult animation has a solid voice cast in Adam Scott, Janelle James, Keith David, and Stephen Root. It’s funny enough. I think Netflix is always chasing the next big thing, like the next Bojack horseman. Kids I’m around today still quote that, so it must have resonated. Strip Law might stand out, thanks to the impressive voice talents, though other shows have failed and had even more impressive voice casts. It’s basically adult animation about practicing law on the crazy Vegas strip.
DMV- A nice ensemble. I wonder if CBS will keep this one going. It has potential, and it doesn’t really need to realize it fully right away, though most of the time it does seem more reliant upon the legendary Tim Meadows to carry it than it should. For example, while David Alan Grier is iconic, St Dennis medical doesn’t feel like it is defined by him. ghosts works so well, because you could have a large family, and everyone could have a different favorite ghost. DMV needs to continue to push the ensemble aspect more. The AD was fine, considering it was all about drawing “rockets”, and the AD took the most neutral approach to that.
The Rookie- After two lackluster episodes, the rookie is back! Nolan comes in, and catches a guy trespassing, but he might also be a killer, and Nolan has to continue to be his empathetic self in interrogation to get the most out of this guy. Meanwhile, the episode gets really dark, really fast, but everyone did lovely work. The AD was solid from what I could tell. I wasn’t left confused.
Abbott Elementary- The school has a winter program, defined by the Color Purple, made even more hilarious by the guest turn by Taraji P Henson, who just did the Color Purple film version opposite Fantasia and Danielle Brooks. Henson was great as Janeane’s mom, and the episode ends on a happy/sad moment, as Janeane makes the right call for herself. But the school is toast for a while, so Abbott is moving into an abandoned mall! I usually complain about the AD here, but I didn’t really have much reason to. It seemed to actually fit in the pocket, catching all the right visual cues for once. An anomaly.
