I had a great time last night on a panel for the American Council Of The Blind discussing the abundance of audio described titles at this years Oscars. The fellow panelists were excellent and we just need more than an hour. It made me realize for a panel coming up that I really do need to manage my time. Also, the SAG awards were last night on Netflix. I didn’t predict everything. I had Wicked for Ensemble, and Ariana in Supporting, but got those two wrong. Ensemble went to Conclave, Actor to Timothy Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Actress to Demi Moore (The Substance), Supporting Actor to Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), and Supporting Actress to Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez). The stunts predictably went to The Fall Guy, and Jane Fonda won a lifetime achievement award.
TV Shows Watched: Surface: S2E1 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Vietnam: The War That Changed America: S1E4 (Apple Plus) with audio description, A thousand Blows: S1E1 (Hulu) no audio description, Wags to Riches: S1E7 (Netflix) with audio description, Papa’s House: S1E8 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, 1923: S2E1 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, and Have I Got News For You: S2E2 (MAX) no audio description.
Best Episode: Vietnam: The war That Changed America- This excellent docuseries didn’t have a ton of competition. It edges out the runner up. The fourth episode leaned in on the tide truly turning against the war, even from the inside. Following the story of a woman who signed up to help and provide medical care to the wounded, and her eventual reaction and desire to end the war propped the episode up.
Runner Up: Surface- the first season was twisty. It is a hard show to do a second season for, as I think it might have worked better as a limited. Still, there is some mystery here, and the acting is strong. I’m not sold yet that Season 2 will be better or as good as season 1.
Best Audio Description: Vietnam: The War That Changed America- Again, the way the docuseries has managed to have even decent audio description is actually kind of amazing. I’m here for it.
Runner Up: 1923- While too much time has passed, and Taylor Sheridan’s shows are starting to dip in quality as he shoots for “most shows currently on air”, there’s no denying that Andrew Thatcher and the Media Access Group gave him yet another solid audio description track. Surface was close, but 1923 just has more to describe, in a period drama, full of sex and graphic violence.
Best Performance: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Surface)- Still a terrific actress, she makes for a very compelling lead. I wasn’t really blown away individually by many performers, so I’m giving her an edge, because I remember her range in season 1, and I’m hopeful she’ll carry Season 2.
Runner Up: Helen Mirren (1923)- Of the multitude of choices, Mirren’s relatively limited screentime stood out to me the most to land her here. I can’t really put my finger on why. the 1923 premiere just didn’t blow me away. She has a scene toward the end where she muses on an experience she just had with a mountain lion, and Mirren’s reliable delivery of that mini-monologue got her here.
best Moment Of Audio Description: The First Rule Of Fight Club (1923)- Spencer gets into a fight. Multiple fights. I thought the fight sequence was well described. Theretofore, it is the winner.
Runner Up: In The closet (1923)- One of the problems I had with the season premiere was jumping back in and trying to remember every single character. So, even though this scene had very little emotional weight, showing the girl in the closet was a disturbing moment done well. My best advice is that if you watched 1923 back when it first came out, you might want to rewatch it if you are a big fan. I’m lost.
Worst Of…- I didn’t plan it. I don’t come on here looking to attack Hulu all the time, they just make it so easy. their big new show, which even appeared in an ad in my Facebook feed, A thousand Blows, has no audio description. What is so weird about this, is that it has these moments where it feels like there are planned commercial breaks in these transitions. It is a British series, so if this aired in the UK, did it have audio description? is this yet another case of Hulu having another property where they don’t care enough to acquire existing audio description? As of January, the second season of Extraordinary still didn’t have its existing audio description track uploaded. Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes was still without audio description. A friend of mine takes the approach that maybe this is all a big misunderstanding, but I see it as continued systematic failure. if the person in charge of audio description is truly this incompetent, and Hulu as a company is appalled at the lack of audio description on things that most assuredly should have it, that should have debut with it day and date so as to not give the idea that Hulu is a fly-by-night streamer, then they would have fired that person, and promoted someone else who would have changed things by now. At a certain point, we have to say, Hulu has too many “mistakes” for it to not be intentional. Apathy can only go just so far until it becomes negligence, and once you are aware of that negligence, and continue to perpetuate it, it becomes and remains intentional until such time you decide to fully, and permanently, rectify the situation, playing a retroactive catch up everywhere necessary, and a bold and firm commitment to making sure things like this never happen again. until that time, I operate on the assumption Hulu has had too many of the same type of complaint to be given “benefit of the doubt”.