At the start of the diary today, we lead with the heartbreaking news that Michelle Trachtenberg passed away at the age of 39. I don’t think anyone saw this coming. The early reports I read didn’t mention anything about a known battle with an illness. Looking back through her resume on IMDB, I saw credits for shows I didn’t remember her specifically being on, like The Adventures Of Pete And Pete and Space Cases, but a lot of kids grew up with her as Harriet The Spy. Even when I mentioned it to some of the gen alpha I work with, I was surprised that several of them were Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans and knew her as Dawn. That show basically predates their existence on earth, but I’m happy that they are watching good television, and they were aware of trachtenberg, whose career had admittedly dropped off in the last decade. I don’t know why, she was always a radiant delight on screen. I reviewed Eurotrip last year for its 20th anniversary, and I said then that she was the best thing in that movie. RIP Dawn/Harriet.
And then. I woke up this morning to more really sad news. Gene Hackman passed away at the age of 95. one of the greatest actors of his generation, Hackman was known for a multitude of film classics, from The French Connection to Unforgiven. he retired in 2004 after Welcome To Mooseport, and launched a retirement career as an author of books on historical subjects. He made a clean break, and didn’t need to come back to Hollywood. often playing the bad guy, or the morally questionable character, Hackman would be nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two. His first win came in the aforementioned The French Connection, with the latter in the also aforementioned unforgiven. I remember him for a multitude of roles, of course in the Royal Tenenbaums for Wes Anderson, The Quick and the Dead with Sam Raimi, the film adaptation of the Firm, the film classic The Conversation, and the southern drama Mississippi Burning. Visually, i also remember those awful yellow teeth he had for Heartbreakers with Sigourney Weaver. Wow. What a legend. Two actors gone so quickly. RIP Gene Hackman.
Also, in somehow now lighter news, Paramount Global has announced their decision to roll back their DEI initiatives, following pressure from Trump’s FCC. This has a lot to do with Paramount’s need for FCC approval in their upcoming sale to Skydance, but at the expense of others, is deeply troubling. As this is new, there are no specifics on how the loss of diversity, equity, and inclusivity initiatives at Paramount will effect things like audio description moving forward. But, never fear, several lawsuits are still in place to take away our protections and rights.
Last bit of news, on an oddly jam packed day, is a shoutout to my friends at The dark Room podcast for their second annual Oscars podcast. They were able to get three writers for the audio description tracks of Best Picture nominees Añora, Dune Part II, and The Substance. I listened, and it is so interesting to hear the specifics of each one, and how three individuals who were not personally driven toward accessibility specifically found themselves writing audio description.
TV Shows Watched: Prime Target: S1E7 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Berlin ER: S1E1 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Paradise: S1E7 (Hulu) with audio description, Ghosts: S4E? (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Great North: S5E2 (Hulu) no audio description, Clean Slate: S1E5 (Amazon) with audio description, The Daily Show: Monday (Paramount Plus) no audio description, and The Rookie: S7E8 (Hulu) with audio description.
Best Episode: Paradise- In what was almost an entire episode set in a flashback, we saw so much about what happened that led to these characters all being where they are right now, and it all led up to answering that reveal at the end of episode 6. But now, at the end of this episode, we find ourselves in a new predicament, and wondering if Sam can be trusted ever with anything.
Runner Up: Prime Target- As this show heads for a close, I thought this was the strongest episode yet. It answered questions, hinted at new ones, and had some interesting twists along the way.
Best Audio Description: Prime Target- Again, the various action set pieces work really well for this show. I think it had consistently the best description.
Runner Up: Paradise- There were a couple of intense moments here described rather well also. The world was very much on fire, and the tension was at its peak, and that came through in the description.
Best Performance: James Marsden and Sterling K brown (Paradise)- Brown feels like an easy choice, since I’ve picked him before for his work on the show, but Marsden really took this episode. Brown had some of the more emotionally devastating moments as he tried to get Terri to safety, but it was Marsden, who leaned in on his humane qualities. His belief in people. His small interaction with a janitor just doing his job was effective. Both actors did great work.
Runner Up: Nekia Cox (The Rookie)- Harper’s relentless pursuit of a man she knew to be a serial killer came to a head in an episode clearly shaped because of the LA Wildfires. This episode did show a lot of how this series has gotten progressively worse, but Harper managed a performance that was never over the top, never too much, never too melodramatic, in an episode full of those asinine moments. her character has been driven for a few episodes to get the killer who almost got her, and while Harper is about to be thrown a whole new storyline to deal with, Nyla really was the voice of reason in a show that increasingly has no idea what type of show it is anymore.
best Moment Of Audio Description: Capturing The Emotional Payoffs (Paradise)- while usually something explosive wins here, today it was about capturing what was left unsaid, but felt through the actors and their performances in Paradise. From supporting Collin’s (Sterling K brown) and the breakdown of his stoic calm as he became increasingly panicked over saving his wife, building to his reaction over their final phone call, to mentioning something as simple as a squeeze on the shoulder of a reliable civil servant by the president, to a man oblivious of his impending death, Paradise didn’t just land the gunshots and explosions, but it landed the moments that break your heart.
runner Up: Nolan Vs Killer (The rookie)- Honestly, the sequence where Nolan falls through the floor and has to fight the bad guy was well described for a series that sometimes misses the boat. I’ll give it some encouragement.
Worst Of…- I liked Berlin ER, but I could have used more from the character descriptions. I’m going to continue to harp on this for pilots. i frankly do not give a shit what barriers you typically face in crafting a track. i know. that’s bold. but, I’ve watched too many shows where the pilot often has no description of a character at all, and then we get like seven seasons of that show. Aside from The Lincoln Lawyer, which stands out for its continual description of characters from the pilot, most TV shows don’t remind you in later episodes what characters look like. If you do not do it in the first episode, it will never happen. So, my new thing is, fuck your pilots until you start giving series regulars a depth of description. because, once you’ve gotten through the honeymoon phase, you’ll never mention a character’s hair color/style, body type, race/ethnicity, age range, clothing, or any other defining characteristics unless it is somehow crucial to the plot. A great example of this is St Denis medical, a show I complained ignored most character descriptors in the pilot, so we will largely never know who these people are. the frustrating thing about Berlin ER, is that aside from character descriptions, it is a good track, so in later episodes, if I knew who everyone was, you might find it mentioned in the best of. But for the pilot episode? No. Not good enough. Season 1, Episode 1 (the pilot of a show) needs a different rule book than how you would attack every other episode, because when you write it, you don’t always know if the show will run 1 season, or 10. you are setting the tone potentially for years to come. Years. Potentially hundreds of episodes. Imagine going hundreds of episodes not knowing what anyone actually looks like.
