TV Shows Watched: The White Lotus: S3E3 (MAX) with audio description, American Idol: S23E1 (Hulu) no audio description, Tracker: S2E11 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, ZO Kitty: S2E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Clean Slate: S1E6 (Amazon) with audio description, Last Week Tonight: Most Recent (MAX) no audio description
Best Episode: The White Lotus- It has worked hard to get to the top, but we are finally starting to flesh out the characters a bit more. This has been a bit of a slow burn, and in many ways I still would love to see more character development from the women of the cast, there’s something interesting finally happening.
Runner Up: Last week Tonight- Again, I just need this show in my life.
Best Audio Description: the White lotus- I don’t really feel that strongly about these choices, but two of the six shows didn’t have audio description, which limits my choices.
Runner Up: Honestly, it would be hard to find a reason to lift any one of the remaining three above the others. They are all fine.
Best Performance: Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus)- Desperate to keep a scandal away from his family, Tim finally gave up all of his electronic devices. We can tell the stress is getting to him though, and clearly he is not OK. i love Jason as an actor, and he’s a reliable character actor across several things. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of Mass, his performance in that movie is extraordinary.
Runner Up: Walton Goggins (the White Lotus)- He’s still exploring the dark parts of his past. Watching him be baffled by snakes was pretty fun. It’ll be interesting to see him in back-to-back shows on HBo when The Righteous Gemstones returns (I believe next week).
Best Moment Of Audio Description: The Snakes (The White Lotus)- Probably the best described sequence was Goggins going into a warehouse area and watching a snake handler, and also watching people watching the snake handler.
Runner Up: The Grab (XO Kitty)- I had to really think about a stand out moment, and why I liked it. there’s one brief moment in the season finale where Mino is suddenly pulled into a dark hiding spot, basically by an unknown assailant. You learn who did pull him, but the grab was well done, and made it feel sudden and mysterious, as if anyone could have pulled him in, without tipping the hat to who it may be right away. Although, you get the answer almost immediately.
worst Of….- 23 years of American Idol and still no audio description. Survivor, Big Brother, the voice, America’s Got Talent, and other long running reality shows have all gotten on board, but Disney wants to remind us how not important we are to them. hell, the fucking Bachelor has audio description. but, they just will not do it for American Idol. NBC/Universal is finally ripping off that SNl band-aid. it is like everyone else around American Idol has caught up to the times, except this show, that is supposed to have the pulse of what kids like right now. Maybe, just maybe, the ones in your target demo that need audio description… maybe that’s what they want too? Considering Idol isn’t shy of having blind contestants, it makes it even more disconcerting that they’ll use us for our emotionally manipulative backstories, but have zero interest in matching that on screen care and attention with accessibility.
Further food for thought, one of the things I did before losing my sight was that I was a paid blogger for American Idol. I have an extensive knowledge of the show, and proved that by being commissioned to write about this (and a few other shows) for money. None of my writing since losing my vision has ever gotten me paid. No one is knocking at my door. but, perhaps, if this show had been committed to audio description, I might have had opportunities this whole time to continue to earn money. I’ve been out of the game so long, at this point, I don’t know if I could come back and say “Hey, I know its been like eight years, but how about letting me do that recapping again?”, but I certainly can’t do that in the current form it is offered to me. Food. For. Thought.
