TV Shows Watched: Daredevil: Born Again: S1E1 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Prime Target: S1E8 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Paradise: S1E8 (Hulu) with audio description, The Great North: S5E3 (Hulu) no audio description, Toxic Town: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description, With Love, Megan: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, The Daily Show: Tuesday (Paramount Plus) no audio description, and Suits: LA: S1E2 (Peacock) with audio description.
Best Episode: Daredevil: Born Again- While my initial reaction may not be what everyone else’s was, as they did seem to pull back a little from the darkness of the Netflix series, it still was more violent than any other MCU show to date. They prepared us for this world a little with Echo, and Daredevil boasts a pretty high impact opening 15 minutes (ish). Charlie Cox is excellent, still. there was something so awkward about the banter at the beginning though, and then I still felt like there was a decision being made to walk the show back a bit from its TV-MA, just in case parents let their kids watch. there’s violence, but as described, there isn’t violence here that isn’t in other PG-13 action movies or TV-14 series. I was excited to see Karen and foggy return, but… and then i was left with some other side characters I seem to have forgotten, because they are treated like they’ve always been there, but it just made me feel like I should have rewatched the series. I remembered Matt, Foggy, Karen, Fisk, and Vanessa, and the surprise guest in the beginning, but I didn’t remember anyone else. Still, with those criticisms, there were some fantastic action set pieces, and an excellent story about Fisk rising to a new level of power that so oddly parallels our world it is scary. What’s even scarier is how appropriate it feels, even though they started shooting this a long time before they could know.
Runner Up: Prime Target and Paradise- Two shows that I believe both wrapped their seasons. Neither was a perfect ending. paradise left me with some really huge gaps in storytelling, as it sets up what theoretically could be an engaging second season. It has been such an uneven show, with one of the best pilot episodes of the year, and a mystery that stumbled a lot along the way, with characters and their evolution not always making sense. The reveal of “who” in the finale was clever, but also disappointing, because it felt like they just grabbed an underdeveloped character and pointed at them. Prime Target had been getting better working toward this moment, and there was an excellent moment where our lead had to make a choice, and it was bold, but probably the right one.
Best Audio Description: Daredevil: Born Again- those action scenes were pretty terrific. i also clocked the specificity of “white cane” with Matt. And, I think that’s Jedidiah Barton, and he sounds perfect for the series.
Runner Up: Paradise- I’ll give this the edge because the final episode was trying to piece together the grand mystery, and there were so many visual cues we needed to follow our secret Service detective as he finally put all the pieces together. Plus, flashback sequences to make a reveal that would otherwise not make sense, make sense.
Best Performance: Charlie Cox (daredevil: Born Again)- I’m excited that they kept him. I like him more as daredevil than I do Vincent D’Onofrio of Wilson Fisk. Cox brings the charm, the dramatic weight, and the ability to handle an action sequence making him the perfect candidate for this. he hasn’t missed a beat, and really gets to have some emotional moments right off the bat.
Runner Up: Jodie Whittaker (Toxic Town)- As Susan, she has some material thrown her way in the first episode that is the catalyst for change moving into the second episode. She isn’t a perfect person, but I liked the scenes she had in the second episode where she worries that not being a perfect person is the reason her son’s hand didn’t form correctly. That’s why she’s so interested in getting a lawsuit off the ground, because there are other mothers out there who blame themselves, which I find to be extremely relatable, even as a guy. Things happen in life, and we so often think and pick apart things we believe we could have done differently, so it is refreshing to see someone in that situation realize the answer is that she is not the reason. Someone else is to blame.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Best Moment Of Audio Description: Bar Room Brawl (daredevil Born Again)- Basically, the entire segment featuring bullseye was terrific. From the initial shot that ruined it all, to Matt jumping into action and having a hell of a tough fight with the trained assassin, the description was so good. it had these moments of perfection, when it mentioned the lights going out, and how the fight continued in very low lighting, or being seen through a frosted window. Bullseye was throwing objects all over, striking people in specific places, and even the end of the fight, we are reminded that Matt has two knives protruding from him, even as the victor. What a brilliant sequence.
Runner Up: Tying It All Together (Paradise)- What a superfluous pairing pegged as the killers.I mean, really, the criminal mastermind was the librarian, who was the same person who tried to assassinate James Marsden in an earlier flashback (which is revealed here again). but, showing how he tried to make himself unrecognizable helped me at least a little with the question ‘if I could see, would I have recognized him?” That is such an intangible quality we are sometimes faced with, is the “if I could see…” of something, and at least the audio description helped highlight specifically the changes he made. Though, they weren’t huge, and even he admitted “I was worried you might recognize me.” I’m still worried I might have too, but at least I’m aware he made an effort to look like a different person.
Worst Of….- Look. I don’t want to be mean. But what on earth is Megan doing? This is what she wants for herself? To be the next Martha Stewart? Watching this was almost painful, because it screams so much that she wants attention. she has this Netflix development deal, and I’m assuming she could have done quite literally anything with it, and this is what she chose to do? Girls dream of becoming a princess so one day they can have a Netflix reality show where they invite a former cast member from a show they were on once to come and be a guest and learn about interior design and baking? What even is this? Megan could easily be using that development deal to bring all sorts of good into the world. She could turn herself into a person who interviews really intriguing individuals. She’s basically doing what thousands of women are already doing across social media, Youtube, blogs, etc. She’s trying to say “I’m just like you.”, when she’s anything but. And that’s OK. You are Megan. Be Megan, who really doesn’t need a last name anymore. You may have symbolically given up the title, the world still sees you as what comes after “Harry and”, which isn’t a bad gig. Diana did so much, even with Royal restraints. You don’t have those… and this is what you want to do? the AD team on this is doing the Lord’s work.
