And we are back. big stuff coming this week. returning favorites like The Wheel Of Time (Thurs/Amazon), The Righteous Gemstones (Sun/MAX), and Temptation Island (Wed/Netflix) are on the horizon, as well as movie premieres like Moana 2 (Wed/Disney Plus), Kraven The Hunter (Thurs/Netflix), and The Electric State (Fri/Netflix).
TV Shows Watched: Yellowjackets: S3E4 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Win or lose: S1E4 (Disney Plus) with audio description, the Traitors: S3E12 (Peacock) with audio description, Harley Quinn: S5E8 (MAX) with audio description, Shifting Gears: S1E? (Hulu) with audio description, Court Of Gold: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, ghosts: S4E? (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Abbott Elementary: S4E? (Hulu) with audio description, and SNL: 50th Anniversary (Peacock) NOW with audio description.
Best Episode: SNL- I mean, it isn’t really fair because obviously the jam packed SNL Anniversary special is going to hit the top. It reminded us of all the terrific cast members from over the years who have graced the stage (and also the many who were not invited to do a sketch). I understand those musical acts felt important, but they also almost made me put this as the runner up.
Runner Up: Yellowjackets- The Trial. Plus, the episode ended in a very shocking way. Like, shocking… even for Yellowjackets. That is really hard to do. Do you have any idea how hard it is to shock someone on Season 3 of Yellowjackets? It’s damn near impossible. But even with all the crazy shit I’ve seen already, I still could not predict that was going to be the end to the 4th episode of the 3rd season.
Best Audio Description:Win Or Lose- I actually am enjoying the 3rd and 4th episodes more than the first two. The 4th episode featured a “super mom” and she had all these crazy powers, and they manifested metaphors into reality. It was a fun description track done really well.
Runner Up: SNL 50- There were a ton of famous people in this, and the gag is actually all of these stars, alumni, and current cast mashing together. There were also some segments strung together using clips from over the years, and the AD team (shoutout to Descriptive Video Works) had to figure out if and when they could speak. Not to mention, the musical performances. Also, I cannot discount the wonder and joy of having a properly balanced SNl track that isn’t screaming at me.
Best Performance: The Flashback Ensemble Of Yellowjackets- Specifically, the younger actresses (and two actors) who are making these flashbacks work, who don’t get the same level of praise as their adult counterparts. i loved the trial sequence, and I thought the format allowed for several standout moments for each of the cast, even coach Ben, whose time on the show is starting to seem increasingly limited.
Runner Up: Steve Martin (SNL)- his monolog. If I had to peg one specific performer, I have to single the one out who had the opening monologue, which perfectly set the tone for the night, and was really funny.
SNl Specific Awards:
Best use Of currrent Cast Members: Kenan Thompson, Marcello Hernandez, and Boen Yang- The three made the biggest impacts on the night. Some of the newer cast members weren’t even featured. Honestly, I was shocked to see them find time for Devin Walker, who is really pretty new.
Best Use Of Alumni- Will Ferrell, Mike Meyers, Kristin Wiig, Amy Poehler, Kate McKinnon, Eddie Murphy, Fred Armisen, Cecily Strong, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Pete Davidson, and Lorraine Newman- All of them made an impact. others showed up, but weren’t really given much to do. Some of these actors repeated iconic sketches, or appeared in hilarious new ones.
Best Use Of Non-Cast or Alumni- Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Scarlett Johansson, and honestly, Sabrina Carpenter- Yeah, while the episode didn’t need carpenter, especially in a sketch, she seemed more than up to the task of singing off key, and joining in on new lyrics for her song, and singing that off key as well.
current Cast Member Who Deserved Better: james Austin Johnson- Did he only appear in one sketch for like a second? Did he have a line? Did he speak? i think he showed up in the NYC sketch, and that was it. Some of the other cast like Mikey Day and Sarah Sherman were visible, just not given big moments, but Johnson felt the most notably absent.
Alumni Who Deserved Better: Maya Rudolph- While she does appear, she wasn’t given anything really up to her level. unlike her contemporaries in Kristin Wiig and Amy Poehler, she wasn’t really given anything super memorable to do. I also felt like they really underutilized Chris Rock and David Spade. But while their screentime was limited, at least they had a funny moment.
Non Cast or Alumni Who Deserved Better- Drew Barrymore- I mean, honestly, she just felt like anyone could have been in her place. She wasn’t even really given anything to do except be present on stage for the Debbie Downer sketch.
Cast Members Whose Presence Was Sorely Missed: Bill Hader (seriously, WTF?), Chris Kattan (was really looking forward to seeing him with Will Ferrell again), Dana Carvey (really wanted to see him and Mike Meyers again), Horatio Sanz (his name came up when Bobby Moynihan was given something to do), Cheri Oteri (I guess she’s technically in the physical comedy clip show), Chevy Chase (I know he’s an ass, but as a living original cast member, is there no sketch where he could appear on stage?), Robert Downey Jr (I love reminding people that he technically was a featured not ready for prime time player, and a gag about his super short lived time, while now being likely the most successful alum, probably would have been funny. You could have shown a clip from the one sketch he appeared in.), Sasheer Zamata (I love her, where was she?), Colin Quinn (I think he might be sick, but if not… wtf), Darrell Hammond actually on stage in a sketch, and while Garrett absolutely deserved to be there, I kinda wonder if Jim Belushi (who was an alum also of SNL) shouldn’t have been the one to introduce his brother’s sketch from back in the day. I’m sure there are others, but I wanted to list people I actually thought of, not after having scrolled a long list of SNL alumni.
Non-Cast I Missed The Most- Jim Carrey. I didn’t need very many non-alumni, but if we’ve got time for Miles Teller, Kim Kardashian, and Sabrina Carpenter, I think we have time for Jim Carrey. Carrey hasn’t been perpetually absent from the show, he was one of the actors who floated through to play Joe Biden.
Best Moment Of Audio Description: How Flexible? (Win Or Lose)- There were so many cute moments in the episode, but I loved the little moment where the mom is going through job interviews with her demon child, and some guy hits on her, and he gets attacked by this ravenous baby. He’s just a baby that loves to bite, but the description highlighted the scene like he was an attack dog, which was the purpose.
Runner Up: Trying Really Hard To Describe Kate McKinnon While Not Laughing (SNL)- The alien abduction sketch was back, and Kate really went for it. she was all over Woody Harrelson, and the narrator noted her very up close and personal physicality, but then had to describe Meryl Streep, who played the mother to Kate’s character, and was equally as weird. I’m sure the greatest challenge in doing it live is not laughing during the audio description. I felt it in this sketch, as it seemed like Kate was going way off script.
Worst Of…- *sigh*Do i need to actually say it? Look at the shows. All had audio description. Technically. Now, I know this might be a little confusing, because I did choose to watch Abbott Elementary and The Traitors on the same day. However, only one of those released with an audio description track that was improperly overlaid. The Traitors finished its third season with a mind boggling track that basically didn’t describe in the gaps, but then talked on top of people. The timing was way off. So, what has already been a failure of a season in making excellent audio description for this show, really turned into a complete folly at then end. While I’m not sure they are even using a human voice, there was an attempt at doing more description. The whole part with throwing the votes into the fire and producing green smoke was described rather well for a track that has stumbled most season. Even the helicopter rising behind Alan, or the team driving the cars back. When you get down to only a handful of contestants, it seems as though this AD team can manage it better. The problem is when they delivered the track to Peacock, the streamer cock blocked their one last chance to produce competent audio description. Kind of a shame, because it was probably the most description we had all season. It just came at all the wrong times. (Side note, I hate using the term cock block, but when referring to peacock, it felt uniquely appropriate).
