TV Shows Watched: Good American Family: S1E2 (Hulu) with audio description, The Residence: S1E2 (Netflix), Top chef: S22E2 (Peacock) with audio description, Tracker: S2E14 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Win or Lose: S1E6 (Disney Plus) with audio description, The Daily Show: Monday (Paramount Plus) No Audio Description
Best Episode: The Residence- In the second episode, they continue to uncover more about what happened that fateful night, and there are just so many great beats in the episode. There’s one scene where Uzo Aduba just stares at someone, and turns a person who wasn’t going to say anything into someone who keeps divulging more and more, without really ever needing to ask a question.
Runner Up: Good American Family- Without following the Natalia Grace stuff, I’d say there’s enough here to make you wonder.
Best Audio description: Win or Lose- Pixar has done so much imaginative work in these episodes that it really gives the audio description team a lot of content to work with. here, we have one of those kids who seems like a hero in their own mind, and how that translates to what is actually happening.
runner Up: The Residence- It is very clue based, as we try and put together the whodunit of it all, but also there’s an expansive ensemble (that includes even Hugh Jackman?) and while not every character gets immense description, I think there is a concerted effort to make sure that for the mystery part, we are getting the clues.
Best Performance:Uzo Aduba (The Residence)- A second win for her. It is just such perfect casting. truly, she’s so good right out of the gate that I couldn’t imagine anyone else in this role. It feels like this show was written for her, and everything she’s good at. I’m interested to see where this brands itself for Emmy consideration.I’mn assuming comedy, which will be a tight category to break into. I think she might be able to do it.
Runner Up: Mark Duplass (Good American Family)- Ellen had some nice moments, but Duplass really came in with the more memorable moments. he has some interactions with Natalia that helped shape out his character, but also he’s dealt some bad news, and he just needs to get loud before he gets home. I love that Natalia is so totally unphased by this.
Best Moment Of Audio description: the Pitch (Win or Lose)- there are a few times where Ewan imagines something different than what is actually happening, and perhaps the last pitch is the most effective, and best described, as his reality starts to break away his fantasy, so Ewan can see things as they are.
Runner Up: It Exists (Top Chef)- I still have to say, that simply having audio description for this program means a lot to me as someone who has seen every season. it has been really hard to stay a fan of this post-vision loss, like most shows I kept watching. but, unlike something like The Walking Dead, which continued on with characters I already knew like the back of my hand, Top chef resets every season (as do most reality shows). So, getting invested in the non-All Star seasons, has been rough. It is not the most verbose audio description, or even the best, but they are trying to interject with something as much as possible.
Worst Of…- I got nothing unless Paramount wants to start adding audio description to The Daily Show. To my knowledge, no Comedy Central programs air on linear with audio description, so this feels like a much bigger mountain than some of the other programs I’ve complained about, where the networks are already doing accessibility.
