I caught up on The Masked Singer, and it is crazy how quickly I picked up on that clue package and no one else did. It was obvious that the person was referring to someone who had competed on The Masked Singer, but has since passed, and that list is really small. She also hinted at growing up on television, and I immediately got the reference, I immediately knew which previous contestant it was. Also, she clearly asked to self-eliminate, after only one song, because she was in no way the worst performance of the night. I don’t even like them as a human being, and I still would have let them survive the first elimination over others. But, that was really obvious, and no one guessed even remotely close.
TV Shows Watched: Wolf King: S1E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Daredevil: Born Again: S1E6 (Disney Plus) with audio description, The Studio: S1E1 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Long Bright River: S1E2 (Peacock) with audio description, Survivor: S48E5 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, 911: S8E10 (Hulu) with audio description, The Masked Singer: S13E7 (Hulu) no audio description, and Suits: LA (Peacock) S1E5.
Best Episode: The Studio- Apple’s new Hollywood centric show is bitingly funny, with a stacked cast, and lead performance from Seth Rogen (does this mean we’re not getting that second season of Platonic?). Seth Rogen has writing and directing credit along with his buddy Evan Goldberg, and they seem to have a certain magic that works well, especially when they tone down the stoner comedy humor, and ramp up the harsh takes on the current state of media. Nothing represents that more than Rogen’s studio executive lamenting having to take a meeting to explore a possible Jenga film, only to follow that with the news that his studio has secured the rights to Kool-Aid, and he will be making a Kool-Aid movie. this is getting really strong reviews, and I agree. It earns the praise.
Runner Up: Long Bright River- Amanda Seyfried isn’t playing the best cop, but she’s playing someone who is emotionally invested, and the second episode explores more of why she is so invested, and more on the backstory between her and her sister, as well as her increasing paranoia around keeping her son safe. Seyfried really is giving a career best performance. It is unlike anything else she’s done so far.
Best Audio Description: daredevil: Born again- I have to hand it to this Marvel show, because even when the episode itself is frustrating, the audio description always comes through. There’s a fight sequence that shows this duality between Daredevil and Kingpin, juxtaposing their very different fights into a blended sequence, and it was described so well.
Runner Up: Long Bright River- I just love the audio description here. it is so rare for me to really love audio description on a peacock show, but whoever is making this, kudos to you and your depth of description.
Best Performance: Amanda Seyfried (Long Bright River)- Her category, Actress in a Limited, is *VERY* crowded, so i can’t guarantee she gets an Emmy nomination, or that I would even vote for her given all the options, but she deserves praise. There’s a maturity here, and a level of competency I really didn’t expect from her.
Runner Ups: Seth Rogen (The Studio), Eve (Survivor), Jennifer Love Hewitt (911)- Rogen is immediately excellent and a standout in his own series. I picked Eve (the autistic competitor on Survivor), because she really had a hell of an episode centered around her and just celebrating who she is as a person. she did a lot of winning (sorry for the spoilers), and her inability to process big emotions kicked in, and we saw what that looked like for her. She then had to admit to everyone that she is autistic, and was met with celebratory acceptance and warmth. She also likely instantly became a lock for the final four, because who the hell wants to be seen voting her off? And finally, while I’ve never really thought much of Hewitt’s acting on 911 before, she had to believably be in danger this episode. It had to feel like she may not be coming home, but also that she was going to try and rally and do whatever she could to get out of her predicament. I think she pulled that off.
Best Moment of Audio Description: Parallel Fight Club (Daredevil: Born Again)- Daredevil was fighting off a foe at the exact same time Kingpin was fighting someone in a completely different location. the description went out of their way to highlight not just the action, but that the shots were edited in such a way to make it look like Daredevil and Kingpin were almost exactly the same person, delivering blow after blow in the same manner.
Runner Up: It’s Just A Fist (Long Bright River)- There’s this excellent balance Seyfried has in certain moments, where her character is clearly far angrier than she would let on. One of those moments came after she got a phone call from her ex-husband, who had been called by their son. Her reaction included the transition of a hand from open, to clenched fist, as she internalized everything she just went through. it might be a really small and specific scene, but I really enjoyed the fist. It spoke to who she was, but also to her approach to being a mother.
Worst Of- The lack of audio description being transferred (or even existing) from The Masked Singer wins this prize.
