TV Shows Watched: Surface: S2E5 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Reacher: S3E7 (Amazon) with audio description, The Studio: S1E2 (Apple plus) with audio description, Will Trent: S3E11 (Hulu) with audio description, Invincible: S3E6 (Amazon) with audio description, The Daily Show: Thursday (Paramount Plus) no audio description, The Rookie: S7E11 (Hulu) with audio description, and Abbott Elementary: S4E19 (Hulu) with audio description
Best Episode: The Studio- Wow. This series is on fire. I read an interview with Seth Rogen where he discussed how stressful it was to film this episode, and I can see why. The episode is all about his studio head wanting to visit the set of the new Sarah Polley film for this one long uninterrupted shot that finishes the film, and the hilarity that ensues from no one wanting him there, and also him not realizing he is the problem.
Runner Up: Abbott Elementary- While I’m still skeptical of what exactly they plan to do with Ava, this episode was pretty perfect. The ensemble was essentially divided into three plots, with Janeane working to get Ava’s job back, Gregory trying to figure out Ava’s filing system, and our second episode with the afterschool music class, which Jacob is now sitting in on. It really had some classic Abbott moments, from Gregory being unaware of how long Survivor has been running, to no one listening to Jacob.
Best Audio description: Invincible- Lots of great moments in episode 6, with a villain that absorbs energy and sends it back out, and really wanted revenge on Mark. The fight scenes were really cool, but so was him flying the family to Chicago in a car he was carrying in the sky.
Runner Ups: reacher and The Studio- Both are pretty even for me, and I’m finding it difficult to pick one over the other. they both are really close in the battle for second place. They have moments, where the audio description is subtle and nice, but not as many big moments. For example, in Reacher, I actually liked the scene between Duffy and reacher where she’s trying to talk to him, and he’s just lying on a bed staring at the ceiling. In The Studio, there’s this fever pitch the episode is running at, but I love that because this show has celebrities playing themselves, the narration lets us know we have Sarah polley and Greta Lee. One of the great gimmicks this show is using is the ability to attract huge guest stars.
Best Performance: Seth Rogen (the Studio)- He’s perfect for this role. he is fully believable as someone who understands and loves film, but may not be the smartest guy in every room, and certainly doesn’t understand how his presence effects things. He’s so manic in this episode, it is impossible not to choose him.
Runner Up: Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary)- Barbara really is getting into the music class, and seeing her having to figure out how to teach music,while also understand what the kids think is music, and connect those dots was a rewarding and hilarious process. Plus, i loved every time Jacob told her something, she either heard only what she wanted, or didn’t hear him at all.
Best moment Of Audio description: How The Villain Works (Invincible)- Describing how he absorbs, and he has these rings that are part of his process of taking in kinetic energy and then releasing it, was done well. I’ve seen this power set used in other heroes before, but invincible uses it well.
Runner Up: We’re Taking The Car (Invincible)- Both of the best moments were from the same show. this was a great use of family time. for the new guy in the family, it was an introduction into what seemed like to everyone else a perfectly normal road trip.
worst Of: This is a spoiler, you have been warned. I do not understand how the brother got shot in The rookie. I was following along in that scene, and all of a sudden, it seemed like the brother just got shot. With his own gun? how? A lot happened really fast, and honestly the writing for The Rookie as a show has gone down, but that moment I felt the audio description didn’t help clarify fully an action that happened. My runner up for this would be Abbott Elementary, because of the audio ducking. Vito is narrating, and he’s a human, so i don’t know why it had the same level of ducking as an AI audio description track.
