New shows premiering this week include Mobland (Paramount Plus/Sunday) starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Tom Hardy, The Bondsman (Amazon/Thursday) starring Kevin Bacon, and Dying For Sex (Hulu/Fri) starring Michelle Williams, alongside the Season 3 premiere of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (Netflix/Thurs), and movies like Y2K (MAX/Friday).
TV Shows Watched: The Connors: S6E1 (Hulu) with audio description, Side Quest: S1E1 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Survival Of The Thickest: S2E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Deli Boys: S1E3 (Hulu) with audio description, Going Dutch: S1E10 (Hulu) no audio description, Pop Culture Jeopardy: S1E12 (Amazon) with audio description, and Running Point: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description.
Best Episode: Deli Boys- this Hulu comedy grows on me every episode. There were some really solid jokes in this episode, most at the expense of Drakkar Noir, but it was the most consistently funny of the comedies I watched.
Runner Up: Side Quest- It isn’t quite on the level of Mythic Quest, because that took understanding how to assemble the perfect ensemble, but side quests in games are rarely as fun as the main story anyway. Plus, they did use Ian in the first episode, and his presence lifted an episode that was mostly focused on a character rarely seen or heard going on a romantic vacation with his girlfriend, only to be haunted by work.
Best Audio Description: Survival Of The Thickest- the episode that leaned the most into visual elements, and got them into the description. From the specificity of what was happening in intimate moments, to holding your phone up to a door and using a translator app, to your friend waiting for you with a blanket, lots of visual references made it into this half hour comedy.
Runner Up: deli boys- So did Deli Boys, which featured the dismemberment of a body, among other fun tidbits. Plus, Dave really is doing an excellent job narrating.
Best Performance: Michelle Buteau (Survival Of The Thickest)- It’s good to see her back, and while she was given some comedic stuff to tackle, she was also given some dramatic as well. the season premiere might wrap up her storyline with Luca, depending on where the producers take her next.
Runner Up: John Goodman (The Connors), Kate Hudson (running Point), and Rob Mcelhenney (Mythic Quest)- Goodman is often better than we deserve, and occasionally he reminds us of that even on The Connors. He has a nice scene where he talks about how he dealt with Roseanne’s death, that had emotional weight behind it where so few beats in the series actually still do. Hudson has been excellent throughout the run of her new show, and the fifth episode put her in a place to think about both who her father was, and how that could translate into her pending nuptials, while also considering whether or not to convert to Judaism to appease her fiancé and his parents. Mcelhenney appearing as Ian, even briefly, showed how perfect his energy is in that role, and how just a small dose of him can improve something.
Best Moment Of Audio Description: That’s Not Sex (Survival Of The Thickest)- Basically everything I watched leaned comedic, so the thing that I enjoyed the most, that was a full visual moment, translated through audio description, was a montage of intimate moments between two characters, but in the middle was the guy feeding the girl spaghetti. Hey, no kink shaming. if that’s your thing…
Runner Up: Need A Hand? (Deli Boys)- the dismemberment moments, but definitely when the cleaner is rushing to get out and leaves behind a hand. I’m not totally sure what happened to the hand ultimately, but maybe that’s the point. I just know… they left a hand behind.
Worst Of…- Going Dutch. Hulu. Get FOX to give you audio description. this should not be a hard task. Thanks.
