TV Shows Watched: Dope Thief: S1E4 (Apple Plus) with audio description, American Idol: S23E5 (Hulu) no audio description, Tracker: S2E14 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Residence: S1E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Grosse Pointe Garden Society: S1E6 (Peacock) with audio description, Long Bright River: S1E3 (Peacock) with audio description, The Daily Show: Monday (Paramount Plus) no audio description, and The Great North: S5E6 (Hulu) no audio description
Best Episode: The Residence- Shonda Rhimes’s quirky murder mystery continues to be entertaining and engaging with each successive episode. The joke about the disrespect shown because the depiction of a specific kangaroo on a cake was pretty good, but I love that we keep flashing to Hugh Jackman, and I’m hoping we get a Jackman (or Kylie Minogue) centric episode.
Runner Up: Dope Thief- Brian Tyree Henry continues to carry this show, which looked like maybe some goodwill would swing his way when he found a ragtag band of clowns motivated to go after his enemies.
Best Audio Description: The Residence- The show finds a perfect balance of capturing the humor, but never forgetting it is still a murder mystery, and clues matter. So, like with the specific shade of lipstick, we’re shown things that matter, that would otherwise be purely visual and not mentioned in the dialog.
Runner Up: Long Bright River- It isn’t the flashiest track, but it does such a lovely job of capturing small moments, emotional reactions, and tense exchanges. This isn’t the flashiest or fastest criminal procedural, but it does allow time for the audio description track to support it nicely.
Best Performance: Brian Tyree Henry (Dope Thief), Amanda Seyfried (Long Bright River) and Uzo Aduba (The Residence)- I’ve mentioned all three before, and it continues to be true that all three are absolutely carrying their respective shows. Each actor is making their own Emmy play every episode, with moments that seem perfectly crafted just for them. For Henry, he comes alive when trying to coax his best friend out of a church so they have a chance of staying alive, but we also see a softer side of him, seemingly less in constant panic, when talking to his father’s lawyer (who I guess is now a romantic love interest for him?) and making plans for the future. With Seyfried, episode 2 left us with a cliffhanger that needed to be resolved, and in the third episode, Seyfried learns she’s stumbled into the wrong neck of the woods. She also has to have a disappointing conversation with her son’s school about his future there, and later has to manage a big boy reality check for her son that keeps asking for his dad. And, Aduba has seemingly just stumbled into the best role she’s been offered since breaking out in orange Is The New Black. she has conquered the Residence in a way that makes you feel like the show was created for her, not just her role. It seems as though every other well-cast performer around her is just another pawn, as she moves them around to get the information she needs.
Runner Up: Kate Mulgrew (dope Thief), Nicholas Pinnock (Long Bright River), and Giancarlo Esposito (The Residence)- All of the aforementioned leads do have terrific supporting cast. for Henry, the standout is his adoptive mother, Theresa, played with sass by Kate Mulgrew, who I’ve been missing also since Orange Is The New Black. A seemingly odd pairing, the two have such an excellent back and forth that it feels like they’ve been doing it forever. Where would Seyfried’s cop mom be without her mentor Truman, which Nicholas plays with all of the deep rooted regret of a former detective carrying a lifetime of baggage. Still, for someone who seemingly never has a reliable adult in her life, once she asks for his help, he seems to be showing up. And, with Esposito, a character actor who is brilliant in damn near everything he’s in, he deserves praise for bringing to life the murdered victim of the series. Obviously sown only in flashback, we see his character evolve from what people had written off as an uncomplicated serious individual into a man of many layers. for Esposito, this praise is bittersweet, as he was not the original cast for this role. he was offered the role after Andre Braugher, who was originally attached, passed.
Best Moment Of Audio description: Lipstick (The residence)- The moment when everything comes together, and we see that lipstick has played an important role, linking perhaps one more person much closer to the center of the case than previously thought. It would have been a purely visual thing otherwise.
Runner Up: That’s Not Food (dope Thief)- In a move that felt so quick it had to be rehearsed, Sun finds himself about to be arrested, and passes his phone to his passenger, who immediately pops the SIM card out and eats it. Again, another totally visual thing that somehow feels important.
Worst Of…- Quite likely any day i watch American Idol, and it continues to not have audio description, it will continue to be mentioned here. These early episodes are all pre-taped, and it isn’t even a matter of having live audio description transferred. These were shot a while ago.
