TV News: Amazon has wiped Clean Slate off their table, cancelling the freshman Laverne Cox sitcom after one season. I had a feeling this would happen, but the show runner was sending out good vibes like he was having productive conversations with Amazon. Never trust a showrunner.
TV Shows Watched: Good American Family: S1E6 (Hulu) with audio description, The Bondsman: S1E4 (Amazon) with audio description, Survival Of The Thickest: S2E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Survivor: S48E8 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Got To Get Out Of Here: S1E2 (Hulu) with audio description, Lazarus: S1E2 (MAX) with audio description, 1923: S2E4 (Paramount Plus) with audio description
Best Episode: the Bondsman- I’m liking where Kevin Bacon’s supernatural horror show is going, and I hope this is a show Amazon sticks with. It seems to have a lot of potential. More people are brought up to speed in this episode, and the gore was over the top.
Runner Up: Survival Of The Thickest- Mavis advocates for a pop up store for plus size women to be able to get beautiful clothing without feeling relegated to the drab crap in the fat section. As a plus sized person myself, I always saw clothing I wanted to wear, but those brands didn’t want me to wear them. So, I definitely understood her perspective, even if it is triggered by the need to find Peppermint the perfect wedding gown.
Best Audio Description: The Bondsman- media Access Group is doing some solid work on this show. There’s some supernatural elements, and the gore is ever present. It just seems to have a lot to describe.
Runner Up: 1923- It navigates some interesting indigenous character names, a well-described old timey surgery, and a few action set pieces rather well.
Best Performance: Tone Bell (Survival Of The Thickest)- Essentially playing the mediator between his friends, he had a fun exchange where he was trying to inspire Mavis to have a conversation long overdue with their other friend, and her business partner, and pretended to be her. his character is usually so chill and reserved, it was admittedly funny to watch him completely change up and become something different just for the purpose of conversation. It feels like those times when you’re telling a story to your friends, and you take on the persona of someone in the story to complete the tale, and that person had a very specific personality type.
Runner Up: Christina Hendricks (Good American Family)- I love that her character isn’t presented as some altruistic crusader, but really just someone who is more likely to help Natalia than anyone else. it is hard to get a read on her Cynthia character because you aren’t sure what her motivations are. Can she be trusted? is she just going to use Natalia? these questions come up when she puts the groceries on Natalia’s EBT card, and later when the checks are sent to her house. However, she does put a lot of focus on actually advocating for making Natalia’s situation better, and seems ready to tango with Christine. This show has a very odd perspective problem by showing us 4 episodes from the Barnett perspective, and then hoping we pick up on Natalia’s story, but Hendricks certainly is a casting choice they got right.
Best Moment Of Audio description: That’s A Spicy Sandwich (The Bondsman)- Poor guy was just trying to eat his sandwich. very gory, and very well described.
runner Up: I needed That Like I Needed A Hole In My Head (1923)- I’m fairly certain surgery is different now, but this surgery sequence was very well done, from describing how the patient is held down, to the drilling, and the insertion of the tube and pump, to the final extraction of a little coagulated blood.
Worst Of…- I mean, Lazarus just has a poor quality to the track. it sounds like the narrator was using a low quality microphone, or no sound mixing really happened. I’m not sure what the problem is, but up against 6 other programs across four streamers, likely done by a variety of AD companies, this was noticeably poor in sound quality.