So that certainly happened. Did you find yourself on Monday talking more about the most recent episode of the Last Of Us, or the death of the Pope? The answer to that will probably be a nice quantitative measure as to how nerdy you are in general, and your immediate circle of friends and family. For me, my nerd clout was off the charts.
TV Shows Watched: The Last Of Us: S2E2 (MAX) with audio description, American Idol: S23E11 (Hulu) no audio description, North of North: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, Dying For Sex: S1E5 (Hulu) with audio description, Pulse: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Suits: LA S1E7 (Peacock) with audio description, and have i got News For you (S1E10 *(MAX) no audio description
Best Episode: The last Of us- Even though there is a lot to not like about this episode, there’s a lot to love about it as well. the entire segment focused on Jackson and their reaction to imminent threat was excellent, and I do have quite a few problems with that whole other thing. Do i think there was a fundamentally better narrative they decided not to go after, instead leaning on the idea that they did it right the first time? yes. but in an episode where our characters who routinely go on scouting runs had no idea where the locations were they were headed to, or a character that had a gun and could have come in blazing didn’t fire a single shot, and a character in desperate need of offering perspective before the big sleep simply chooses not to, around all of those elements maybe there was a sliver of greatness? But, it felt more like the creators of the game unapologetically learning nothing from any backlash they got in the video game, and just repeating themselves, just in a new medium. It still was an exciting, terrifically narrated hour of television that will go down in history. So, it won.
runner Up: American Idol-Yes, the show needs audio description. But in a bloated episode, which took 24 to 20, I would have said 19 of the 20 singers more than earned their keep. For me to only really think one performance fell flat, is an achievement. For the most part, everyone sang their ass off on a gospel centric theme night, and four people went home I truly could not remember.
Best Audio Description: The last of Us- Only five of the seven even had audio description, so far and away this is the answer. there was a lot going on in this episode, especially during the battle. And, yes, we did not get everything as a result. There are little nuances in character design, like seeing a clicker with fresh blood, even though it had nothing to eat… except other clickers, that get lost in a tidal wave of destruction. But, pound for pound, the core points of action, tracking the primary characters we are supposed to care about, manage to deliver.
Runner Up: Dying For Sex- This track unabashedly runs into every kinky thing they want to explore. I’m quite surprised where the show went this episode, but it isn’t the first time we’ve done that on camera in a movie or TV show. Oddly.
Best Performance: Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal, and Kaitlyn Dever (the Last Of us)- While the episode, and its choices were polarizing for me in some respects, in terms of the choices made by the writers and show runners, I will not fault any of these talented individuals showing up when required for what was an extremely emotional second half of the episode. they all deserve to tie, as they complimented each other by pulling off each others emotional intensity and commitment to the task at hand. Ultimately, they were acutely aware they were filming *the moment*, and that this was the scene people will scrutinize the most for years to come.
runner Up: The Top 20 Of American Idol- Some truly terrific performances. Even a return from an alum who got to sing with CeCe Winans. I’m nervous to know which SIX performers are eliminated from a night full of home runs.
Best Moment Of Audio Description- Joel To The Rescue (the Last Of Us)- In thinking about which richly painted moment of the tapestry that is the visual feast of this show stood out, I’m actually selecting the sequence where Abby is fighting for her life, right up until the awesome moment where that gun just appears at the clickers head, and Joel makes the worst decision of his life without even knowing it.
Runner Up: the Bloater (the Last Of Us)- The gamer community has assigned names to certain types of zombies, like clicker, stalker, and bloater. While the audio description never actually refers to this as a bloater, which none of the characters do either, they did do a hell of a job describing it, and the encounter it has with Tommy.
If The Last Of us Didn’t Exist: The Golden Shower (Dying For Sex)- If I did a longer list, I would probably still have three or four more moments just from The Last Of us, but props to the audio description team for Dying Fox Sex for describing this sequence, which is a turnoff for most of the audience, but has to be described the way Michelle Williams’s character is enjoying the moment. the series is about her sexual pursuits, and because she seemed into it, everything else had to be as well.
Worst Of…- Pulse. I’m literally dragging my ass through a medical drama that I know if it had aired on a network in a pre-streaming era, would never have made it past its initial run. I remember stronger short lived medical dramas like code Black with Marcia gay Harden, or Mercy with Taylor Schilling more favorably than this.
