Some renewal news. CBS officially has ordered a fifth season of The Equalizer, while NBC has decided to send its newest Law and Order incarnation, Organized Crime, to Peacock. Both are technically coming back, so fans of those shows can at least be happy for that.
I finished The New look (Apple Plus), which as a series had its moments. I’m not sure if they are planning more. I think this is in competition for Drama Series at the Emmys, not limited, but the ending that explains the cultural impact of Christian Dior feels like a hard ending. So, when knows. I’ve felt always that this show was pretty solid on audio description, but a few times I wanted more description on what people were wearing. Even when it wasn’t 100% relevant to the plot, this is still about Chanel and Dior, and fashion is so centric to the series. That’s just an understanding of what the show is about overall, and supporting the theme during the run of the show. So, this finishes in the Top/Middle range.
Heartbreak High (Netflix), which I’m still catching up on season 1, is Australian, which I just now realized in episode 4, when we got a trigger warning about violence against a member of the First Nations by police. I guess police brutality is everywhere. It’s a relatively small moment in the episode that happened at the end, and the character survived.I’m not totally sure why we needed a trigger warning. At least, in the description I got, I think he was hit once, and perhaps we are getting a bit too much with trigger warnings, since they also do reveal something that will happen in the episode. So, you spend the whole time thinking about this major moment. He’s not beaten severely. I can’t imagine this needed that warning. Either way, this show is still mostly about sex, so deeper material like this is hard to earn when characters are constantly talking about sex. It’s not as fun as sex Education, which did manage to have some heavy topics, and somehow earn them while also balancing comedy. I’m just not there yet with this cast. Maybe after a few more episodes? Audio description is OK. I don’t have any big thoughts. I’m assuming that one scene was described as it happened. Middle tier.
Not Dead Yet (Hulu) dropped two episodes this week, so this was the first of those two, and it ends on a plot twist I can’t talk about. Clearly, they will really focus on it in the second episode, but this show made a big swing at the end of its second season. I just feel like ABC is gonna do what they do, and cancel this like so many other shows that were promising and cut short. The audio description here might also be getting a little better, but I didn’t quite feel it as much as I did with Abbott Elementary. Middle tier.
Feud (Hulu) is a show I haven’t mentioned in a while. I wasn’t deeply interested, but I’m deciding to finish it. This episode featured Truman flirting with a handyman, and then having a relationship with this younger man, and how it reinvigorated him. I’m surprised at what is on cable TV nowadays, only because I grew up with all these edited for TV versions of movies.Not because I’m a prude. It will be interesting to see what Emmy attention this gets in a very crowded limited arena. the audio description is strong, and really brings a lot to the table in fleshing out Truman even more with his actions. Top tier.
the Girls On The Bus (MAX) is another show I’ve only really been partially interested in. It has its moments, but it also struggles between being a serious political series, and some Sex and the City heir apparent. Tonally, this is a bit all over the place. Kimberlyn’s story was the most interesting this episode, though Carla Gugino is likely giving technically the best performance. I don’t really have much to say about this audio description, as it seems trapped by the tonal shifts as well. Is it serious? Is it fluff? Who knows. Middle tier.
Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix) just dropped, and I jumped on this spinoff from The Sandman. Two ghosts stay on earth and investigate mysteries with the help of a living psychic. The pilot is strong, introducing the characters, and also the rules of the world they inhabit, which is necessary since it’s all this undead/ghost/demons/witches stuff.You have to establish what these two can and cannot do, and also what their living counterpart Crystal can and can’t do. The audio description did a solid by identifying Crystal as biracial, and not putting her in one box, but it doesn’t consistently define other characters, so it felt more like defaulting. Like, race makes someone inherently more interesting, and the lack of color isn’t important to mention, so we know what that must mean. I support the definition of characters racial or ethnic backgrounds because representation is important, and audiences who don’t look like me deserve to feel and know they are represented. Especially in shows with intentional casting, like Percy Jackson. Here, I applaud it for not blocking Crystal in as just one thing, but also wonder why everyone else wasn’t given the same treatment. The description of the supernatural elements is strong, and that’s where this will mostly be needed going forward. Middle/Top tier.
Apples Never Fall (Peacock) is almost at the end, thank God. This episode, we got more backstory, and the kids see their father finally get arrested as the police’s only suspect. However, there’s a little plot twist at the end of the episode. God willing, they can wrap this up in one more episode. I still feel like this narrator is too upbeat for the material given. Middle tier.
So Help Me Todd (Paramount Plus), which was recently cancelled, had an episode last week where Margaret was helping a client accused of defaming her professor, and Margaret needs a witness to come forward who is scared to do so. Meanwhile, Todd is helping his brother through a mid-life crisis of his sexuality, and also trying to figure out if a judge is gay or not. This is the most screentime this brother has ever had. The audio description here is really perfect for the show, and I’m gonna miss the show, and its perfect audio description. Top Tier.
