TV Shows Watched: The LAst Of Us: S2E4 (MAX) with audio description, American Idol: S23E14 (Hulu) no audio description, Tales From The underworld: S1E2 (Disney plus) with audio description, Wandla: S2E2 (Apple TV +) with audio description, You: S5E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Last Week Tonight: Most Recent
Best Episode: The Last of us- In a post-Joel world, Deena and Ellie are making for a dynamic duo as the two navigate Seattle, dodging soldiers, zombies, and the keeping of secrets from each other. plus, the cast gets a huge boost as Jeffrey Wright joins the cast. A lot to love here, from insane gore, to a banger subway sequence, and some killer one-liners, I enjoyed this episode.
runner Up: last Week tonight- The edge in this small block of episodes goes to John Oliver for taking the current administration to task for almost the whole episode on immigration, and due process.
Best Audio Description- The LAst of Us- Not really a no-contest victory, as the two animated shows both have really good description. but, there’s so much to love here, from one of the goriest rooms to ever be featured on this show, to surviving in a subway car, and something as simple as exploring happiness between two individuals who share affection. One of the great things about Roy’s narration for this, is that when the show has a happy moment, he actually sounds happy. It isn’t in an overly performative way either, it sounds as simple as him just smiling, and being genuinely happy for what he’s reading. Little things make big differences.
Runner Up: Tales From The underworld- I love this narrators voice. I never stay through six minutes of credits to hear his name, but I’d guess John Bradley? It’s so deep, like Darth Vader/Mufasa deep, that for a show that needs some darkness in it, he seems like the perfect choice. So for an animated Star Wars series where you aren’t sure if you can trust one of the two main leads, his voice is welcome. The show also has a lot of fighting, and general sci-if stuff to narrate.
Best Performance: Bella Ramsey (The Last Of us)- From her quiet conversations with Deena, to harrowing survival sequences, to a beautiful cover of Take on me, and finally having to finally tell and show Deena she’s immune, Bella did an excellent job of navigating Ellie through the first chunk of Seattle. Note: I’m aware Bella’s pronouns are They/them, but I think their character Ellie is still she/her.
Runner Up: Isabella Merced (The Last Of us)- Honestly, right there with Ellie the whole time, Deena had so many equally important beats, except hers often reacted to Ellie. So, she got to show endearment for Take On me, she was shocked and scared at the possibility of having to put Ellie down, and elated she didn’t have to. plus, she had a secret of her own to tell Ellie. They also gave her a backstory moment where she was able to explain her more complicated process in discovering her sexuality, as her mother forbid her to date girls.
Best Moment of Audio Description- The Subway sequence- i fucking loved this. Not only ws it great from an action standpoint, but just the way everything was described, with the soldiers being swarmed, the subway getting rocked, Ellie and Deena trying to survive. It was fantastic.
Runner Up: The Secret Room (Wandla)- I could pick another Last Of us moment, but I also want to make sure to shout out Wandla. So, at the end of Episode 2, Eva and her new companion go to the meeting Eva was supposed to go to, and enter into this secret room that is like an indoor version of what Ava experienced in Season 1. However, her new friend didn’t have the same fun experience, and can’t talk to the wildlife, so for her it was a nightmare, and the audio description perfectly captured her PTSD, especially as some seemingly harmless bird-like aliens swarmed. Ava wasn’t bothered or scared, but her friend was having a panic attack.
Worst Of- Instead of targeting American Idol for its lack of audio description this week, I’m going to target Idol voters who are, yes, racist. What a stupid bottom three, and what a horrible pair to have eliminated. I honestly thought Canaan was going to break the mold that seemingly plagued last season, when the contestants of color all got voted off early also, but even him singing Gospel music wasn’t good enough. Despite the high amount of Idol alumni that have gone on to record in explicitly Christian music, somehow there’s no room for Canaan on the program that loves to remind everyone they technically discovered Lauren Daigle, even though she was eliminated her season before even getting to a voting round. So, yeah, I’ll pull an Elton John from Season 3, and just call it blatant racism, since the two people who went home were obviously the best singers, as they were the only two remaining platinum ticket winners. America already sent home middle-eastern Platinum Ticket winner Filo last week, so, I’m thinking there’s a common thread here that has nothing to do with actual talent.
