TV Shows Watched: The Handmaid’s Tale: S6E7 (Hulu) with audio description, American Idol: S23E15 (Hulu) no audio description, Tales From The Underworld: S1E3 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Ransom Canyon: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Tracker: S2E18 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Careme: S1E2 (Apple TV +) with audio description, Battle Camp: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, The Daily Show: Monday (Paramount Plus) no audio description, The Rookie: S7E? (Hulu) with audio description.
Best Episode: The Handmaid’s Tale- Pikcing up literally where we left off, June is still reacting to that bombshell from the end of last episode. Meanwhile, we see Lydia find out some horrifying truths, and perhaps start losing faith in the system, Serena is planning an old fashioned wedding, Nick and June are done, and Lawrence gives June the right amount of inspiration to let her and Moira rally at the end.
Runner Up: None- Honestly, I don’t feel strongly enough to elevate one show above the rest. EI liked parts of everything, but nothing really had one big wonderful and consistently great episode. All were fine, none were achieving excellence compared to other episodes.
Best Audio description: Tales From The Underworld- i still think the animated Star Wars show has pretty excellent audio description. I still love the choice of narrator, and the writing is really strong. The third episode was just a little less exciting than the first two.
runner Up: the Handmaids Tale- I’ve really been pretty impressed with this audio description. I think, every once in a while, some level of performative choices should win in the audio description, and the only note that I would give is that I’m not sure we had the right tone for the shower sequence. That was horrifying, but it wasn’t supported by horrified description. It is one of those things, knowing this narrator has at least been doing this whole season, even if they had no context, and had never seen the show, simply having to read what is written, should give you pause.Best performance: ann Dowd (The Handmaids Tale)- She has a rollercoaster of emotions, and the description that supported her in her reaction to what happened in the shower was perfect. But she also totally nailed the delivery of the new Handmaid clothing. Optimisim and zeal squashed by a man, who is also a sadistic moron.
Nathan Fillion (The Rookie)- I could, and probably should just choose another Handmaid cast member, but i was really touched by a few moments from Fillion, when his character clearly is reacting to something that he maybe doesn’t agree with, and he’s also being asked to babysit the new Rookie that was fired earlier, and sued to be reinstated. he also gave him very measured and honest feedback. Then, Fillion hit all the right marks in the final scene he had with his new Rookie about what could be next.
Best moment Of Audio Description- Aunt Lydia’s reaction (The Handmaids Tale)- Lydia has no dialogue, and this big weighty moment where she has this horror wash over her, and she reacts with so many levels. This scene was very well done.
Runner Up: officer Down (The Rookie)- There’s this shootout that takes a chunk toward the end, and specifically, the moment when one officer puts themselves in danger to save another, getting shotn in the process, and with a shotgun, so we also got description about the wound being just “shredded’. this show rarely rises to excellence in audio description, and I like rewarding it when it does.
Worst Of…- While I haven’t figured out how to use accents, I’m not sold on Careme having longevity on my watchlist. it is the only show I could see going away before wrapping. However, Idol has been running for 23 seasons without audio description while its contemporaries have figured it out. So, Idol is the loser for the day. Why not the Daily Show? largely for the same reason you might be less mad at your nightly news. There’s less of an idea of rewatchability. The truth is, if all 23 seasons of Idol were made available, like how you can watch old seasons of Survivor, people would. they know this, because American Idol Rewind ran in syndication years ago, flashing back through old seasons of Idol.
