TV News: Apple’s PR Team was nice enough to email me directly, so i didn’t have to rely upon second hand sources, to tell me that The Studio, their hit new comedy destined for Emmy nominations, has been renewed for a second season. it feels somewhat meta for a TV show about a studio head with the ability to green light project has itself been green lit. Again.
TV Shows Watched: Tales of the Underworld: S1E4 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Andor: S2E7 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Dying For Sex: S1E8 (Hulu) with audio description,Black mirror: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, The Wheel Of Time: S3E7 (Amazon) with audio description, Will Trent: S3E16 (Hulu) with audio description, Pop Culture Jeopardy: S1E16 (Amazon) with audio description, hacks: S4E3 (MAX) with audio description.
Best Episode: Dying For Sex- Sorry Hacks, but this emotionally destructive finale will leave you with so many feels. If jenny slate doesn’t get an Emmy nomination, we riot. She is up against a multiple Oscar nominee with Michelle Williams, and a winner in Sissy spacek, and the former SNL cast member absolutely holds her own in every possible way. spacek was also devastating. And of course, Williams was sublime.
Runner Up: Hacks- Pro Tip. Yes, HR will have a problem that you took your writers to a strip club, but also… someone on that writing staff is really thin skinned to be a comedy writer. Some of those HR complaints were “vibes”.
Best Audio Description: I’m not choosing. you choose. You can’t make me. Tales Of The Underworld, Andor, The Wheel Of Time, and Dying For Sex all qualify as excellence in audio description, and Black mirror is really close to them. The Star Wars shows have plenty of science fiction space stuff to describe, with Andor also being a bit like an espionage thriller with a large ensemble. The Wheel Of Time honestly has too big of an ensemble for me to coherently enjoy to the fullest extent anymore, but the audio description regarding the battle sequences and fantasy elements is flawless. Dying For sex, which finally didn’t have any Sex to describe, had to instead perfectly highlight three tremendous actresses and all of their little choices in an emotionally devastating episode. All four were amazing. it was a great day for audio description.
Best Performance: Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate, Sissy Spacek (Dying For Sex)- Not gonna do it. You can’t make me choose. These three ladies are everything, and they deserve equal and loud praise for their work. The finale gave each one beautiful moments to shine.
Runner Up: Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder (Hacks)- It’s like a pre-Mother’s day celebration, and we’re just pointing out all the excellent ladies killing it out there.
Best Moment Of Audio Description- The Event (Dying For Sex)- it really shouldn’t be a spoiler, because the show is based on a true story and a popular podcast, so it is what it is,but the final moments of Molly were captured so beautifully, and then punctuated perfectly by Molly’s dying wish to Nikki that she not die with her mouth open, and Nikki then trying really hard to make good on that promise come hell or high water. A promise is a promise. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
runner Up: Runner Up: Cassian Contemplates (Andor)- This could be attributed to a few moments, but they were all these little moments that captured Diego Luna as cassian, and none of them involved using the word pensive. His reactions to a healer wanting to put her hands on his back, clearly had him full of questions about whether or not there’s any value in this moment, but they dodged the overused pensive. He also was preparing for was is clearly going to bleed into episode 8, and he’s looking out through a scope, and still contemplating what he saw. He even was sitting on his bed, rocking and thinking. I kept waiting for him to be pensive. he wasn’t. Now, I do think he furrowed his brows, but it was these really small moments in a really big show that pulled emotion from Luna’s performance and put it into a contextualized description. these winning moments can’t always be the coolest explosion, or the best description of a kick to the face. Sometimes, the simplicity is the challenge.
Worst Of…- hacks. I know. You didn’t think you’d see Hacks here, but i don’t know how we make the audio description track more helpful, but it might require a new team. I don’t have a problem with the narrator, but a fresh perspective on where to include description and how much we can get in, to a show that admittedly has a lot of dialogue, needs to find a way to do more somehow. there were so many moments where I felt that just basic stuf was being lost. For example, they took writers on a retreat, but it is impossible to tell anything about them other than “the Riff Killer”, or even how many there are. They also hop around Vegas, but full location changes happen without acknowledgment. there’s a scene where Deborah and Ava are asked to step out of the car when being pulled over, but that whole scene happens without ever mentioning either of them being handcuffed and put in the back of a police car. so, you don’t actually know that’s where they are until really the end of that scene, that they somehow ended up handcuffed in this car. I just have to believe there’s a possibility of more.