TV News: NBC surprisingly cancelled Suits LA after one season. Honestly, i figured just on name alone it would get another season, and the formula for rebooting old USA shows has triggered revival news now for Royal Pains. So, I figured the format was working. If I was NBC, i would have worked a deal to have a second season where Harvey became a series regular, to help fuel the audience. I’m not that big of a fan, I’m just surprised NBC didn’t try. I mean, Night Court is still on air… and they reworked it.
TV Shows Watched: Tales Of The underworld: S1E6 (Disney plus) with audio description, Andor: S2E9 (Disney plus) with audio description, Midcentury modern: S1E6 (Hulu) with audio description, Ghosts: S4E18 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, St Dennis Medical: Season Finale (Peacock) with audio description, #1 Happy Family USA: S1E4 (Amazon) with audio description, The Walkign Dead: Dead city: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, The Rehearsal: S1E4 (MAX) with audio description, North Of north: S1E7 (Netflix) with audio description, Jeopardy Masters: S3E2 (Hulu) with audio description, and The Four Seasons: S1E3 (Netflix) with audio description.
Best Episode: Andor- Following what I have come to believe is the best episode of a Star Wars show thus far, we had an nearly equally excellent episode that had the reverberations of the rebellion in the senate, cassian reaching a breaking point, Bix needing to make a tough decision, and a familiar friend fans have been waiting to see show up.
Runner Up: Midcentury modern- i really like this cast. I’m gonna miss the presence of Linda Lavin, and I hope the show still gets a second season. The sixth episode had our queens debating about whether or not to hire a maid, then they hire a hot male maid who does nothing but be hot, much to the chagrin of lavin’s character who can see what’s going on.
Worth Mentioning: The Four Seasons, The Rehearsal, Ghosts- Yes, The four Seasons kicked in. the 3rd episode was finally entertaining, and had moments of much needed humor the first two episodes were missing. I’m starting to see the possibilities. Coleman Domingo is also excellent. The Rehearsal has this weird and hilarious episode where Nathan feels like he’s running out of talent to help with the rehearsal, so in a very meta way he starts an acting school to prepare people for The Rehearsal, and then hires someone to play him, so he can instead follow a student around to see if his methods are effective. Lastly, I rounded out a top 5 with Ghosts, a reliable ensemble with a funny episode about Trevor’s daughter coming for a visit.
Best Audio Description- Andor- Again. this show is winning. the description of the Senate pods, and the retracting walkway, cassian’s bruised face, and the effor to highlight Diego’s amazing reaction to bix’s decision.
Runner Up: Tales Of The Underworld- it all kind of builds to this big climax. The first three episodes had more impressive description with all the use of the force, but I still love this choice of narrator.
Worth Mentioning: Midcentury Modern, #1 Happy Family USA, and The Four Seasons- the first is well written, and i still say don’t discount the simplicity of being able to hear Roy smiling in happy or funny scenes. #1 Happy Family is adult animation that always has something over the top to describe, and The four Seasons was gifted this bizarre Yert resort to try and describe, so we could laugh at it.
Best Performance: Diego Luna (Andor)- mostly for the last part of the episode. His reaction to bix is (spoiler) fucking heartbreaking. there’s another pull quote for you. but, it says everything. Again, I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Runner Up: Coleman Domingo (The Four seasons)- He has a couple of great scenes, notably one with Steve Carell where he points out that just because Carell got a new girlfriend doesn’t mean they should all have to suffer at this bizarre resort as a result.
Worth Mentioning: Linda Lavin (Midcentury Modern), Nathan Fielder (The Rehearsal), and Nathan lane (Midcentury Modern)- Lavin because her dry delivery is everything, and she’s the only one who can see the new maid is a fraud, Fielder because of the absurdity of the scenes he puts himself in with this direct and dry delivery, and lane because of the opening scene where they do Cell Block Tango AND later when he pretends to be butch.
Best Moment Of Audio description- Cassian’s Run (Andor)- Seriously, it’s like watching the end of the saddest movie ever. they should have just played Leaving On A Jet Plane in the middle of Star Wars for the most relatable sequence of the show.
runner Up: The Pods (Andor)- The little pods the Senate people get in to speak to each other, and the little retracting walkway, I thought that scene was really well described.
Worst Of…- Not part of my TV experience, which was really pretty solid across the board, but more of a reflection on how a specific individual would go out of their way to join an audio description community specifically to talk negatively about the concept of audio description. I saw someone’s initial post in a Facebook group about the legendary miles Neff and his audio description on Harry Potter, and how she didn’t like it, but also thought that blind people rely too much on audio description. I had one of those “who you?” Moments, where my head snapped like a queen on drag race. Like, you have to actively choose to be here. This is not being thrust upon you, and neither is audio description. Perhaps, since the individual doesn’t identify as blind or sighted, they aren’t blind.. and this concept is not actually for them, and the problem we now have, propagated by politics, is this idea of false freedom. It means we want to have the perception of the ability to do, but we also want to limit it to only things we approve of. Freedom to do anything within our acceptable means. you can read a book… from this approved list. You can be in the military… but check your gender identity at the door. Things that aren’t even for public safety, but rather just moral superiority.
Some had already responded to her, and she had directly stated in a reply “I do not like audio description.” Not specifically for one show, or by one narrator, but the whole concept of audio description, again without any identification of where she comes from as a blind or sighted person. So, she’s my pick for worst of, because she represents the worst in our society right now. the idea that your knowledge of something, mixed with the intentionality of extreme privilege, could compel an individual to step into a space that isn’t for them, to criticize the entire reason everyone is there.
there are plenty of things I don’t like, but their existence has no bearing on my own existence. I don’t tread over to Truth Social to tell everyone over there that I think they suck, because they have made a little niche that is clearly just for them to sit there and whine about how a migrant transgender athlete is the reason egg prices is so high. Sometimes I comment on the other side politically, because those people can pass laws that affect me, or even religiously, because some of those people believe I’m going to hell. but, i don’t knit, so i didn’t join a group on knitting to tell them I think knitting is dumb. We have lanes. we stay in them. Occasionally, we have a few lanes, and we can switch between them like on a 4 lane or 6 lane highway. but what she did is the social equivalent of believing all those lanes are for you, and driving headfirst into oncoming traffic. And there’s a lot of that. A lot of people are driving headfirst into topics they know nothing about, for causes that do not affect them, to exert their thoughts that have no basis in reality or fact.
i watched eleven shows and two movies yesterday. one of those movies was terrible. i had food, three square meals, a few snacks. I didn’t sleep well. I dealt with some emails, but also the crushing feeling of always being behind and not doing enough. I feel like I’m desperately trying to keep up most of the time, which is exasperated by my decision to try and join the Tomatometer this year, and knowing I’m under some weird scrutiny. All of this, on top of whatever weird shit Trump and Vance have dreamed up. I had all of that yesterday, and by far the worst thing was this random lady feeling like it was her divine right to join a forum dedicated to the excellence of audio description, and celebrating the continued vforward momentum of accessibility, with nothing but the express purpose of shitting all over it, and telling people like me that I have become too reliant upon accessibility specifically designed for someone like me, and I’m guessing not her. it’s funny that the thing she mentioned was Harry Potter, because this very much mirrors a certain author who can’t help but take to social media to discuss how the rights of a people she is not a part of, or even adjacent to, should not exist. Our forum should have a new requirement for those asking to join. Check your privilege outside the room, please and thank you.
