TV News: A couple more tidbits on renewals/cancellations. NBC also axed The Irrational,leaving them as the network of slaughter. i couldn’t find any official news on Grosse Pointe Garden Society, but that can’t possibly still be in consideration. I think their only remaining bubble series is Brilliant Minds, among scripted programs. And, it appears ABC hasn’t officially decided on Dr Odyssey either. However, if you are afraid The last Of Us won’t get to finish the story, HBO has already committed to a third season, but Paramount Plus/Showtime is leaving Yellowjackets hanging. Netflix also hasn’t decided on ransom Canyon, and Hulu still has to make moves on Midcentury Modern and Deli boys. Amazon also hasn’t done anything with The bondsman yet.
TV Shows Watched: Jurassic World: Chaos Theory- S3E5 (Netflix) with audio description, The Walking dead: Dead city: S2E2 (AMC Plus) no audio description, Government Cheese: S1E5 (Apple Plus) with audio description, The Stolen Girl: S1E1 (Disney Plus) no audio description, Got To Get out: S1E5 (Hulu) with audio description, 911: S8E? (Hulu) with audio description, Lazarus: S1E5 (MAX) with audio description, Devil May Cry: S1E7 (Netflix) with audio description, Yes Chef: S1E1 (Peacock) with audio description, SNL: Jack Black (Peacock) with audio description, Bosch: Legacy: S3E1 (Amazon) with audio description, and Running Point: S1E10 (Netflix) with audio description.
Best Episode: The Stolen Girl- I have to say, i was immediately intrigued, but this show doesn’t have audio description, which is so weird because I swear I saw someone taking credit for having worked on the AD for this… specifically for Disney Plus. I even tried playing the episode through just the Hulu app. There’s no audio description on either. The mystery is great, even though at its core is a mother with a child who has never heard the word no in her life being felled by someone honking the hell out of a horn. Like, that’s basically what the whole thing hinges on. If her daughter had ever heard the word No in her life, and there was no horn… this series would have had a much slower build.
Runner Up: Running Point- Other than that very last moment of the season, which would be a terrible path to waste time on exploring in the second season, this is a solid season finale.
Worth Mentioning: Got To Get Out, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, and Bosch Legacy- Man, i really wanted to say SNL, but they rely far too much on Jack Black starting to sing out of nowhere. Once was enough. He does have other skills. So, the season opener for Bosch was fine, Jurassic World is always reliable, and someone did actually finally “get out” of that reality show, which doesn’t seem like the best reason to include the show, but it was then followed by two players quitting… so you can just quit? Everyone’s been miserable without alcohol and they could have already just left? I thought their contracts were preventing them from walking out without an emergency. So the episode was worth a good laugh.
Best Audio description: SNL- Really, all things considered, ever since we got audio description, we made a giant leap forward. At first, it was screaming at us. Then, the timing was off. now, it just feels like this reliable thing we can count on to give us all the visual elements we’re missing out on. Like, Mike Meyers as Elon had this hat, which we never would have known, and it also had a spinning mechanism. So, a sight gag within a sight gag. Little things like that can go a long way.
Runner Up: Jurassic World: Chaos theory- Always solid. Between dinosaur attacks, there’s an actual story, but I always love how the description uses the specific term for each dinosaur. it could encourage young blind kids to get even more interested in paleontology. this series uses a wider variety than the movies do.
Worth Mentioning: Bosch Legacy, Devil May Cry, and Running Point- These three would fill out the Top 5 shows for the day.
Best Performance: Denise Goff (the Stolen Girl)- OK. I see you. Not literally, but after doing solid work on Andor, Gough is finally making her lead debut and is totally believable as a mother whose child goes missing, with there definitely being more to the story.
Runner Up: Kate Hudson (running Point)- She carried the show all season long, and don’t even play around with that ending. the show is good not great, and bringing that person back into the mix would be an intentional foul. Hudson deserves to lead this show, and it needs her to.
Worth Mentioning: Jack Black (SNL), Elton John (SNL), Mike Meyers (SNL)- Black came back to SNL with all the energy that made you wonder why he hadn’t hosted in so long. It feels like an egregious error that he isn’t a five timer, but clearly no one can write for him. However, he was up for anything, and tried to make every joke work which is usually what he tries to do. Elton John was fantastic, and I loved having him there. And, Mike Meyers doing Elon is priceless.
Best Moment Of Audio Description: Honestly, the Hat (SNL) So Elon has a cheesehead hat on, which is a visual element, and he can spin it around. So, it really is a double sight gag. A gag within a gag. Without knowing one, we don’t get the other, so the level of understanding on this simple moment really came through.
Runner Up: Handling The Handler (Chaos theory)- there’s a moment where the villain turns her laser on the handler to show her the raptors are unreliable in their alliances, but the handler is a non-verbal character, so the show has to capture complex emotional responses from an animated non-verbal character who has been a constant now for three seasons. I thought, with the trembling fist, the covered it nicely.
Worst Of… A few shows without audio description, i don’t know what is up with The Stolen Girl, so I have to keep pegging AMC Plus as the loser of the day for still not having audio description on The Walking Dead Dead city, or really anything ever at all.
