Yesterday, I kicked it off with S3E7 of Bridgerton (Netflix), which Liz Gutman has done such an exceptional job writing audio description for all season long. I was surprised that this was the second to last episode of the season, because I wasn’t sure where we were going next, but clearly Cressida has something up her sleeve. Can anyone really blame her? Her future sounds perpetually terrible. Either marry an old man, or go live in the country with her aunt. I think she’s a redeemable villain because of that, so I hope they don’t go too far with it.
Aside from that, I started Wandla (Apple Plus), which was excellent. The first episode, having this human child being raised by AI in an uncertain future was fun. I thought perhaps the show was aimed at a young audience, but now I’m questioning the age range. This one may have a bit more challenging material, a little like the sometimes dark Jurassic World series on Netflix. I’m looking forward to more, and the audio description was great. I’m unfamiliar with the source material, but at some point in the future, we put little kids in bunkers until the… it’s Fallout for kids. OK? Basically?
Speaking of “for kids”, Disney has drawn an uncomfortable line, and their two new animated shows for kids, Disney jr’s Ariel and Zombies: The Reanimated Series both landed on Disney plus without audio description. I watched the first three episodes of both so I could do a YouTube review, and officially call out Disney for again failing to understand that they should be striving to always do the most. Every company should. It is brand awareness. Stop trying to do the bare minimum for the disabled, and figure out how you can build that strong ass bridge so your brand recognition with parents is so strong they worship you for helping their blind children have better lives. Zombies may just be an inevitable extension of a Disney Channel film series, but Ariel? Brand loyalty to this character alone should have shot up a red flag on this show. The fact that Disney has a show aimed at little kids starring a child version of the young and famous princess, but doesn’t want blind kids to participate is beyond me. The first episode is even about what makes us great is that everyone is different. great, now what does that really mean for you? It’s easy to say that you are an ally, it is a lot harder to do the work.
I also watched the second episode of The Bear (Hulu), where the show started to resemble itself again. After the dread that looms through the entire premiere, our “Bear” comes up with a list of things that are non-negotiable in how their restaurant is going to get to having a star. There’s pushback, and in fighting, and the series still doesn’t feel like a comedy, but at least I’m starting to see what I thought worked so well in Season 2. That premiere was so dark for this show.
And on That 90’s Show (Netflix), we get some cool 90’s things mentioned, like Hot Topic! Where some of the gang wants to work. Meanwhile, are Red and Kitty in a rut?
My Lady Jane (Amazon) I’m reasonably too far on to really talk about details. I’m trying to get through shows faster so I can review them, and I’m not sure everyone else is as far as I am. Needless to say, things are afoot. And, to its credit, I think I finally landed on an episode that actually didn’t lag, and filled its runtime. I didn’t feel the length, and I didn’t think it needed to be shorter. Perhaps the answer is not putting a label on the runtime of a show, and allowing streaming shows to dictate the runtime of each episode as needed. the bear does that, as does Stranger Things. And those two shows are doing really well, aren’t they?