In the news, one woman rises as another falls. Nora O’Donnell has decided to end her tenure at CBS News, leading the way for new faces to report the nightly news to the fans of the FBI franchise. Also, Carrie Underwood is filling the void left by Katy Perry. Fans have long been asking for an alumni to join the panel, and it was rumored that some were in the mix when ABC was looking to restart the franchise. However, they didn’t go that way. Luke and Lionel will be heading into their 8th season as judges, putting them pretty close to having the longest tenure on the show ever as judges. 8 seasons ties them with Paula Abdul, who left the show in Season 8. Next, they will need to match Simon Cowell, the iconic judge most associated with the show at 9 seasons, before tackling reigning champ Randy Jackson, who has the record 12 seasons as a judge. Both Luke and Lionel have already surpassed a host of big names, including Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, Harry Connick jr, Steven Tyler, Mariah Carey, and others, who have significantly less, even less than Katy Perry at 7 seasons.
TV Shows Watched: In addition to today’s feature, Batman: The Caped Crusader: S1E1 and S1E2 (Amazon) with audio description, Evil: Most Recent Episode (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Kite Man: Hell Yeah- S1E4 (MAX) with audio description, Time Bandits (S1E4 (Apple Plus) with audio description, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Most Recent Episode (Hulu) with audio description (finally).
Podcasts (all through Apple Podcasts with Speed Modification)- Apple News In conversation (What we eat is bad for us), Gold Mines With Kevin Hart (Interview With Whoopi Goldberg), Start Here (Current Events), Up First (Current Events)
YouTube: Jeremy Jahns (Reaction To Robert Downey Jr Casting), Cody Leach (Rant About Spoilers)
Movies: Food Inc 2 (Apple Store) No Audio Description, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (MAX) with audio description
Today’s Feature:
A Good Girls Guide To Murder: S1E1 (Netflix)
Don’t touch that dial. You didn’t miss anything. This is the first episode, and it just is structured in a way where the murder, the crime, is something that is in the past. In many ways, this show feels like it drops right in the middle of an investigation, or a season, but it is one of those murder mysteries that is choosing when to tell you something, assuming that if you know very little, you won’t be able to guess where it is headed. In fact, that’s likely true, as we know very little even by the end of the first episode, but glimpses of knowledge. A very interesting approach to the murder mystery that is a showcase for Emma Myers while she’s waiting to film Season 2 of Wednesday. Her friend is dead, and another friend is the assumed killer, but she doesn’t believe he did it. She wants to prove he’s innocent, find the real killer, but her friends don’t think she should live in the past. A revelation at the end of the first of six episodes supports her theory that the real killer might still be out there.
What I look For In The Audio Description: A teen murder mystery, almost like a Nancy Drew type show, is going to be very detailed oriented. And the fact that this all happens after the fact, and we don’t get to know any of the people and what they were like before, means that the parsing out of knowledge is very intentional. that means, visual clues are very intentional as well. I’m really interested to see how this show’s audio description supports it. It is current, so costuming should be easy, however, race is vocally brought up in the first episode, and not in a good vibes way. It is very possible that race plays some part in the final moments, so knowing the most about these characters might be important to the plot. Specific to the first episode, they do put on some costumes, which would be a special occasion audio description need. I’m assuming they don’t always don costumes. Cell phones are used, which means we will have to get pertinent text info from those conversations. Also, a British show, usually means British narrator.
What It Actuall Does: I was mostly pleasantly surprised by Roundabout here. I’m not always a fan of theirs, but this description mostly works. I feel like we could get more description of the characters, though it is so hard to tell who here is a minor character and who isn’t because the structure makes you feel like you started Season 2. But, there’s so much detail in some of the oddest places. I loved the descritpion of the black garland being wrapped around certain trees in one scene, I thought that was such a little detail that helped bring color to that moment. I had one moment, when the jogging girl runs by, where I interpreted the audio description as labeling Pip’s dog as Pip, in terms of the dog barking and running toward the jogger. the description said Pip, but I think it should have been the dog, whose name I didn’t even really pick up on. It’s pretty easy to remember the name of the lead character though. the choice of narrator here is good, and a lot of the other stuff we won’t fully be able to appreciate until the run of the show is over, as far as clues go. I don’t know how this ends, so i don’t know what was important or not in this episode, but it certainly felt a lot better than usual, and I applaud Roundabout for hiring a voice talent who doesn’t sound so monotone I assume they are AI.
Final Thoughts: This will be a love it or hate it show. Some people will feel like they know too little in the beginning, and therefore the show is too demanding. However, when we have no shortage of crime procedurals and murder mysteries, I’m looking forward to this attempt at doing something different. plus, it is only six episodes, and Emma Myers has been pretty terrific so far.
