TV News: So, i heard that Disney plus is close to ordering a second season of Miss Marvel. But, aside from that rumor, I wanted to dive in a bit more on the Ted Lasso fourth season. Part of the reason this appears to have traction is that the options on several cast members were picked up, but not Jason Sudekis. I don’t know if his contract works differently as the star, or if he always had an exit strategy planned. There was a rumor while the show was having its final season that we might see Ted Lasso continue in a new form without Ted, so i wonder if this might be that. Basically, a new name, to represent the new show, but everyone returning (basically) except the title lead. I can’t think of too many shows that actually thrived creatively after losing their anchor, but some shows handled it better than others. I mean, they are running grey’s Anatomy without a single Grey on the show anymore. NCIS is somehow surviving without Mark Harmon. But, are either of those shows at their creative peak?
TV Shows Watched: Bel Air: S3E5 (Peacock) with audio description, Interview With A Vampire: S2E6 (AMC Plus) no audio description, 911: S6E10 (Hulu) with audio description, That 90’s Show: S3E5 and S3E6 (Netflix) with audio description, Wyatt Earp: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Desperate Housewives: S2E10 (Hulu) no audio description, and Frazier: ???? (Paramount Plus) no audio description).
Podcasts: The Rewatchables (review: Rudy), the John Campia podcast (Movie News), The Ezra Klein Show (Politics), Consider This (News/Politics), Assembly Required With Stacy Abrams (Politics)
Movies: Oddity (Apple Store) with audio description, and Tuesday (Apple Store) with audio description
I buried the lead. You dirty bastards.Like, what in the holy shit is this? So, I heard a rumor a while back when I was doing recaps of Daryl Dixon using my AMC Plus subscription that the show had recorded audio description. When i was watching it, there was no audio description track available. I consistently see Shudder titles, with audio description, head to theatres and later die on their service. They are capable of it, their app is poorly designed, and they have very little audio description. Then, Netflix inks a deal with them, and Daryl Dixon pops up… with mother fucking audio description.
It should be fundamentally illegal how the industry, not just AMC Networks, is oddly profiting off their accessibility. If you offer it sporadically, it almost ofreces the blind community to have to throw their money at everything, because God knows where the audio description will pop up. Why isn’t AMC using their own audio description? Is it because they can get people to subscribe who want to watch it day and date, and then sell the rights later to Netflix for people who want audio description? So, if you want accessibility, you need a second subscription to achieve this?
They aren’t the only ones doing this. Plenty of shows and movies have audio description that exists and doesn’t travel. It’s why I get a little bitchy when I see a service owned by a parent company that has a film that has audio description, yet it can’t even appear on their own streaming service with accessibility. Why? Probably because they released a digital copy or physical copy they want us to buy. Gotta nickel and dime the blind community to death. And our digital download companies fucking suck as well. they can’t be motivated to even make sure they all have the same accessibility. They are complacent with the fact that their competitor got the audio description track for a film that they didn’t get.
I’m generally aware of what is dropping on Fandango or Amazon, but I do like to prioritize my digital library on the Apple Store. Apple *just* fucking got audio description for Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, after it dropped on Netflix. This shit had been in theatres, on other services, and finally on Netflix before some lazy ass realized “oh maybe we should have this too.” They are guilty right now of hosting films like The Watchers and kill without audio description, despite the fact that at least one of their direct competitors was offered the track they had in theatres.
I mean, there are so many examples here. I waited a month of bugging Hulu to get audio description for the 20th Century Fox title The First omen before just reviewing it as a blind person. I did the same thing for gran Turismo, which Sony dropped on Netflix in December. It took months for that to get audio description. Hulu took months to find the audio description track for the Royal Hotel. These things are just not a priority. I still didn’t get a chance to go back and rewatch Chevalier after Hulu added that came sometime far after it debuted on Hulu, and I *still* have people responding to my review of Emily the Criminal from Netflix because I reviewed it without audio description, because that is how Netflix acquired it. They added it later, but what the fuck.
how hard is it really to do a job. A simple job. take a look at the list of releases you have coming up, and make sure you have acquired all available and existing accessibility for that title. Why is this an impossible task? You’d think I was asking someone to climb Everest in their underwear with no gear.
The legal requirement should be:
A) If you own a film/TV series, it is your responsibility to make the transition of that audio description as easy as fucking possible.
2) if you own a film/TV series, and also own your own streamer, you should be legally required to host your own audio description THAT YOU PAID FOR.
3) If we can buy the film with audio description (with the exemption being how Amazon creates audio description for things they don’t own) you should be legally required to have that audio description track on your service. This would cover companies like Sony that do not have their own streamer.
This would remove the concept that as blind people it is our obligation to pay for 10 different subscriptions, and also rent/purchase films because audio description pass through is so incredibly and offensively unreliable. Stop making me pay more for being blind. It’s bad enough that even following these guidelines, streamers would be very unlikely to get above 10% of their content described (except Apple Plus). And, for Amazon, if you make the audio description track for purchase, it needs to be available when the movie is on prime. Making people pay more for accessibliity should be illegal. We already have to buy extra equipment to survive. i shouldn’t need to spend five dollars just for an audio description track to a film I technically already have the right to watch as part of my subscription, simply because the audio description is some weird fucking premium add on.
this has been another edition of fuck you very much. Tomorrow, we’ll return you to your regularly scheduled rant.