TV News: Zach Braff is out there apparently starting rumors about a Scrubs revival. Also, people are being optimistic about this Ted Lasso thing. So, three cast members had their options extended, but it is important to note that the American cast, like Jason sudekis and Juno Temple initially did not have theirs picked up, and their options expired. What has changed? Part of me wonders if they are planning to do this without Sudekis, and have finally figured out how to make that work.
TV Shows Watched: The Rings of Power: S2E1 (Amazon) with audio description, Kite Man Hell Yeah: S1E8 (MAX) with audio description, Chaos: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Name That Tune: Most recent (Hulu) No Audio Description, and Terminator Zero: S1E1 and S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description.
Podcasts: Access Fuckery (Liz Gutman’s awesome podcast), The john Campia Show Podcast (Movie News), Fly On the Wall With Dana Carvey and David Spade (interview: Matt rife), and The Axe Files with David Axelrod (Interview: Nancy Pelosi)
YouTube: None
Movies: You Gotta believe (Screener, Now In Theatres) No Audio Description
I’ve got some heavy hitters up there. A season premiere. Two series premieres. So, this section could be anything. it could be me pointing out that the section with the primordial blob in the Season premiere of The Rings of Power was some nice audio description, or my acknowledgement that it was just two days ago when I talked about translating a song and then The Rings Of Power does it to some Elven hymn. I’d say it still doesn’t matter, but here at least it doesn’t seem to be unnecessary background music, and is featured at the time when it is being sung, and no one is trying to have a conversation on top or around it. I assume the sighted audience got subtitles, so we got translation.
But, I also want to acknowledge my choice to review You Gotta Believe, which will be coming later today. yes, I was sent a screener, direct from the distributor. We did have a back and forth about audio description, which they didn’t have for this, and i watched it anyway. Part of why I got into the critics groups was to change the idea that from the beginning they should be thinking about audio description, even from the screener stage. I went through the independent Spirit Awards last year with all those screeners, trying to chase down distributors for audio description, and most of them ignored me. the fact was, no one was sending out accessible screeners. So, while I still feel like I can’t definitively grade You gotta Believe, this isn’t my first rodeo, and I’m still working on trying to change the accessibility level of screeners. It opened up a conversation about accessibility at least, which I’m going to force myself to be optimistic about because otherwise my life is nothing but a steady stream of realizing this industry does not care. Just does not. At all.
Look for that review later today, and if you are among the sighted who follow me, You Gotta Believe opens today in what I assume is a semi-wide release.