TV News: Shocking news. Like, just across the board. First, there’s news that Netflix is developing a revival sequel series to One Tree Hill with two of the original cast members. For a show that started off as two brothers that lived in a small town and both had basketball dreams, and ended without either of them being series regulars, it should come as no surprise that the sequel series once again looks nothing like the original show. Then, Netflix, once again in their infinite wisdom, decided to cancel Dead boy Detectives. As a result, I will stop watching Netflix programming before the season ends. Just enough to give a little review, but enough to fuck with their algorithm.This is made easy since I could take or leave both of their new shows, Terminator Zero and Khaos. A thread I saw on my FB feed, I believe from TV Line, had many of the posters dragging Netflix for cancelling this, but continuing to stick with things like Emily In Paris and That 90’s Show.
TV Shows Watched: Khaos: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description, Terminator Zero: S1E3 and S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, The Rings Of Power: S2E2 (Amazon) with audio description, Bel Air: S3E6 (Peacock) with audio description, 911: S6E10 (Hulu) with audio description, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Season Finale (Hulu) no audio description provided at time, Cheers: S?E? (Paramount Plus) no audio description, and Designing Women: S3E? (Hulu) no audio description.
Podcasts: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Podcast (Spider-Man 4 News), The Big Thing (Movie News)
YouTube: The Oscar Expert (Animation/International/Doc Oscar Predictions), Breakfast All Day (Review: Strange Darling), FishJelly Reviews (Review: The Deliverance), Chris Stuckmann (Review: Alien Romulus), and Movies and Munchies (Review: The Deliverance).
Movies: The deliverance (Netflix) with audio description, and The Watchers (MAX) with audio description
So, while I’ve decided to quite likely not finish these new Netflix shows, that means I should dive into them. I’m not quite ready to discuss Khaos, so I’ll have to do another episode of that, but I feel like I can definitely discuss the dull Terminator Zero. Before talking about the audio description, I need to say that I really do enjoy the films in this franchise. Even the most mediocre release, which in my opinion is Terminator: Genisys is still watchable. I’m excited to see original takes that aren’t just Arnold coming back, or John Connor saving the world. This is its own thing, so it should be more interesting. I think this is Terminator: Anime, which might explain things, but that’s really no excuse.
I do think this is a little slow. Timothy Olyphant voicing The Terminator isn’t as interesting as one would assume. Then again, I’m halfway through, so maybe there’s some major twist ahead. In terms of audio description, this is Diffuse, which seems to get a lot of traction for a very average (if not below average) provider. I would say that the character descriptions here could be stronger. but, the show itself could be stronger. I wish someone who was really excited about finding a bright new future for Terminator could be given the reigns. go do your own thing.
but to make dull matters worse, Diffuse loves to go with Vito De Philippe, who I’ve had this odd relationship with as a critic. I almost feel like I’m beating a dead horse here. Casting is everything guys, I can’t stress that enough. Even when you think about who is reading an audio book, there’s a reason Gilbert Gottfried isn’t reading A Tale Of Two Cities. Even though this is “accessibility’, there are levels, and quality. When you think about how all these devices we are handed give us the option to choose the voice that fits us, they are acknowledging how important that is. While we can’t just have the narrator of our choice all the time, we can put effort into matching a narrator to the tone of the show.
Vito is too sleepy here. He’s actually more on ambien than usual. He seems to never really pick up the pace, or the tone, and it is just so flat even for him. Like, he was less distracting on under Paris. here, I’m listening to a bedtime story. I do think that when you tackle a sci-if franchise, the audio description is going to be a task to deliver. That makes me nervous hiring Diffuse.
Diffuse isn’t exactly known for the best audio description. The Decameron was a period drama that frequently dodged period references. Instead of telling us the style of a piece of clothing, or even some colors, we just got “cut to the chase” stuff like “a fancy dress”. So the fact that I’m having a hard time figuring out what all these characters look like, in this future world full of robots. Even the robots, I wanted to know more about what the early versions looked like. Sunny on Apple Plus is a better developed robot.
So, when I’m looking at potentially not finishing this show, it’s not like the description is helping to motivate me further. I’m just disappointed by this all around. If you want a good Terminator show, I think The Sarah Connor Chronicles is still on Hulu.
