TV News: It’s that time when FOX/Disney is looking at whether or not to renew The Simpsons and Family Guy, which both typically get a multi-year deal. This year is different, as the talk now includes “should one, or both, become streaming exclusives?” The Simpsons has long been an exclusive for Disney plus, and Family Guy for Hulu (after a long and fruitful run on Netflix). These two shows could very well leave the television landscape for a streaming one, if that is the more viable place for them. What would that mean for the rest of Animation Domination? That’s a great question. FOX seems committed to making more new shows, but without the two anchors, there’s really no reason to keep putting them on FOX. Since Futurama was successfully revived on Hulu, and they’re also working on a King of The Hill revival, Hulu might be the new home of Animation Domination. What would finally seal the deal is the next time Bob’s Burgers is up for negotiation, as that would be the last major show on network TV. I think at least one of the shows, probably Family Guy, will move to streaming as an experiment. The greater question about The Simpsons is how long can that show go? That cast can’t live forever.
TV Shows Watched: Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War: S1E6 (Netflix) with audio description, The Ark: S2E6 (peacock) with audio description, Khaos: S1E6 (Netflix) with audio description, The English Teacher: S1E1 and S1E2 (Hulu) with audio description, and only Murders In The Building: S4E2 (Hulu) with audio description
Podcasts: Dinner’s On Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Interview: Ashley Park), Handsome (Interview: Seth Meyers), and The Rewatchables (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
YouTube: Adam Does movies (Review: The Deliverance)
Movies: Fight Club (with audio description)
Once again, Khaos? No. I’m finding myself oddly needing every episode of that, because I’m not fully convinced the description is the best it could be. I did start English Teacher today, which I could talk about, but it is a sitcom, and the narration is fairly simple. So, since I finished it today, I’ll focus on Wyatt Earp and the cowboy War.
This is one of those historical documentary type programs where actors play things out in reenactments to make things more fun for the audience, and so Netflix can get six episodes instead of a two hour documentary. The series focuses on all the stuff about Wyatt Earp you may not have known,unless you are Kevin Costner. Interestingly though, Ed Harris narrates. I love that. I also did feel like it was a missed opportunity. Did someone call Costner at least?
But when Ed Harris isn’t speaking, some collegiate types are giving historical context on the things that happened during the Cowboy War. For example, these people always seemed older than they actually were. Their ages surprised me, especially since Wyatt defies the odds and makes it for quite a while. The audio description is interesting, because it focuses on the reenactments. So, structurally, it is there for enjoyment sake. When you watch something like this, the stuff being relayed to you through the primary narrator (Harris) and the talking heads, that is the meat of the knowledge being passed through to you. The reenactments featuring actors you’ve never seen before are the shiny objects there to distract you. And the audio description has to focus on the visuals, which is largely this part that we really didn’t need. So, when you get the audio description, you get stuff like “Ike puffs on his cigar”, but in a weird way, it is like this movie being narrated under the documentary. like, the narration is rarely interested in the talking heads or what they are wearing, or their facial expressions, so it focuses on these staged scenes put together because that’s how we consume this level of entertainment. I find this all fascinating in many ways, because on one hand, that section is truthfully unnecessary, but at the same time, what else would there be to audio describe? If they didn’t do reenactments, do they have stills or artifacts to show us? or, would it just become an impossible to narrate talking head doc?
Whether or not this is deep thinking, or filmmaking, I was engaged for six episodes, and I now know a little more about Wyattt Earp, the OK Corral, and a man named Ike Clanton. I was entertained a little along the way, and I’m not entirely sure that was a bad thing.