TV Shows Watched: Monsters: EPS 8 and 9 (Netflix) with audio description, Solar Opposites: S5E8 (Hulu) with audio description, English Teacher: S1E5 (Hulu) with audio description, 911: Lone Star: S5E1 (FOX) no audio description, Brilliant Minds: S1E1 (Peacock) no audio description, and Only Murders In The Building: S4E5 (Hulu) with audio description.
Podcasts: The Christian Harloff Show (The Penguin Reactions), The Ezra Klein Show (Interview: Mayor Pete)
YouTube: none
Movies: None
OK. So, the fall season is upon us. I’ve now watched a handful of new network TV shows: Universal Basic Guys, High Potential, Rescue: high Surf, and Brilliant minds. None of those shows had audio description the next day on either Hulu or Peacock. So, my rant here is… am I somehow less important? Because, I’m definintely not watching a second episode of at least two of those four shows. I’m probably done with Brilliant minds, which felt like it was vomited out of an algorithm that designed a show based on the equation “Good Doctor + New Amsterdam =) and is nowhere near as interesting as its time slot predecessor Quantum Leap, or even some of the other abandoned NBC dramas (Council Of Dads got a raw deal). but the fact that NBC couldn’t pass through the AD for the pilot, at the same time it put up the episode…
It’s not like they live in some fast breaking world news universe where things happen on the fly. This premiere has been planned for months. Likely, as it was a network drama, this pilot was filmed before the rest of the season. there’s zero reason why yesterday I should have had any window of access where it didn’t have audio description, unless NBC just doesn’t want me to watch it.
I feel the same way for High Potential, another show I’m on the bubble over. It has an interesting lead performance that is coaxing me back for one more episode, but why couldn’t ABC get the audio descritpion to Hulu? First impressions matter, and if networks are talking about declining viewership, then every vote should count, right? If you want eyes on your show, or people talking about it, then don’t cut out a chunk of your audience by being lazy.
