TV Shows Watched: Agatha All Along: S1E7 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Beauty In Black: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: S2E2 (Netflix) with audio description, Territory: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Teacup: S1E5 (Peacock) with audio description, Hysteria: S1E6 (Peacock) with audio description, and Frasier: S2E? (Paramount Plus) with audio description.
podcasts: Friends From Work (A Marvel podcast)
YouTube: FishJelly Film Review (review: Venom The Last Dance)
Movies Watched: The prince and Me (Netflix) with audio description, and Caddo Lake (MAX) with audio description
And the comments are…
Agatha All Along- I thought this week was really well done in terms of audio description. lots of really difficult stuff, little Easter eggs, and an episode that threw linear storytelling out the window. We followed Lilya’s story, all the way back to when she was a young girl, but we didn’t start there. everything was woven, and yet the audio description followed the train of thought as it was given to us. there were references to transformations into more famous witches for the challenge, with a direct name check of Maleficent. We found out a little more about Rio, and that quick skeleton flash worked well. I thought the reappearance of the Salem Seven was effectively (and creepily) described. I am unnerved by things that don’t appear to be walking at a natural angle. Plus, there were all the tarot cards and the swords. A lot of description, a lot of time jumping. A terrific episode overall, but some really solid description.
Beauty In black- This one isn’t going to last long on my list, though not due to a lack of audio description. I didn’t realize I was diving into a Tyler Perry show, and I have better things to do with my life. Though, it is so interesting to think about his trajectory, from producing church plays to this. I suppose you could still tie some religious element in here, but our female lead is a sex worker, in a show with extremely dark undertones. there’s also another lead who seems successsful, but is revealed to be a garbage human. Basically, everyone here was an awful person, except our very sad lead girl who is struggling to breathe. The audio description was pretty good. I think one character was described as the man with the shirt, which really made me think ‘were the others not wearing shirts?”, but maybe I misunderstood. There’s some violence against women, and the audio description doesn’t shy away from that. This series also really leads me to believe there will be continued violence against women, if that’s not your thing. I do like the choice of narrator, and thought he really complimented the darkness of the underbellly, while also sounding appropriate for a show that at the beginning just straight up chose to tell the audience that the cast is predominantly black, instead of introduce everyone as black individually. It isn’t the worst Tyler Perry I’ve seen, but it is so bleak from the start, and I can’t see myself going on this journey for much longer.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory- you know what little thought I had about a show that in some ways is now in its 7th season, since this is basically a continuation of Camp Cretaceous? This show is really educational more for blind kids than you might think. A lot of times, the show will directly tell you what kind of dinosaur is on screen, branching fr out beyond the typical dinos most kids are familiar with. And even though we don’t get an in-depth description of each one, for a id who likes dinosaurs, it might be the excellent spark needed to get that kid to research for themselves whaat Dino that was. I used to enjoy doing stuff like that as a kid, and in a low key way, chaos Theory offers that likely unintentionally through the audio description.
territory- Or as it shall henceforth be known Australian Yellowstone, is kinda boring. It’s supposed to be this expansive drama, like if Yellowstone was in the outback. the main lead even loses a son in the pilot just like they did in Yellowstone. I think people forget that happened, but it did, way back at the beginning. So the parallel’s are really quite stark. I thought the audio description was fine. The violence was told well. I’m not sure that racial diversity was on the minds of anyone here, but I also feel like with Yellowstone, this cast probably has the same look. granted, Yellowstone has some indigenous actors, but for the most part, it is all one thing. Like, the opposite of Beauty In Black, but neither show really offers you a singular vision you’d be excited to follow.
Teacup- A little less crazy, and a little more backstory this episode. Also, I think this was the longest episode thus far, though I could be wrong. It explained a lot, which oddly is what S1E5 of Hysteria does. What’s up with the 5th episodes of Peacock shows? I was initially not fully on board with the almost kind tone Jabari brings to the audio description, but this show is proving to be more than just body horror. It’s shaping out to be a better choice than you would think after the first 2-3 episodes.
Hysteria- The audio description is being given more and more stuff to really dig into, but I’m also disliking the show more and more. I wanted it to be what it looked like, which was a reflection of parents fears of their kids listening to this type of music. There was a way even other high schoolers looked at those goth types, and to see this show having the popular kids joining in on the fun made it interesting enough. Now there’s a cult, and apparently real demons. Maybe. All I know, is that I’m almost done with this show, and bruce Campbell has been in basically every episode with a substantial role. Why in God’s name is he listed as a guest star? I think there are only 2 episodes left.
Frasier- i casually enjoy this reboot a little, but not as much as the original series. This episode had Frasier writing a memoir, and his old agent from the original show guest starred. For sitcom description, it does a good job.