TV Shows Watched: Down Cemetery Road: S1E1 (Apple TV) with audio description, Wayward: S1E? (Netflix) with audio description, Tracker: S3E2 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Rick And Morty: S8E4 (HBO MAX) with audio description, The Sisters Grimm: S1E4 (Apple TV) with audio description, The Paper: S1E? (Peacock) with audio description
Down Cemetery Road- Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson star in this new mystery from the team behind Slow Horses. I need to speak on something. It may just be that aging thing,but I’ve always considered myself to fit in with a younger mindset anyway. I still love cartoons, and would definitely be playing Call Of duty right now, if it was accessible. But, we have this growing trend, which I’ve noticed, and it is now plaguing Apple at the worst level. the “this season on” which is laden with spoilers. Now, Amazon does it after the episodes, as does Hulu (Chad Powers notably has one if you really aren’t sold on it for some reason). But Apple actually decided I needed it before the pilot even began. I needed a “this season on” before their first episode could ever speak for itself. We have become so aware that streaming has caused the elimination of pilot season, and therefore, pilots, that people are worried that their first episodes now no longer work, so if they don’t entice you to come back… but BEFORE the episode? You had me. I already clicked play on the episode. There’s an understanding here that we’ve made, that I will be checking out this show, and giving it a shot to rope me in. the sad thing is, the pilot is pretty solid. It isn’t perfect, and I have a lot of questions about why this one woman (Wilson) is hellbent on investigating when she’s not a reporter or related, but maybe that’ll come out in a later episode. for now, I would have watched a second episode, for sure, even if I wasn’t doing a review. Apple actually gave me access to this like over a month ago for review purposes, but I waited for it to have audio description. They obviously believe in it. why is there an ad for the show now before the show? Are we that stupid as a population? Has social media, cellphones, or short form content killed attention spans so much that you feel that without that preview… your show dies? I have news for you. It’s a British crime/mystery/thriller from the people who brought you Slow horses starring Emma Thompson. The audience most affected by new trends, Gen Alpha, has a zero perfect chance they know what this is. Your target demo for this are people who still need their kids/grandkids to help them with tech stuff. Kids don’t watch Slow horses. High schoolers obsessed with K-Pop Demon Hunters and the Summer they turned pretty aren’t anticipating the next Emma Thompson thing. Please stop treating your audiences like we’re too addled to sit in one spot for fifty minutes and make up our own minds about a TV show, like we used to, when pilots were crafted to hook audiences in from the start. This is a good start for a likely solid series.
Wayward- Possibly the most screentime yet for Toni Collette as we get her backstory, and Alex is concerned about basically everything now, especially his wife, who may not want to run after all. Though, if she can break the hold that Collette has over the town, do they actually need to run? Meanwhile, best friends start slowly drifting apart, and Rabbit grows a bit of a personality.
Tracker- Man, I really wanted The process to run longer than two episodes. Like, I don’t think I’ve been so excited for Tracker and the possibilities, until The process appeared. I know they needed his brother to move on since Jensen Ackles isn’t a series regular, but I’m holding out hope that Jillian is still very much working The Process.
Rick and Morty- The Easter Episode. Brilliant. Best Episoe of the season. And the AD (IDC, written by Steven Christopher) was really good.
The Sisters Grimm- I’m not giving up. There’s a mystery here, and by God I want to solve it. This is what I mean when I say I’m still a kid. I can watch the Sisters Grimm right after Rick and Morty as if they are the same thing.
The Paper- Some truly great humor here about someone supposedly going into someone else’s dreams night after night and having their way with someone. I laughed. I actually forgot what the main thread was, because the second plot was so hilariously stupid it beat out the reporters doing actual journalism. Also, Peppermint scented toilet paper? What? Still really great audio description as well.