Just as a note to my readers, if you want to head over to my YouTube, I did a livestream yesterday with Alex Howard from the dark Room where we talked for the length of a feature film (or an episode of The Last Nights On Tremore Beach) about the Best Supporting Actress race, and other stuff. We got off track a lot. But, he’s also got a zoom experience where the Dark Room boys are going to be working with a class to give feedback on the audio description they created. So, they’ve got that stuff on their Insta. Follow us on our other platforms for some exciting stuff.
TV Shows Watched: The Day Of The Jackal: S1E4 (Peacock) with audio description, Say Nothing: S1E2 (Hulu) with audio description, The Legend Of Vox Machina: S3E9 (Amazon) with audio description, The Last Nights On Tremore Beach: S1E6 (Netflix) with audio description, Have I Got News For you?: Most Recent (MAX) no audio description, Tulsa King: S2E? (Paramount Plus) with audio description, and Happy’s Place: S1E5 (Peacock) with audio description.
Podcasts: None
YouTube: the Awards Contender (best Actress Predictions). I’m gonna disagree with him on his big swing of including Marianne Jean-baptiste in his top 5. I think she’s in the race, but I need her to be nominated outside of her eventual BAFTA to get in. bleeker Street has yet to prove themselves as an awards juggernaut. Food for thought. Distributors do sometimes matter when a race is tight. An accomplished campaigner can make us feel like Shakespeare In love was actually a better film than Saving Private Ryan.
Movies Watched: The Night Before Christmas In Wonderland (Hulu) no audio description, Super/Man (Screener) this film has available audio description, Bad Faith (AMC Plus) no audio description
Honestly, I’ve beaten Jackal to death at this point. I did already mention Say Nothing. The Legend Of Vox Machina has had excellence in both storytelling and audio description for three seasons, and that heavy moment in Ep 9 is what I’m thinking about more than the AD (If you know, you know), and I’ve mentioned that the Last Nights On Tremore Beach is excellent as well. Happy’s Place is struggling to keep its spot in my lineup, even though I’m fairly certain NBC will renew Reba’s sitcom. It just got an order for more scripts. Have I Got News For You needs audio description, but has the same problem as last Week Tonight in filming and pushing audio description out as quickly as they need to since they are talking about current news. I wonder if they will be adding audio description later, like they do with last week Tonight. So that leaves Tulsa King?
Well, since I think I only have one episode left, I’ll say that the quality of audio description for Tulsa King has dramatically increased since Season 1. i don’t know what happened in the first season, but I hope it was re-recorded, or they fixed whatever was wrong, because it sounded like someone uploaded the audio description on a 90’s computer microphone.I’m told this is Andrew Thatcher’s voice, and he’s been excellent this season, and the show has maintained mostly its walking of the line between being too heavy and a bit of a comedy. It won’t get Emmy nominations, but it is entertaining.
Specifically, in this episode, I’m not feeling that one moment of excellence in audio description where I can say something was really above and beyond. there’s the scene where Tyson returns the one vehicle because it had been shot at, and it does mention we see the bullet holes. that was a visual cue not verbalized. most of the cues are verbalized. I suppose the fact that *spoiler* had to sign that contract, after refusing it, wasn’t verbalized. there was a moment when the last two leaving the weed dispensary lock the store using their phone. That was a non-verbal cue brought to life. The description of the two random FBI agents meeting Manfreddy, was decent since those guys don’t have names. No mention of any racial definition, but Tyson seems to be the token character for the show. Speaking of, I know that Taylor Sheridan isn’t great at accepting criticism or feedback, but you could actually do something with that angle, by the way. All these white mafia types talking about how they “own” Tulsa, could really open the door for a historical exploration of Tulsa, and possibly a more interesting antagonist for Dwight. Maybe even something that evolves into a partnership? I generally like Sheridan’s work. The only thing of his I stopped watching was Mayor Of Kings Town, because he had such an amazing talent in Dianne Wiest, never figured out how to use her, and then dropped her for Season 3. You may be a prolific actor, but she has two Oscars. Have some respect.
So, I like the audio description for Tulsa King as it is an improvement, but I think there are other shows out there working to give me more visual cues I’d never get otherwise.