So, this diary, and likely tomorrow’s will be a bit light on TV. I’ve been able to balance a pretty impressive amount of shows and movies, but basically today (Saturday) is one of my deadlines for guild voting. So, I’m going to cram a lot of movies in just in case something strikes my fancy at the last minute. Not a ton of TV here today, nor likely tomorrow. But… some.
TV Shows Watched: Silo: S2E5 (Apple Plus) with audio description, St Dennis Medical: S1E? (Peacock) with audio description, No Good Deed: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, and Dream Productions: S1E3 (Disney Plus) with audio description
Movies Watched: Carry On (Netflix) with audio description, Hereafter (MGM Plus on Prime Channels) with audio description, The Girl With The Needle (Screener) no audio description, Lee (screener) no audio description, Santosh (screener) no audio description) Juror No 2 (MAX) with audio description.
Best Episode Watched: Silo- It just is on a different level. Silo is one of my favorite shows running right now. I very quickly became a fan, and this is right up my alley.
Runner Up: St Dennis Medical- Their first Christmas episode was funny enough, and guest star David Paymer brought a memorable guest performance to the table.
Best Performance: David Paymer (St Dennis Medical)- He’s such a great character actor, to see him swing by was fun. He plays a man who has his doting children around him for the holidays because he has leukemia. Or does he?
Runner Up: Linda Cardellini (No Good Deed)- She’s clearly having a lot of fun here. After moving on from Dead To Me, it is nice to see her in a role like this that has her doing so many questionable things you aren’t sure if she’s ever telling the truth.
Best Audio Description- Silo- While they let me down earlier with the initial description of Solo (Yes, I know what Steve Zahn looks like), overall the show has really good audio description, that balances a really large ensemble.
Runner Up: Carry On/Juror No 2- A tie. Both movies. both had really solid audio description. And with so few shows, I’m going to cite the movies here.
Best Moment Of Audio Description: Dream Productions- Again, this writer… deserves a raise. the writing here is phenomenal. The whole dream sequence with the different Canadian boyfriends was great.
Runner Up: Hereafter- There is a car crash sequence here. No spoilers, but it is used a few times, and the description was done well.
Worst Audio Description- The complete lack of audio description on The Girl With The Needle, Lee, and Santosh is the official answer. The more complicated answer is actually Hereafter, which opts to use a similar description technique that Day Of The Jackal employed. Sometimes, it will actually translate non-English text, presumably as spoken, but other times it summarizes what someone just said. I hate that. “He tells her his diagnoses”, or something to that effect. Don’t audio describe the cliff notes.
Worst Episode: none. I love all four shows. however, I did watch two movies not in the English language that had no audio description. Though, knowing what both are actually about, if given the accessibility, I think I would have liked both.
Worst Performance: Warner Bros- Juror No 2 is not a bad film, and that bizarre platform release that they tried to do (likely to satisfy a contractual obligation) was pathetic. This is redemption for Clint Eastwood after the god awful Cry Macho, and I hope he lets this be his final film, because while he’ll never top some of his other classic work, this is a respectable film to finish on.
