One voting block done. It was all film, and I had the opportunity to vote for several of my favorites this year, including )in at least one category): Ghostlight, Conclave, The Substance, Ezra, A Real Pain, Nickel Boys, September 5, A Complete unknown, Sing Sing, The Last Showgirl, Late Night With The Devil, nosferatu, Deadpool and Wolverine, It’s What’s inside, Strange Darling, Boy Kills World, A Wild Robot, The Commandante’s Shadow, Wicked, Hard Truths, Problemista, and many others. It isn’t 100% reflective of my personal lists, which I’ll put out later, but I worked around titles that had been deemed ineligible due to not broadly screening for the group (like The Brutalist). Still, I’m at 350 titles from just 2024. Way behind on reviews.
TV Shows Watched: Before: S1E10 (Apple plus) with audio description, Laid: S1E2 (Peacock) with audio description, Dexter: The Wonder Years- S1E2 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Secret Level: S1E1 (Amazon) with audio description, The Diplomat: S2E2 (Netflix) with audio description, Matlock: S1E? (Paramount Plus) A Man on the Inside: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description
Movies Watched: Megalopolis (Apple Store) with audio description, White Bird (Apple Store) with audio description, Resonator (screener) no audio description, Between The Temples (Netflix) with audio description
Best Episode Watched: Before- I was worried from the beginning about how this show would land, and I love that this weird show ended in a way that closed the book, but also didn’t give you an easy answer, and not all is necessarily fixed. It felt like there couldn’t possibly be a second season, and that they were comfortable leaving things unresolved in some aspects. I was very pleased.
Runner Up: A Man On The Inside- I loved the 4th episode, which really pushed into whether or not he can have any kinds of friendships, as he starts getting comfortable. I like how it ended the episode, with him making a good choice, and one that works since this is getting a second season.
Best performance: Zozia Mamet (Laid)- I love her best friend performance here. She was hilarious in the first episode, as she was trying to get people to remember her, but her character has some of the best lines, and she’s already a standout for me. Just two episodes in. I love when she’s trying to figure out if the initials spell some kind of code. Stephanie’s great too, and will be here one day.
Runner Up: Billy Crystal- I felt like picking him was the easy choice. He’s had stronger episodes, but this one had the full flashback of him finding his wife in the bathtub, and Billy is doing some great dramatic work. So, one more mention on the way out the door.
Best Audio Description: Before- This show is so weird, it has basically topped every chance it has gotten. High level of difficulty, and executed extremely well every time.
Runner Up: Laid- I’m not seeing a reason to not love this. A lot of the jokes are verbal, but some are visual, including deaths. I think it’s safe to say this is one of the better tracks out there. It was between this or The Diplomat for second place.
Best moment Of Audio Description- A Man On The inside- So there’s this scene where a character goes to meet someone, and we’re spying on them, and that person is not who they are supposed to be. I thought the audio description team did a really good job of handling that moment, and explaining what it was, so we could understand the effects of it later.
Runner Up: Laid- Baseball. A brief moment. So important. (The spoiler free version)
2nd Runner Up: Before- The flashback sequence was also really well done. As is the whole episode. But, the flashback would be the moment.
Worst Episode: Secret level- I normally dig audio description, and I don’t know what this is trying to do moving forward, but it wasn’t funny, and it isn’t nearly as well produced as The Legend Of Vox Machina.
Worst Performance: Yo. I saw Megalopolis today. I don’t know who to pick, but it is somewhere in there for sure.
Worst Audio Description: This is where things get interesting, because I only saw 1 thing without audio description, and because of the structure of Resonator, it isn’t the thing I’d rush to immediately bash. It is a documentary, shot like the filmmaker is discovering her father’s history, and a lot of the purpose is what she verbalizes in her out loud narration as she explains everything. It *should* have it, but I could actually talk about the worst existing audio description. The problem with that is, there isn’t one. Nothing was bad. My biggest qualm is that the narrator of Dexter is very upbeat for what she’s having to do, but then again, Dexter isn’t the darkest show. But I very much had a moment where I thought this narrator would be perfect for Dream productions, and the rather flat narrator for that kids show could swap to Dexter. that is the most negative thought I had all day. So, today is basically a win for audio description, because ultimately, Dexter isn’t that dark. She may be a little too upbeat for a few people, but not the worst choice, and a very engaging narrator overall who I’d love to hear on more things.
