It is Christmas. According to Alexa, Chanukah also starts today. So, Seasons Greetings across the board.
TV Shows Watched: What We Do In The Shadows: Series Finale (Hulu) with audio description, What If: S3E3 (Disney plus) with audio description, No Good Deed- S1E7 and S1E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Pop Culture Jeopardy: S1E1 (Amazon) with the legal definition of audio description, and Elzabeth: S2E? (Paramount Plus) with audio description
Movies Watched: Out of My Mind (Disney plus) with audio description and The Six Triple Eight (Netflix)
In the spirit of Christmas, a celebration only section today. Yay for free passes!
Best Episode: What We Do In The Shadows- Easily the best possible series finale. Wildly satisfying. Extremely self aware. It should go down in the Pantheon of great Series Finales… ever. It even paid homage to one of the most famous series finales of all time. Absolutely brilliant. I’m very sad this is over, but I’m so glad we got this finale.
Runner Up: Elzabeth- the episode had Elzabeth serving on a jury, and the worst attorney ever was on the defense, and it was clearly driving her insane. Plus, her son came to visit, and she couldn’t spend as much time with him.
bonus Runner Up: No Good Deed- while I definitely saw part of the twist coming, there was more to it. But some really fantastic work in the final two episodes from a smattering of the cast. Romano and Kudrow had some really serious moments to close out what might be the only season. The door was left open, but it could also stay closed.
Best Performance: Phoebe Ray Taylor (Out Of My Mind)- I really loved this movie, and I love that Taylor brought her own experience as someone with cerebral palsy into this role. My wish is that she’s given more opportunities in the future, but disabled actors seem to only get work when specifically required. Nevertheless, I’m declaring that Phoebe has arrived.
Runner Up: Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano (No good Deed)- I’ve singled them out both before, but they have a scene in the finale where they really work things out, and things are said. Plus, the dramatic weight is finally fully felt, and they were both fantastic.
Bonus Christmas Runner up: The Ensemble (What We Do In The Shadows)- As we close the door, it is nice to reflect on the work done by the entire cast, who all had moments to shine in the finale. While the episode strongly centered on Guillermo, everyone had some excellent time. From Nadja being surprisingly accurate in her understanding of why Guillermo is upset, to nandor wanting to build a bat cave for his crime fighting, to even the new addition of the Monster repeatedly ripping his penis off and giving it to The Guide. Everyone was given a great line. They all had one last fantastic time.
Best Audio Description: The Six Triple Eight- Since I gave Out Of My Mind a shoutout, I want to put this front and center. While I’m not universally a Tyler Perry fan, his films seem to typically have memorably great audio description. Mea Culpa and Divorce In The Black aren’t good movies, but their tracks are good. This movie is slightly better, but again, it has an excellent track that helps bring out individuality in this ensemble where Perry’s own script fails to.
Runner Up: What If- Lots of action, and some well described fight sequences. It is the second episode this season, of three, to have Red Guardian. I think they’re really trying to make him happen, despite the disappointing box office on Black Widow. But, some really well written action indeed. And, this is not to be taken lightly anymore, it is a well produced track that doesn’t sound like ass. Dream productions and out of My Mind clearly have mixes done that are of a lower quality than Skeleton Crew and What if. And I do not know why.
bonus Christmas Runner Up: No Good Deed- A really solid track all season, but with the pivotal final moments revealing what actually happened, all the details became necessary, and they all felt included.
Best Moment Of Audio Description: No Good Deed- The Big Reveal. No spoilers, but the biggest of big reveals that detailed what happened to the son. If you know, you know.
Runner Up: What If- The final encounter between Winter Soldier/Red Guardian and Goliath. That last fight was giving even more, and the audio description went with it.
Bonus Christmas Runner Up: Elzabeth- At a certain point, Elzabeth is trying to silently send signals to the idiot defense lawyer of when he should object, and how she was doing that was well described, and totally visual. Without audio description,n this episode would have made less sense.
So there you go. All wins. I watched 5 shows, 2 movies, and there are no “worst of” sections. Yes, one show wasn’t listed, but how do you rank a single episode of Jeopardy?