Damn. Earth Abides is being billed as a limited series. I so want more. Not a lot of big premieres this week either, so get ready for the balls dropping on Tuesday night.
TV Shows Watched: Earth Abides: S1E5 (MGM Plus) with audio description, What If: S3E8 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Ghosts: S4E8 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Agency: S1E7 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Shrinking: S2E11 (Apple Plus) with audio description, SNL: Paul mescal (Peacock) with audio description, and The Lincoln Lawyerr: S3E10 (Netflix) with audio description.
Movies Watched: Little Bites (Apple Store) with audio description, Amber Alert (Hulu) no audio description, The World According To Allie Willis (screener) no audio description, The Forge (Netflix) with audio description, and First Shift (Paramount Plus) no audio description.
Best Episode: Earth Abides- A dark episode where Ish and the family he found before Charlie end up having to solve their Charlie problem. Later, the virus that wiped out humanity somehow rears its head again, and Alex has really weird reactions. But, I loved this episode, and this series.
Runner up: Shrinking- Damn. There are some really heavy moments here and this isn’t even the season finale.Jason Segal blew my mind.
Runner Up: The Lincoln lawyer- What a way to end the season. Not only was the finale to the mystery of this season a surprise, but it certainly set up a crazy Season 4.
best Performance: Jason Segal (Shrinking)- While he has a few moments throughout the episode, when we got to that final scene between him and Ford, he just collapses your soul. I didn’t think he deserved a nomination for Season 1, I do think he deserves one for the superior second season.
Runner Up: Alexander Ludwig (Earth Abides)- ish is all over the place this episode, from the cold realization of what he must do to Charlie, to believing he’s then later paying for the sins of his actions, as his final moments are in a chapel as the atheist prays to God to save his son. this show has given me a fresh perspective on Ludwig as an actor, and he is doing career best work here.
Runner Up: Harrison Ford (Shrinking)- While Segal has the big moment, the whole cast, even including Jessica Williams, is fire. But, there are hints placed that Ford doesn’t have much time left, and even though he doesn’t steal the episode, I appreciated the subtlety that Ford has when given bad news. I’m sure the season finale is a tearjerker at this point. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Best Audio Description: What If- So much action in this final episode. While I think ending the one show you have not tied to the MCU is the dumbest decision, I’m going to miss this excellent audio description. look for it to appear in Best Moments.
Runner Up: Earth Abides- There are plenty of moments here that are really well done, and MGM Plus has clearly gotten a fantastic team behind it.
Best Moment Of Audio Description: What If- When the heroes are starting to be erased, and the description talks about how they are starting to turn to dust. But then, Captain Carter seems to go Super Saiyan, and then we get the description of them reforming again. A great moment. And so incredibly visual.
Runner Up: What If: I mean, there were so many cool visuals relayed here. From the explosion, and the blue eyes coming out of the dust, to the face of Doctor Strange forming in the sky at the end. This was a banger episode where the writers put all these little cool tricks in there. Storm was shown to be worthy! (If you know, you know)
Runner Up: The Lincoln Lawyer- The No Spoiler Version of this is “The Final Testimony”. Again, there’s something that happens at the end of the testimony, that is surprising, and the audio description team handled it very well.
Runner Up: Earth Abides- While I loved Ish running through the hospital, I’d actually pick out his son climbing the tree. Also, I loved the emphasis on who had weapons when, since the beginning of the episode was rife with conflict.
Runner Up: SNL- I wasn’t crazy about this AD, but there were too many visual references to jokes that we needed, from Paul Mescal being shirtless, to the entire sketch around having your ear pierced, to even the depiction of Sarah Sherman as Matt Gates.
Worst Episode: Honestly, The World According To Allie Willis was the only film I enjoyed, and it didn’t have audio description. Everything else is mediocre, but I wanted to take this moment to recognize that Uwe Boll has now reached the status of making an average/mediocre film, as he directed First Shift. Amazing. However, it needs audio description. Though, Amber Alert HAS audio description, and Hulu just isn’t using it. So, Amber Alert wins!
Audio Description That needed Jesus the Most: I’m switching this up, because like… I like DVW. I’m on the Advisory Board. I’m super grateful for the existence of audio description for SNl on Peacock (or just in general). But, I’m telling you, and I thought about filming it so people could hear what I hear, the balance is way off. I’ve mentioned this before, but I actually think it got worse. I didn’t hear any of the names during the cast list, just audio description. I actually watched this, and my mom said “It’s a bit loud.” And the reason for that was that my TV was turned up so I could hear the cast, but the audio description is exponentially louder. I have no problem with the narrator, or the context he’s giving, but the sound is obliterating sketches, and I actually think the sound gap is getting worse. The audio description might be getting louder. Am i crazy? Anyone else?
