Five shows. Not all had audio description, Guess which ones lost?
5) Wedding Season (Hulu)
English Audio Description Available?: No
It’s been about a month since I called in to Hulu and had a conversation about the lack of audio description on a show that is a Hulu original. The tech even acknowledged that this was a known issue that Hulu was trying to resolve. Here, it’s December, and the 2nd episode still doesn’t have audio description. This show came out in September. Sometimes, it’s the actions of these corporations that state just exactly how important inclusivity is, and how committed they are to providing accessibility. This isn’t just a show that they happen to have on their service that comes from another network like ABC or FX, where they can shift the blame. It’s a Hulu show. They dropped the ball on their own program. This doesn’t quite seem like a review, does it? Well, this show doesn’t get a review, because if Hulu wants to disrespect me and my community, I refuse to give them feedback on this show. i might check again in a few more weeks, but this show is not very watchable without audio description. It’s not a straight forward comedy, and features many action sequences, a clearly season long mystery in a whodunit style where clues likely abound, and features often action sequences that just sound like noises. It is not a show designed to be watched without audio description.
4) Home Economics (Hulu/ABC)
English Audio Description?: No
I feel like I can’t not hold ABC accountable for this roaming audio description they do, where some episodes have audio description, and some don’t. It’s like saying that the blind and visually impaired community don’t need to follow linear storytelling. Home economics is not nearly as challenging of a show as Wedding Season, and often features rapid fire back and forth dialog that even when we do get audio description, it mostly just is able to point out little things, like a location change. It’s not a show that typically has lush audio description when it does. I would have put this episode lower anyway, because even though the stories told in this episode were fine, part of me missed Casey Wilson, and wished she was sucking around longer.
Episode Grade: B
3) A Friend Of The Family (Peacock)
English Audio Description?: Yes
There was a couple in the 70’s that didn’t know what a pedophile was?Really?I think, and this is just the second episode, that I don’t know what I’m in store for here. This show is obviously nuts, as it feels like it has been going full tilt since the premiere. However, the downside to that, is that I feel like I still do not know who these people are, and in a way, it makes me unable to care. It’s not that I don’t automatically care, because the subject matter is so horrifying in the first place that I wonder if that’s what the producers realized, and as such decided we didn’t need actual characters. Two episodes in, and these characters have no backstories. We meet people just out of the blue it seems like, and there really isn’t a lot to go off of. I think there is an effort to intentionally not offer backstory, because it’s so obvious that they are avoiding doing so. I barely know anything about the siblings, or the dynamic of the other family. You can’t just hook people in with a true crime lean that is bonkers, not in a day and age when Law and Order SVU and Criminal Minds have been tackling these uncomfortable topics time and time again. For a limited series, it’s the characters that matter, and this show doesn’t have any.
Episode Grade: B
2) The LAst Light (Peacock)
English Audio Description?: Yes
What a pretentious ending to this series. It almost felt like they needed to wrap up everything super fast, so the final episode was just a kitchen sink tirade about destroying the planet and martyrdom. Don’t get me wrong, there are intense moments in this episode, but when you realize that this is the series finale, and the final few minutes are mostly just a spoken afterword, it deflates the experience. A promising show that clearly lost its budget when it was finishing filming.
Episode Grade: B
1) The mighty Ducks: Game Changers (Disney Plus)
English Audio Description?: Yes
Look, it’s already on top. I’d love to be able to proclaim this season finale the most amazing one ever, but the finale really did drop the ball (or puck) a couple of times. Sure, three of the Ducks got scouted in the end, including Evan who realized he hasn’t hit his ceiling yet. But, instead of balancing the show, which even in the films let other teammates score, the season finale just kept putting the puck in Jace’s hands, while some of the original Ducks got almost no screentime. Somehow, AJ’s character got scouted by six colleges, even though he doesn’t do anything in the finale. I wanted to see the balance of the ducks, not just one leader, and that didn’t happen. Also, I forgot how terrible of an actor the guy who plays Coach T is. I’m still pulling for a season 3. We did get three movies, so I think these game changers have one more left in them. How awesome would it be to see them follow the original ducks either into the Junior Olympics, or get scholarships to a private school? I wanted to love this a lot more, but the best thing about this episode was Evan’s speech to Jace about his love of hockey and how he’d give anything to be as good as Jace.
Episode Grade: B+, Season 2 Grade: A-
