The Small Screen Diaries: 07/29/26
TV Shows Watched: X-Men 97: S2E7 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Nemesis: S1E6 (Netflix) with audio description, Your Friends And Neighbors: S2E9 (Apple) with audio description, Scarpetta: S1E8 (Amazon) with audio description, The Miniature Wife: S1E8 (Peacock) with audio description, The Four Seasons: S2E8 (Netflix) with audio description, and Elzabeth: S3E18 (Paramount) with audio description X-Men 97: So we have some mistakes again. Come on, Deluxe. There’s a mixup between Rogue and Polaris, as in this Savage Land episode, Bishop and Polaris are paired off, and Rogue is with Nightcrawler. At the climax, when Bishop and Polaris destroy the inhibitor … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/29/26
Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie
Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie is definitely the most fun title to say in 2026. Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie. It feels like I’ve somehow successfully defeated a tongue twister, even though it’s not really a tongue twister. It’s just remembering to list everything in the right order. First they’re the band, then there was the show, and now there’s the movie. And if you’re thinking to yourself, “Wait, is this a Kurt Cobain thing?” No. It’s not that Nirvana. This is a completely different Nirvana the Band, and they are not famous at all. Well, … Continue reading Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie
Avatar Ang: The Last Airbender
There’s certainly been a lot of frustration surrounding the takeover of Paramount, CBS, Paramount+, and the rest of the company’s brands by David Ellison. Early on, I remember reading comments from one of the executives brought in to evaluate the studio’s future, talking about which brands were considered viable and which weren’t. That mindset didn’t exactly inspire confidence, especially when projects started disappearing. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series spun off from Mutant Mayhem was canceled despite already having episodes completed, and the most recent Dora series also had a large number of finished episodes left sitting on the shelf. … Continue reading Avatar Ang: The Last Airbender
Every Year After: Season 1
Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. A teenage girl vacations with her family and meets two brothers, forms a bond with their mother, and gets caught in a love triangle even though it’s pretty obvious from the start which brother the story actually wants you to root for. Then the brothers’ mother dies, her will complicates everyone’s lives, and the boys are left questioning why she made the decisions that she did. If that sounded familiar, you’ve probably watched The Summer I Turned Pretty. However, you might have also seen Every Year After, a show Amazon would really … Continue reading Every Year After: Season 1
The Small Screen Diaries: 07/28/26
TV Shows Watched: Every. Year After: Season 1 (Amazon) with audio description, THe Bear: S5E7 (Disney Plus) with audio description, The Daily Show: Monday (Paramount Plus) no audio description, and Hacks: S5E7 (HBO MAX) with audio description Every Year After- I know I didn’t do many shows, but to be fair, I binge watched an 8 episode YA drama. So there’s that. Of course, I will review the whole thing. The audio description was really lovely. There’s plenty of specificity here, like in Percy’s horror tastes. She’s watching Blair Witch at one point, she’s reading Christine, and there’s a poster … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/28/26
The Small Screen Diaries: 07/27/26
TV Shows Watched: House Of THe Dragon: S3E6 (HBO MAX) with audio description, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: S1E7 (Apple) with audio description, Million Dollar Secret: S2E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Ted: S2E8 (Peacock) with audio description, Stranger Things: Tales From 85- S1E9 (Netflix), Last Week Tonight: Most Recent (HBO MAX) no audio description, and Breaking Bad: S4E6 (Netflix) with audio description House Of The Dragon- Connor DeWolfe is writing, in my humblest of opinions, the best AD at the moment, for a currently running series. There’s so much detail being pulled out of a broad ensemble, and being brought to life. … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/27/26
Bait: Series Review
This is what happens when Amazon owns the James Bond franchise. It’s corporate synergy at its finest, and honestly, it’s a winning concept. The fact that they decided to give it to Academy Award nominee Riz Ahmed is one of the better judgment calls they’ve made. Bait asks a fascinating question: what is it actually like to have your name floated as a possible James Bond? How could something like that help your career? How could it hurt it? What does it do to your life when you go from being a relatively unknown actor to suddenly having the entire … Continue reading Bait: Series Review
The Sheep Detectives
I think in any other year, The Sheep Detectives would be in the Oscar conversation, which seems like a crazy thing to say because just hearing there’s a movie called The Sheep Detectives immediately makes you wonder how on earth. But hear me out. Babe was a Best Picture nominee because it was original, it had heart, and it really took advantage of the technology available at the time to tell this wonderfully charming story about a little pig. The Sheep Detectives feels like that kind of unexpected movie. It takes this absolutely bonkers premise about a shepherd, played by … Continue reading The Sheep Detectives
the Dink
If pickleball is invading our lives, eventually it was going to invade the cinemas, and Apple is just the studio to take advantage of it. The Dink is the latest comedy from Josh Greenbaum, the director of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, and continues the plague upon our people that is pickleball. I say that jokingly. I’ve never played pickleball. I have no idea what it’s like. I don’t even conceptually understand the sport. But it seems to be one of those things where people either absolutely love it or absolutely hate it, and that’s exactly what … Continue reading the Dink
The Small Screen Diaries: 07/26/26
TV Shows Watched: The Walking Dead: Dead City: S3E1 (AMC Plus) no audio description, Margo’s Got Money Troubles: S1E8 (Apple) with audio description,Strip Law: S1E9 (Netflix) with audio description, The Westies: S1E4 (MGM Plus) with audio description, Top Chef: Season Finale (Peacock) with audio description, Pop Culture Jeopardy: S2E14 (Netflix) with audio description, The Hawk: S1E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Marshals: S1E10 (Paramount) with audio description The Walking Dead: Dead City- On the AMC Plus app, this show is tagged as having AD. More importantly, since I switched to the app between S2 and S3, AMC Plus doesn’t know I’ve … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/26/26
Lee Cronin’s The mummy
I would not consider myself an authority on the Evil Dead franchise, since I have not seen the entire thing. I have yet to find the first two films with audio description, so prior to Evil Dead Rise, I had only seen Army of Darkness and the 2013 Evil Dead remake. But I really liked Evil Dead Rise, so Lee Cronin found a fan in me. The way he balanced comedy and horror simultaneously was fascinating. He made a film that was funny and scary, incredibly gory and yet somehow completely captivating. So when Lee Cronin’s The Mummy came out, … Continue reading Lee Cronin’s The mummy
Abbott Elementary: Season 5
When Abbott Elementary first premiered, it felt like a breath of fresh air. At a time when streaming services were dominating the television conversation, Abbott Elementary reminded people that network TV could still produce an Emmy-worthy comedy. A lot of that comes down to creator Quinta Brunson, who also stars as Janine Teagues. Yes, this is a review of Season 5, but since I never reviewed the previous four seasons, it’s important to say up front that I’ve loved this show from the beginning. The early seasons deserved every bit of the awards attention they received, including Sheryl Lee Ralph’s … Continue reading Abbott Elementary: Season 5
Margo’s Got Money Troubles: Season 1
Apple TV has quite a few shows on its roster that somehow always seem to fly under the radar. Even during awards season, when they have critical praise and plenty of support, they never seem to get quite the attention they deserve. The math just never adds up. A show like Stick, which certainly had its fair share of awards potential, walked away empty-handed this year, along with series like Smoke, Criminal Record, Down Cemetery Road, For All Mankind, and the recently returned Trying, which has always eluded Emmy voters. Yet Margo’s Got Money Troubles, with the pedigree of David … Continue reading Margo’s Got Money Troubles: Season 1
The Small Screen Diaries: 07/25/26
Coming up this week, a few movies to note, The Devil Wears Prada 2 (Disney Plus) on Wednesday, The Drama (HBO MAX) on Friday, and the new The Devil’s Mouth (Amazon) on Wednesday with Katherine Newton and Lana Condor. Returning shows include The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC Plus) today, Batman: The Caped Crusader (Amazon) on Friday, and a few new ones including The Bombing Of Pam Am 103 (Netflix) and Furious (Hulu) with Emmy Rossum and Lola Pettigrew (it sounds a little like Killing Eve to me). TV Shows Watched: I Will Find You: Full Series (Netflix) with audio … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 07/25/26
I Will Find You: Series Review
I’m not a Harlan Coben fan. I think he’s highly overrated, or at least his television adaptations are. I’ve enjoyed very few of them. Previously, I would have said Shelter was the best adaptation of one of his books. However, this Sam Worthington-led limited series, running eight episodes, features a stacked cast, delivers a fairly thrilling ride, and even though I saw certain twists coming, it’s far better than I expected it to be. Sometimes Coben’s stories reach a little too far. They swing too wide, becoming increasingly nonsensical as they go. The adaptations I’ve liked the most are the … Continue reading I Will Find You: Series Review