Last fall, I was attempting to do a seven day free trial of AMC Plus, but their app was so poorly designed, and I was having such a hard time navigating the app, and their customer service team couldn’t figure things out in time, so they comp’d me a year of AMC Plus. At the time, they had almost no audio description. I was told that AMC took accessibility seriously, and would be working on their app as well as expanding their audio description list.

That hasn’t happened.

After watching major series after major series drop on the platform, from interview With A Vampire, The Mayfair Witches, Lucky Hank, to now The Walking Dead: Dead City, it’s pretty abundantly clear that accessibility is not a cornerstone of AMC, and they have no real intention to make their service more accessible.

I’m sure they had a “If you build it…” mentality, but instead of building the entire ballpark in the corn field, they hacked at some corn stalks, and when no one showed up, they walked away.

Which is a shame, because I really love The Walking Dead. Not all spinoffs are created equal, but the ones with TWD cast members tend to grab my attention. Fear The Walking Dead got better with Morgan, and later when some more flagship series cast made their way to the show. But, I was really excited for The Walking Dead: Dead City, and I held out so much hope that AMC would do the right thing and host audio description on AMC Plus.

I was wrong.

So once again, teh show I love, doesn’t love me back. Going blind in general sucked, but being reminded how much by your favorite TV show is just icing on the cake. I used to watch this with friends. We gathered together to watch this live. I’ve watched most of Talking Dead, most of Fear, and I attempted the other spinoffs. But, a show with Negan and Maggie? Sign me up.

It’s so hard to follow, just like the main series, as I have found myself struggling to watch every episode since losing my vision. It’s funny how a show that believes it is accessible and inclusive because it hired deaf and hearing impaired talent for Connie and Kelly, is so opposed to any actual representation of that inclusivity for it’s audience. It’s great that you brought Lauren Ridloff on board, but what about making the show accessible so I know what she’s doing?

The entire time Connie has been on the show, I’ve been blind. I’ve never seen Connie. And due to the lack of audio description, it’s actually impossible for me to enjoy her performance. So, really, their version of inclusivity pushed me even further away. It’s bad enough that I can’t follow the zombie sequences, or figure out if something is a whisperer or a walker, but there’s a non verbal deaf series regular. And no audio description.

Dead City has yet another non-verbal character, who i wouldn’t even know existed if Negan hadn’t mentioned why the quiet person with him that I didn’t even know was there doesn’t talk.

And yet, they’ve got me fucking hooked. It’s the least accessible series, almost to the point where I actually wonder if the showrunners are actively trying to piss off their blind fans, and I can’t stop watching. I’m in an abusive relationship, and it’s because the producers of the Walking Dead and spin-offs like The Walking Dead: Dead City, seem to laugh in my face while introducing entire characters begging to be audio described, and yet refusing to provide it. This is a problem for AMC, but I also think they don’t care.

So, once again, I feel burned, like a second class citizen, all because AMC and the producers behind one of the biggest franchises of all time, can’t figure out how to add audio description to the show. Not even on their own streaming platform.

Where’s Lucille when you need her?