Starting off my column of the day with bad news. MAX has inexplicably struck again, cancelling Julia after two seasons, thus ending Sarah Lancashire’s terrific performance as the famous chef. I refer to everything I said when they cancelled Our Flag Means Death, reminding you that this is a company that used a completed film as a tax write off. But, sadly, Julia isn’t the only show exiting stage right. ABC has announced this will be the final season of the Good Doctor. After failing to produce a spinoff, it’s time for the ABC drama to go away, I guess. It follows the recent decision to also cancel Station 19. A brutal start to your day. I know.

It’s not getting any better. I’m very conflicted on Ted (Peacock), which is unabashedly offensive, in some cringeworthy ways, but also some truly funny. I’ve long been a fan of Seth Macfarlane, and this comedy feels odd in 2023, but perhaps that’s why we need it? It doesn’t play it safe, and does try to point out when things are and are not acceptable. I found some of the references a bit off. For example, the show takes place in 1993, and there’s a little joke between the leads where one of them uses the word “bomb”, and the other tells them to be careful, and they can’t use that word. It’s 1993. I know it’s hard to remember simpler times,but we didn’t have school shootings and bomb threats in 1993. I didn’t have anything more than fire and tornado drills until after Columbine, which wasn’t 1993, and even then, it was only one, as likely a reaction. It is hard to think of, but unless you walked up to a teacher and told them directly, it’s unlikely just uttering that word would have gotten you in trouble. Especially when things were “da bomb”. He also makes a “King Of The Wieners” joke, which only ever reminds people of Titanic. I’m The King Of The Weiners! Feels not 1993. Aside from the racism prevalent in the show, and homophobia that Seth brushes off, the show itself has atrocious audio description. There are pauses where a normal narrator would have tried to interject with something, but they don’t use all the dead moments. Ted is full of a lot of visual sight gags that are never explained. Character descriptions are virtually non-existent. There’s one scene where the mother of the family is complimented on her hairstyle by Ted, who is then later chastised by the older cousin because she had been trying to get her to change the hairstyle (which we are led to then believe looks awful), but we’re never given any description for it. In another instance, Ted is left home alone, and he decides in that moment (presumably, because he’s never been alone before) to search for porn from the father’s stash. We are not given any context, but Ted does make a joke about right to bear arms, which is the only clue you’ll get before Ted is outside with a slip and slide, and using the kickback from firing the gun at the house to shoot himself down the slip and slide. There’s no mention that he found a gun in the room, when his character is looking for porn, nor is there mention of if he found porn, but chose the gun. A third scenario, Ted makes a homophobic joke and then crowdsources to see if there are any gays around, and we hear a voice chime in. I have no idea where that voice came from. That character, where he was on screen, whether he was prominent or just popped up was never mentioned. This is basically the entirety of Ted, just mistake after mistake. I do believe it’s human, but whoever wrote the audio description script for Ted either needs to be retrained, or find a new career. This is notably one of the worst written audio description scripts. I didn’t mind the mixing, or the narrators voice, but this writer didn’t even try.

The mystery continued on Fool Me Once (Netflix), as we got a look back at when the sister was killed, and the plot thickened when the death certificate for the husband couldn’t be located. Clearly, something is afoot. Far away Downs (Hulu) really establishes its villain even more in the 4th part, when he allows someone to be eaten by a crocodile. But the best scene was watching the little boy be excited by his first film, The Wizard Of Oz. The scene works so well here, which is likely why we see this trope done by many other filmmakers (like with Spielberg in The Fablemans).

Colin From Accounts (Paramount Plus) became more of a person when that name was used to restore power at the bar. And, I capped off by finishing Lessons In Chemistry (Apple Plus), which came to an ending I didn’t expect, and wasn’t perfect for every character, but chose a very unique path. John Calvin would have been proud.