The BAFTA nominations come out today. Excellence in British film. It could be a huge launching pad for All Of Us Strangers for the Oscars, if it was strongly embraced by the BAFTAs like All Quiet On The Western Front was last year. But, in TV world, no really solid news stories.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix) featured a jaw dropping return at the end, and more suspicions about that darn robot that keeps popping up that we didn’t really know was popping up because the audio description wasn’t tracking the robot, and pointing it out would have been a giveaway. This is why sometimes, it’s good to try and get as much audio description in as possible, so when you need to point something out, it’s not so obvious. As an example fresh still in my mind, there’s a scene in Leave THe World Behind where someone gets out of the car and the audio description makes a note of the car door being left open. It’s an odd thing to point out, as the narration hadn’t really been pointing stuff like that out. Of course, that open door became somewhat important to the scene. But I already knew it would be, and kept waiting for it. In the real world, where sighted people just look at things, car doors are left open all the time,and unless a director lingers on it, you’re not told to pay attention to it. This example leads to a great moment in Jurassic Park that is basically iconic (and was also in the book).

Echo (Disney Plus) in the second episode basically assumes you know she’s signing, because there’s no mention of it, or when other people are signing. I assume most people she just reads their lips, because it would be odd for that many people to know ASL fluently. I like how the show is putting someone front and center who wouldn’t normally be front and center, and while I think I could tweak the audio description a little, it’s mostly really good.

Criminal Record (Apple Plus) is so obviously dealing with corrupt cops. This is one of the most obvious shows that is somehow deeply compelling. If there happens to be a twist here, and aliens pop out in the end, I’ll give it a proper standing ovation for misdirection. But as I said when I saw the pilot, it is an excellent but basic crime drama with top notch audio description, and it really hooks you even though you are pretty certain you know how it will all end.

Ted (Peacock) was perhaps a little funnier in the second episode, and a little less provocative, but this is still a show not for everyone. The audio description is still below average, but I caught less mistakes. Some of it I had to interpret myself, like the colonoscopy sequence only works if we aren’t watching the doctors, so I’m assuming the camera was on the cousin the whole time. It’s not explicitly told that the camera never leaves her, and that you can’t see the doctors, but it does mention she’s under the gurney, and after the joke is over, she puts a hand over her mouth. So, the assumption is that because we were never told anything else was on screen, we had to have stayed with her, right? That’s flawed logic, as often audio description can’t fit in the little windows between dialogue, and sometimes characters enter and exit, they change rooms, or even move into an entirely different scene without audio description being able to tell us because of the way the scene was set up with dialogue. I just don’t think there’s a ton of thought being put into the script for Ted. Someone is sleepwalking through this, and getting paid to do it.

I did also watch Name That Tune (Hulu), which does not have AD. I put this in a very VERY tiny bubble of shows that don’t need audio description. Find me the person who is watching this to find out what Randy Jackson is wearing, and I’ll find you a liar. Would it add something? Not really. Most of the people chosen are D-list, and just famous enough that if you don’t know who they are, a description of what they look like won’t answer the question. It’s more likely, you would google them later to figure out who they are and why they are famous. The whole game is auditory, like playing SongQuiz or one of those guessing games we have access to. No video clues. It’s one of those rare game shows where we are on a totally even playing field with everyone in our family on the couch, with or without audio description. Even Jeopardy has visual cues, so you have questions you can’t answer. This never does. I may be fair, loud, and bitchy about demanding audio description, but this is the one show that lives in its own world.