I’ll break my no audio description rule to talk briefly about American Idol. Dear fans, you vote for shit. Stop voting. Thanks. I love how this week basically just wasted the judges saves with two wildcards going home on Sunday, and two going home on Monday. So the original top 10, regardless of how good any of the wildcards performed, is still the top 10. No wavering in support. What blows my mind the most is Roman not making the Top 10, after the judges had to eliminate the other two Top 20 singers who were too close to him and likely pulling votes. He should have absorbed enough fans, and after three killer performances, the fact that he’s not in the Top 10 is concerning.I’d be willing to go racist, as the Top 10 certainly has a common theme for the most part, but I’ll wait to see if the remaining POC go home next week. Some of these girls can’t really sing.

Next up, we’ve got the second episode of Good Times (Netflix), which is to the original series what I assume Seth Macfarlane’s defunct reboot of The Flintstones would have been. It’s wildly different, and influenced heavily by the crude humor of today’s adult animation. I’m pretty sure that people who grew up on the original Good Times are not watching this. However, it feels pretty on brand for adult animation, if you were to rename the show. The audio description is OK, but I do feel like there are times when the show uses its animated structure to push more into the realm of the absurd, and the description needs to follow it there. Case in point, when Focus shows up in this episode, I felt like there could have been more. I like that the narrator feels super chill though. There’s something very calming about his presence for a series that would do anything for even a giggle. Middle tier.

The Dynasty (Apple Plus) is somehow not over. I sat through a whole episode about coming out of Brady’s suspension, and how his work became about his age, and the team got a new QB that was pretty solid. Plus, that pass interception at the Super Bowl. Of course, I expect the next episode shows Brady leaving, where he proves he’s still got it at Tampa Bay, and I’m sure this series will end at some point. The narration is solid for a docuseries, as I’ve said before. Top/Middle tier.

Life and Beth (Hulu) focused on the pregnancy, and the beginning dynamic. The audio description for this series is OK. it hits a lot of the major points, and I know for a sitcom it has a more uphill battle,but this is shot in such a way that it isn’t like a traditional sitcom, so there’s actually more time and pauses for narration. It’s not bad, it’s just average. Middle tier.

And finally, Ark: The Animated Series (Paramount Plus), I’m more familiar with the narrator’s voice. It’s funny how I can get perspective on things as a series evolves. yes, she sounds young, which means there’s that feeling of inexperience. I felt it during the first season of Not Dead Yet too, which used a young sounding narrator.However, this is an animated series based on a video game, so perhaps hiring someone who sounds like they might have played ark was the right move. The likely demographic for this might enjoy her voice more than I’m giving her credit for, and the description is actually well written, making sure to correctly label all the dinosaurs. I may have been unfairly undercutting this series. Even the balancing of the audio when there is dubbing over non-English was done in the way where you can still hear the original voice actor performance, so even though it is still just one narrator, you can hear the change in voices. I’m gonna bump this up to Top/Middle. It’s funny how you take things like balancing for granted, and then another series does it poorly, and suddenly I’m aware of it everywhere.