Welcome back to this deviation. I’m taking a look at specific programs and discussing their needs, because not every project is the same. This goes beyond the basics, which are things like “who is in the room?”, “who entered/exited the room?” “Who is talking, and to who?”, which are often things we take for granted, but addresses the nuance of how every project is different, though they may share a likeness when they share a genre. I’m hoping to elevate the conversation on audio description, so people don’t just want/expect the bare minimum, and certainly do not recognize it as excellence in audio description.

The Decameron (Netflix) EPS 1 and 2

I had no idea what this was until I started to watch it. It is a plague comedy, which takes a small group of upper class, and lower class Brits during the black plague, in a specific remote setting where the ensemble can congregate, talk about various things, develop relationships, and try very hard to not die of the plague. The idea is that by living out in the country they can avoid it, but perhaps the plague was already there. Can this ensemble of insufferables survive 8 episodes? This is billed as a limited series, and based on the premise, probably is.

What I Look For In Audio Description: This is a period piece, so naturally conveying that in all its trappings would be the first thing to figure out. What are they wearing? How is their hair? Or, is this show even following a traditional costume design for this period? Often, when we see pieces like this, they can change the look and offer something like a steam punk effect to the look of the series. I don’t think that’s happening here, but if that was the intentionality, then bring that out in the audio description.I’m not directly familiar with the diversity breakdown with this cast,as I’m only familiar with two of the actors, who are both white. A show striving for historic relevance might have chosen to do an all white cast, but if this is diverse, that would be intentional, as it would not necessarily be historically accurate. there are a few handmaiden types in this, so perhaps the casting could be split diversely in just an upstairs/downstairs type way. Though, a lot of the plot of the pilot revolves around a handmaiden pretending to be more than that, and if this is diverse, I’m sure they would notice. This may sound a bit in the weeds, but remember that sighted viewers get all the information I’m talking about. They would be able to see the costume and hair design, the sets, the cast, and therefore be able to figure out everything I’ve mentioned. Aside from that, it is a comedy, so highlighting those moments and making jokes work is important, especially since a comedy about the plague doesn’t easily sell itself. They do spend quite a bit of time out at this country house, so making sure we understand its size, depth, and general structure would help as well, just to make us more aligned with the experience for eight episodes.

What It Does: When i heard Vito’s voice, I got a little worried. He’s narrating here, and he typically seems to get hired by companies that struggle to assemble audio description at a quality level. He did Under Paris recently, which I noted was better than anything he narrated on ABC last season. This is also Difuse, which I have strong feelings about. As far as basic audio description goes, this is fine. I don’t think Vito works in comedy as well as other genres, as his narration is almost too flat, but this is such a weird dark comedy that I didn’t mind too much. I’d rather have him on this than Abbott Elementary, which he’s totally wrong for. there’s an effort to make sure that all the sight gags come through in the description, from a scene where a woman is seen pleasuring herself in an unusual fashion, while two men watch, with at least one masturbating, to another man offering unnecessarily his “body warmth” to a female, or one character vomiting into a jar. This has such an odd sense of humor, but those things are what they consider jokes, so the track has to follow them. However, there’s zero effort made to make this feel like a period piece at all. If it wasn’t for the characters talking about the plague all the time, you could miss the first episode, and think you were watching any random British drama that could take place whenever, wherever. One female character is mentioned as having on a “fancy dress”. No one has a race or ethnicity, I’m not even sure they have hair colors. While I did get some mentioning of certain things in the house, or outside of it, like a fountain or well, for example, the description of the interior is lacking. Nothing about this audio description feels like it was written for a period piece at all. So, if you are especially interested in period programs, this will disappoint you. I want so much more from Diffuse more times than I should.

Final Thoughts: I’m not even fully sold on the series. Some of it works, and the show is sometimes funny. but it just isn’t consistent enough, and the jokes don’t always land. As a result, both episodes felt too long, because I was sitting through “humor” about “the humors” that just wasn’t working. Plus, the audio description isn’t working well here. I’d love to hear Vito be hired by a competent film company and given either a drama or a documentary, just so I could understand what his true potential is as a narrator, but he seems to get sucked in to stuff like this. Netflix really shouldn’t use Diffuse on any project they care about. I think of the companies I hear rather consistently, they are the one I am most disappointed in regularly. It isn’t an awful track, it just is so basic and uninspired based on the content and what Netflix probably spent on a period drama. It does point out some necessary jokes, and some of the plague makeup, but seems to almost intentionally avoid narration that would support the craft of recreating the look of this period.