The Small Screen Diaries- 11/08/24

TV Shows Watched: Disclaimer: S1E7 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Before: S1E4 (Apple plus) with audio description, Queens court: S1E9 (Peacock) with audio description, 911: S7E? (Hulu) with audio description, the Legend Of Vox Machina: S3E8 (Amazon) with audio description, Are you Smarter Than A celebrity: S1E3 (Amazon) with audio description, and Abbott Elementary: S4E4 (Hulu) with audio description

Podcasts: the Dark room. I had no idea that sometimes the writers got incomplete versions of a product. i get the need for security, but what a time crunch to expect someone to then fill in the gaps at the last second that you were trying to keep a secret. I can see maybe redacting what the narrator can see, but the writer? no sir. I know there are creative types out there who are working on projects years away, working on character design, and molds for things, long before a film ever shoots. Through this, they usually have far more information. There are people out there who know the big secrets. the writer here should be in that, IMO. It just is a testament to how good Justin is as a writer that his shows still come out good.

YouTube: Gold Derby (Best Supporting Actress race), Fish Jelly Film Reviews (review: Heretic)

Movies: My Old Ass (Amazon) with audio description, Despicable Me 4 (Peacock) with audio description, and Transformers 4 (Paramount Plus) with audio description

If you watch Abbott Elementary, are you happy with the audio description? Part two of the question, is when ABC changed providers, did you notice a change in quality? I won’t lead you by telling you when it happened, but I’m genuinely curious.

I still think that as a show, Before has the hardest script to put together. It is still this psychological thriller/mystery/horror, and it blends these in such a way that the audience hasn’t figured out all the little bits yet. there’s a chance that you might have some ideas, but even with my probing mind, I’ve considered the idea that Noah isn’t real. but, then why are so many other people able to interact with him? He also appeared as a baby years ago at a church, as one of those doorstep things people used to do when they couldn’t take care of a kid. So, he existed prior to Eli’s sspouse’s death. I did catch the book title, and thought maybe he was a creation of hers, as she was apparently also an illustrator, sending off her drawings to Jackson. But, I still can’t figure out how all that would come together. Which means, the audio description can’t lead us, even though it is very likely the writer knows where it is headed. But it also can’t leave us feeling totally sucker punched by an ending that was somehow being telegraphed, so we can’t leave out anything either. I’m scraping for clues, from the stuffed lizard, to the significance of the pen, all of it. Really brilliant description on this.

And the other Apple show, which finished today, was disclaimer, which ended with a bang. What a gut punch at the end, to finally hear from her side of the story, giving Cate Blanchett some fantastic stuff to work with. Kevin Kline was great too. I love how over the course of seven episodes, Alfonso Charon presented to us this flashback laden tale, as if we were always seeing what really happened. Definitely an awards contender on many fronts.

Lastly, even though I’m still playing catch up, there was this scene that Angela Bassett had in this 911 episode between her and Peter Krause, that really makes you go “is it possible to launch an Emmy campaign for an actress in the 7th season of a show most people ignore, if you just show them this scene?” It was such a testament to how tremendous of an actress she really is.

4 thoughts on “The Small Screen Diaries- 11/08/24

  1. About Disclaimer, you sort of confirmed for me a suspicion I’ve had before as a writer of AD, which is that I wouldn’t necessarily catch all the visual cues I describe, or I wouldn’t catch on to them so early in the film, if I were naively watching from beginning to end instead of pausing and repeating and hopping back and forth to describe it. Watching Disclaimer without AD I was confused and initially misunderstood about the rules of the flashbacks. That confusion and flipping of perceptions was an aspect of the film in my experience, and for awhile I supposed the filmmakers intended it. But once I figured what the cues were, it was as if suddenly the story was being curated with museum labels.

    1. Thanks. For what it’s worth, if the audio description had suggested that the flashbacks weren’t real, the final episode doesn’t work. So, whatever choices you made were the right ones, because you are supposed to feel that right hook from Blanchett when she tells her story. Because you likely spent 6 episodes thinking she let some poor kid drown for convenience. But that wasn’t true. thanks for providing thoughtful and quality audio description in whatever you write.

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