From what I can tell, all the new films that dropped except for the anime Lord Of The Rings film this week were films I had already seen. September 5 (Paramount Plus), venom The Last Dance (Netflix), and nickel Boys (MGM Plus). I do not understand how Nickel Boys made it to streaming before The Fire Inside, but whatever. You do you. So, since I haven’t yet done a quality check for a TV series, i figured I’d take a look at whatever the hell Toxic Town is on Netflix. I’m going in super cold on this, knowing only there are 4 episodes. We’ll do one. I’ve been pretty harsh about character introductions in my Small Screen Diaries, so here’s a chance to hopefully bring it to light.

The episode opens with a data dump of expositional information from our narrator about the history of this town. It is based on a true story, though some names have been changed. One narrator reading everything and doing images. It is honestly so fast, it is hard to catch the change from exposition to image description, however, it’s obvious Netflix only paid for one voice, so that is what we’re stuck with.

OK. So we see a crowd watch a building be destroyed. Then, 1995. “A young blonde woman sings karaoke.” I literally paused. she may not even be a character of consequence, but she has two descriptors. Young, Blonde. While Blonde is not initially indicative of a race or ethnicity, your mind probably goes right to some stereotype, like the original Barbie doll.

The title is well described. Colorful, turns to dust. I got it.

There’s some description of the town, and then we learn the young, blonde singer is Susan. if I learn nothing else from this, I know she wouldn’t be classified as old, and while she could be of any weight, height, ethnicity, etc., I know she has some blonde hair. She talks to what I assume is her kid, who has no description at all.

Then, “a young woman” exits another building. She must not have hair. Tracy is her name, as another character yells at her. She steps into a garden. I personally have no idea what a “Tipper wagon” is but this is a UK track. Like, they also say “windscreen”. Alexa tells me it is an essential tool in construction for transporting. Synonyms include tractor and trailer. Open top? i suppose it could be an open top trailer that you would hitch to the back of your car/truck. I’ve already done more work than I normally would. generally, if i hear something like Tipper Wagon, i just shrug and move on, unless it is really key to the plot.

Tracy has a husband in bed, Mark, who she straddles. We know nothing about Mark.

Meanwhile, Susan and Peter (I totally thought this was her kid) are also up to shenanigans. Tracy takes a pregnancy test. Susan is also pregnant. Tracy is happy, Susan is not. Susan does already have a kid, it turns out.

A “Brutalist” 60’s building. Man, what a time to be alive. If you just saw the Oscar nominated film The Brutalist, that description should make way more sense to you.

A man is reading a paper. Three men, one male child, none of them have any descriptive adjectives assigned to them. Not going well so far. Sam joins the list of named males. I believe he was the guy in the car. We also get a man checking some wheels, and giving a driver the OK. Should these two continue on, these are more characters with no description. Now, we finally get “A young man in a suit carrying a clipboard crosses to two other men.” the first male character to be granted description. He’s young, and he’s wearing clothes. Well, Peter was wearing clothes of some kind, because he did strip so he and Susan could get busy, but we were never told what. here, we get a suit. It is specific.

Someone will be named Derek. Oh, we get something in the dialogue that is then referred to in the audio description as “but clearly never used”. I like that. because, it might be important. Someone is Ted. He frowned. Bill is “the senior figure from the council” (you think I figured that out from that scene?), and they follow another guy with no description into a building.

Pat. Ted looks troubled. Lots of description about trucks driving through town carrying toxic waste, and then two dudes race their trucks. one is Jimmy, the other is that Derek. Lots of focus and really solid description on this “sludge”.

Susan is now heavily pregnant. Peter appears. Derek arrives home at his house. we learn he was wearing a denim jacket, boots, and jeans. There’s mention of a baby buggy, and his wife Maggie. She beats his denims with a badminton racket. Tracy and Mark are at an ultrasound. There’s some kind of medical person doing the reading, because of the white coat. They look concerned, and Tracy is staring at them trying to figure them out. Tracy is asked to stay overnight. Susan is also there. Peter appears with flowers and chocolate. Ted is the young council employee. ted wakes someone up. Ted helps his father. He slumps onto a bed at the other end of the room. We know more about this room now.

Someone sees Sarah and Bill in a side room. It is Ted. he keeps walking through this office, so we get some description. Ted sits in Roy’s office. Ted leaves the meeting with deep unease.

Scene change, and Susan is at home, cooking, frying up some bacon. I love the “ravenous bite” description. I don’t hear that enough, but it really made me think Susan wanted to eat that bacon sandwich. Then, her water breaks. Susan gets into Peter’s “capri”, a specific type of car. Tracy and Mark are also headed to the hospital. Susan is in labor. Susan delivers a baby. A doctor comes into the room. He looks worried. The baby has a deformed hand. Tracy gives birth in another room. the baby isn’t crying. Tracy is losing a lot of blood. Tracy can’t die. She was given a descriptive adjective! Susan looks at her son’s deformed hand. Susan and peter leave the hospital. Tracy is in her room regaining consciousness. Mark is by her bed. The baby is asleep. Mark gives the baby to Tracy. Oh, Susan didn’t leave? Never mind. I thought they did. A nurse is now examining the baby.They talk about removing toes and grafting them onto his hand.

Pat crosses to Derek. We learn the name of Susan’s babysitter, Natalie, as they return home. Still not sure what the kids name is. Their baby is named Connor, and Tracy’s baby is Shelby. Peter is just fully checked out of having a child with a physical disability.

Now, at a bar… Roy is drinking with friends. Pat crosses to Ted. Pat tries to pay off Ted. Peter is at the bar, and stares at some cleavage. Susan’s husband is clearly an ass. Sam is also at the bar. Ted donates the payoff money to charity. Ted walks away from the modern single story pub. Later, Ted enters the office of Bill. He’s reading some files.

Tracy sees the time. 10:35. Shelby isn’t moving, and Tracy calls the nurse. Susan watches a crying Connor. Peter is getting drunk. Ted searches Bill’s office. He finds a document approved by Roy, Bill, and Pat that shows toxic chemicals. Tracy is freaking out. Ted is making copies. Tracy tries to climb out of bed, but her legs are weak. A nurse joins her. Sam sees Ted at the copier. Ted is younger than Sam, and we get a lot of description about Ted realizing he has an ally in Sam. Not necessary. too much. Over stepping in narration. That’s an interpretation. Another interpretation of an exchange between Susan and Peter, where she realizes Peter will be no help.

Ted is now back at home with his dad. Rain falls. Tracy sits with Mark. A doctor joins them. Shelby isn’t dead, but not well. She didn’t develop properly internally. Now we learn Susan’s other kid is named Daniel. Peter is upstairs packing. Peter is literally leaving his family because his son has a malformed hand. Wow. Fuck this guy. Peter speeds away.

Mark is with Tracy, who is staring blankly ahead. Ted lies in bed. He gets to his feet and sees two people messing with his car. He runs outside. Ted’s car explodes. Susan is watching Connor cry. Susan cuddles Connor. Susan smiles. There’s a shopping center where Susan bumps into the cleavage. The woman is Patty. Tracy brings flowers to a tiny grave with Shelby’s name on it. Maggie feels a baby move in her belly. Susan has her two kids, headed to a park, with red dust everywhere. We see an Ariel shot of the town. Credits.

And that is a wrap. Grading time.

Quality Of Narrator: He has a good voice. it fits the project. It is based in the UK (Scotland I believe), so a US narrator is unnecessary. There was a little section where he read text, and immediately image description, which was weird, but Netflix is cheap like that.

Grade: 10/10

Quality Of Sound Mixing: during the chase sequence, i didn’t initially hear Derek’s name, because the scene kind of took over, and I got it later. That was one tiny instance. Mostly, a really good mix.

Grade: 9/10

Description of Characters: nearly non existent. Absolutely no mention of any race or ethnicity. Only one character even had hair color. A few were young, one was old, and two were obviously older. the men are really poorly described. A few mentions of clothing, like when Derek strips after work, medical gowns, doctor’s coats, and that one suit. But, I basically know next to nothing about these characters. yes, i got a lot of names, and some relationships. But, this is a deeply troubling track in this area. that being said, I don’t know there is a ton of room for robust character description, but I still saw a few moments of unnecessary interpretation. if this wasn’t a limited series, I’d grade lower, because we might be with these characters a while. I’m being generous here.

Grade: 4/10

Description Of Locations/Scenery: So, the area they live in had some decent description. It was always little chunks, but it did feel like little pieces to help shape the puzzle. descriptions of buildings, interiors, and a few things inside homes like a couch, bed, etc. What really landed was the description around the red dust, the toxic sludge. That stuff was all over. I still had some recurring spaces I didn’t know very well, or knew very little about, but this could be gradually solved in later episodes. It is far more likely we will learn more about rooms and what is in them, before they’ll take the time to describe Peter or Mark in detail, for example.

Final Grade: 7/10

Genre Specific description: This is a drama, and the mood fit very well. Lots of descriptions of facial expressions, and people looking worried. Also, this is toxic Town, and the description also drives home the elements involving pollution. So, for a genre, I thought it did pretty good. The only thing I would say is that the characters are so poorly described, it becomes hard to connect to them on a deeper level beyond the tragedy befalling them. Sometimes we see ourselves in characters, but that is unlikely to happen here, unless you’ve lived in a heavily polluted area.

Grade: 9/10

As far as the show goes, it is fine. Predictable, but an important true story. I never believed anyone would have a clean pregnancy. Erin Brockovich has a better structured story, as does the movie Dark Waters. The acting is fine. Sometimes the dialect is hard to understand.

Audio Description Score: 39/50 (78%) Grade: C+

Pilot Episode Grade: B

Thanks for joining me for another Quality check. I actually have no idea who made this track, because there are 3 more episodes, and my Netflix isn’t disabled when it comes to auto play. There were no credits in the first few seconds of the credits, so I truly have no idea until I finish the entire series.