TV Shows Watched: The Studio: S1E4 (Apple TV +) with audio description, The Handmaid’s Tale: S6E3 (Hulu) with audio description, Top chef: S22E? (Peacock) with audio description, Devil May Cry: S1E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Mythic Quest: S4E10 (Apple Plus) with audio description, The Wheel of time: S3E5 (Amazon) with audio description, Have I Got News For you: S2E8 (MAX) no audio description, and Running Point: S1E7 (Netflix) with audio description.

Best Episode: The Studio- In a very close situation, having to choose between two excellent programs, I’m giving The Studio the edge, as Seth Rogen and Even Goldberg’s new show continues to find creative ways to explore Hollywood, its various tropes, and also stylistically paying homage to the many things that have come before it. in this Chinatown inspired episode, Rogen’s studio head is trying to find the missing reel for one of his films, and wondering if maybe his director (Olivia Wilde) had something to do with it, or the films star (Zac Efron).

Runner Up: The Handmaid’s Tale- In the third episode, June pressures Nick to help her on a rescue, and Aunt Lydia learned what happens to her “girls”.

Best Audio Description: The Wheel Of Time- This pretty consistently has excellent audio description. Even in an episode with slightly less action than usual, it still has a ton of ground to cover.

Runner Up: Devil May cry- Also, this series gives a lot to be described as well. I really enjoyed the mentioning of eye color in this episode, as it is so interesting and specific.

Best Performance: Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale)- You could feel Aunt Lydia’s brain melting as she was finally shown what happened to Janeane, and also where the rest of her “fruit bearing” girls go once they have performed the task at hand. As janeane reminds her, it could be worse, but for someone who has totally bought into the promise of a brighter tomorrow, all lydia can do is pray, and hope it is all just a misunderstanding. But, when she learns it is not… what will she do with that information?

Runner Ups: Seth Rogen (The Studio), Max Minghella (The Handmaid’s Tale), Nicole Sullivan (Running Point)- Rogen was once again perfect in his role, trying desperately to be liked, while also solving major studio problems. Minghella had some really nice moments with June, where she’s trying to manipulate him, and they talk about love in the present and past tense. When he says she has no idea what it is like to love her, you can tell Nick is a victim of circumstance, and he knows it, but has no solution other than to allow himself to be at her beck and call as it is the closest he can ever get to her anymore. Lastly, Nicole Sullivan, a brilliant casting choice, from all the way back to her six season run on MAD TV, showed up playing the mother of one of the players who is very involved in her son’s life, and Hudson’s manager has to figure out a way for her to be anywhere else but court side during practice. Nicole was given so many great lines.

Best Moment OF Audio description: Train Station Attack (devil May cry)- This is the sequence where we not only get the eye color mention, but in the backstory for a character, we see an early demon attack, thwarted by the arrival of a train.

Runner Up: What Is She Wearing? (The Handmaid’s Tale)- the description of the outfits being worn by “the girls” when Lydia finds them was pretty good. And, also, Lydia’s reaction, realizing her entire world no longer makes any sense.

Worst Of…- Honestly, the episode this week was quite manic, but there was so little audio description in The Studio, I actually wondered if I had accidentally turned it off. It would go a while without adding something, and a lot happens. If I was assigning blame, like 90% at least would go to the way the episode is structured, with maybe 10% still wondering… is that the most we could really do?