TV Shows Watched: The Last Of us: S2E1 (MAX) with audio description, American Idol: S23E9 (Hulu) no audio description, Side Quest: S1E4 (Apple Plus) with audio description, St Dennis Medical: S1E16 (Peacock) with audio description, Pulse: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, Long Bright River: S1E7 (Peacock) with audio description, Million Dollar Secret: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, and Last Week Tonight: Most Recent (MAX) no audio description

Best Episode: The last Of us- Without question. The return of this show is like Christmas morning. And, for those of us aware of what happens in the second video game, I’m finding myself right back in one of my favorite shows (probably my actual favorite) of all time, The Walking Dead, with the question of will they veer from the source material, and if so… when, and by how much? the season premiere showed that time has passed, but Joel and Ellie are in a very weird place in this surrogate father/daughter dynamic since last we left them. Now they live in Jackson, and some new cast joins (welcome catherine O’Hara and Isabella Merced), as well as a look at the surviving members of the group Joel massacred last season, now led by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). So, with these characters, I wonder how many will get fleshed out more as the series hits the brick wall of there not being a third game yet to adapt. If they do 1 season per game, this would be the final season, and HBO clearly doesn’t want that. That’s why House Of The Dragon was feeling a bit long to some. I call it an excellent time to world build and get us invested in characters, which is something shows with large casts have a hard time doing. For this show, spending more time, considering everyone they meet only seems to reappear in a second episode, would help make this show feel like it actually had an ensemble of supporting characters, or at least recurring, instead of a ton of guest stars. the season premiere was great, and I’m hoping it goes where I think it will.

Runner Up:Long Bright River- As we get closer to finding the truth, we learn some devastating secrets about the past. I’m very intrigued for the finale, and I think I know who the killer is.

Best Audio description: The Last of Us- It isn’t even close. There’s so much to describe here, from different types of zombies, and various combat scenes, to the revenants of a bear, or the roaming giraffes. So many little things. As a side shoutout, the Last Of Us Season 1 was uploaded with ASL. And, as a bonus, HBO is breaking new ground by having the quality control team for the audio description credited. There’s so much winning here there can’t even be a runner-up today. It’s like watching toddlers playing basketball against Lebron James. I just told you not only does this show have excellent AD, but they are now crediting quality check, AND Season 1 has ASL. the accessibility quotient defeats everything else.

Best Performance: Amanda Seyfried (Long Bright River)- her work on this show has completely transformed how I see her as an actress, and what I believe she is capable of. This is the best performance of her career, hands down.

Runner Up: Catherine O’Hara (the Last Of Us)- I have a feeling I’ll have another chance to say Pedro or Bella, but with this show, sometimes everyone else never comes back. So in case O’Hara never returns, the scene she has with Joel really helps to solidify what we’ve been missing in the time jump, while she also introduces a complex character with a past all her own, who has a very complicated history with Joel. O’Hara doesn’t get nearly enough dramatic work, so it was a delight to see her here.

Best Moment Of Audio Description: The Clearing (The Last Of us)- Ellie and Dina decide to clear out a building that has at least one known clicker in it. things are never that easy, but the description of everything that happens inside is excellent. From the details like the message board with Employee Of The Month photos, to a surprise waiting for Ellie, the whole scene was memorable.

Runner Up: The Tattoo (the Last Of us)- Ellie now has a tattoo to help cover up her bite mark, and it is mentioned and fairly well described. It is important because it reinforces that Ellie is keeping her immunity a secret, and the first way to do that is to hide her bite mark from S1E7. Although, she might need another tattoo soon.

The Should Have been A contender Award: i did really like the 4th episode of Side Quest, and the episode focuses on in game play. I wanted more from this audio description, since we so rarely get to spend time in Mythic quest, and instead talk about it. There is some, but ultimately, I felt like it wasn’t enough considering the possibilities.

Worst Of…- Two shows without audio description, and the crown goes to American Idol. While you might assume that episode was live, it was not. Next week will begin live voting, but they taped Hawaii with enough time to easily add audio description without worrying about how to do live audio description like America’s got Talent.