TV News: Sadly, the Bondsman will not live to see another day. Amazon has buried Kevin Bacon’s supernatural horror super quick after just one season. This is not Bacon’s first short-lived show at Amazon, so my suggestion would be to work elsewhere where they appreciate your work.

TV Shows Watched: The Handmaids Tale: S6E8 (Hulu) Finally With Audio Description, Murderbot: S1E1 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Survival Of The Thickest: S2E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Drag Race All Stars: S10E2 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, 911: S8E18 (Hulu) with audio description, The Rehearsal: S1E5 (MAX) with audio description, The Walking Dead: Dead city: S1E6 (Netflix) with audio description, Top Chef: S22E9 (Peacock) with audio Description, Conan O’Brien: Mark Twain Prize (Netflix) with audio description, Jeopardy Masters: S3E3 (Hulu) with audio description, hacks: S4E4 (MAX) with audio description, and the Rookie: S7E18 (Hulu) with audio description.

best Episode: Murderbot- After all of the wait for Handmaids, there were some minor issues. So, I’ll give Alexander Skarsgard’s new sci-fi dark comedy the thumbs up. it was fun, and did a nice job of introducing us to the characters and the overall world. It has a 2 episode premiere, likely because the first episode really doesn’t say what the season long story will be. But, still loads of fun. Not my favorite AD though.

Runner Up: The Handmaids Tale- Perhaps the build up wasn’t worth it, but performances are. Everyone was on point. the ladies of this show killed it, quite literally, but also in terms of acting. serena was faced with a shocking discovery (that makes no sense), Lydia came to terms finally with everything thanks to June’s measured approach, and Moira even had this big moment with Lydia detailing her suffering, and all of this “why isn’t it possible that this is MY master plan?” Speech to cover for June. The ladies were excellent.

Worth Mentioning: Hacks, Survival Of The Thickest, Drag Race All Stars- Hacks was close enough and good enough that if I wasn’t at 10 episodes or more, and didn’t finish the top 5, I still would have included it. Nothing wrong, it just didn’t have quite as big of an episode, despite it being the premiere of her show. Survival Of The Thickest I believe just did their season finale, which was great, and drag Race was just silly fun and edged out Top Chef for reality victory of the day.

best Audio Description: The Handmaids Tale- At least when we got it, it was really good. the weird opening, with June talking about ho the clothes designed for Handmaids being the downfall, through the description of the wedding, and June’s plot unfolding (sorry, no spoilers), all was really well done.

Runner Up: Conan O’Brien: Mark Twain Prize- his Kennedy center Honors Netflix special is a lot of jokes, and famous people, but a surprising amount of sight gags that were all done very well. I mean, Conan’s the guy responsible for the masturbating bear… for me to poop on! So, yeah, a lot of stuff to actually describe other than people walking on and off stage.Worth Mentioning: Survival Of The Thickest, Drag race All Stars, 911- drag Race really does try. I think I mentioned this last time, but it bears mentioning again, that this show is reliant upon the looks of the Queens and the Lip Sync, as well as little moments along the way. it is trying to bridge that gap as much as possible, just like Top Chef has the unenviable honor of making us want to eat food we can’t see. Survival Of the Thickest is also based around fashion, but very much sex and love as well, and balances both nicely. I also love the choice of narrator. 911 changed up narrators, which is so weird, but the episode faced the presumed death of a major character, and someone needed to try and describe Angela Bassett’s flawless acting. It was certainly one of the more memorable episodes in terms of description.

Best performance: Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaids Tale)- serena is just so happy. She has all these plans. She tells the Handmaids she is now aware of their plight and is working on things to make their lives better, and she lets her husband carry her across the threshold. but, what happens after… that’s why she’s here. Amazing.

Runner Up: Ann dowd (The Handmaids tale)- i try to diversify, but Dowd is just so so good in this episode as well, and you think you know Lydia like the back of her hand, but so does June, which leads to a brilliant sequence for Dowd.

Worth Mentioning: Samira Wiley (The Handmaids Tale), Jean Smart (hacks), Alexander Skarsgard (Murderbot)- Wiley also has this big speech with Lydia that is terrific, Smart had to play the insecurities of a character that refuses to acknowledge they might have anxiety, and Alexander is just really amusing in this new role.

Best Moment Of Audio description: nice To Meet You (The Handmaids Tale)- June and commander Bell meet, finally. I’d say it is a far cry from a meet cute, and more like everything you’ve always wanted from June meeting Bell for the first time.

runner Up: Nothing To See Here (Murderbot)- So, I thought this show had a lot of missed opportunities, but at least, it took advantage of one. the hook of the show is that our main character is this robot that has hacked his chip and now has autonomy, and is trying to hide it. he has a lot of abilities, and even streams programs to his brain. So, one of the things we see him watch is a TV show about a man falling for a robot. However, the show also has a moment when we see him.. and he’s basically a Ken doll. So hopes of romance… will be complicated if that’s where the show wants to go. At least that detail was pointed out.

Runner Up 2: The Lip Sync (drag Race)- I thought the lip sync was well done, with focus on the queen that wins, and the choices they make. I don’t want to spoil for those who didn’t watch yet, but there’s stuff about the dress kind of bellowing out as she lowers to the floor, and layers as she takes off her top layer to reveal some saucy lingerie complete with pasties.

Runner Up 3- Mark Twain (Conan O’Brien)- I liked that we never found out who was playing Mark Twain in the description. they could hav done something like “John Stark stands up dressed as mark Twain”, but they went instead with the magic of Twain in the moment.

Runner Up 4- the goodbye (911)- Seriously, did that just happen? if it did, wow. And, Bassett is so much better than this show. her acting is flawless every time they throw her another poorly written disaster feature. she goes for Oscar every single time, and the description supports her.

Worst Of- Murderbot’s audio description. For a science fiction show, i realized there were things I was missing as the show kept moving forward. I didn’t feel like I had a good initial description of Murderbot, there was a monster that was never really given size relativity oor description outside of “big mouth and teeth’, I wondered how we were watching TV (through his eyes?), and what the rest of the crew even looked like. Apple usually has some pretty solid audio description, but this isn’t it. And, Point360 usually does solid narration, but this left me wanting… a lot.