TV Shows Watched: Murderbot: S1E2 (Apple plus) with audio description, Sirens: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Midcentury Modern: S1E7 (Hulu) with audio description, Etoile: S1E6 (Amazon) with audio description, ghosts: S4E21 (Paramount Plus), Will Trent: S4E18 (Hulu) with audio description, She the people: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Government Cheese: S1E7 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Octopus: S1E2 (Amazon) with audio description, and Your friends And neighbors: S1E6 (Apple Plus) with audio description

Best Episode: Sirens- While I enjoyed several shows, I’m always impressed with a strong pilot episode. In a day and age where most shows aren’t required to make them, the art of crafting the perfect first episode is lost. Sirens doesn’t have that problem, leaving you with enough backstory left open for discovery, but still focusing on this core dynamic between two sisters who stand on opposite ends of privilege at the time. And, standing possibly between them is this trophy wife (Julianne Moore), who likely has plenty of secrets of her own to unravel. I’m excited by and for this new show.

Runner Up: Etoile- I still do love Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new Amazon show, which is doing the FYC circuit. There are so many great performances here, and I hope Emmy voters adore this ballet dramady as much as I do.

Worth Mentioning: Murderbot, Midcentury Modern, and government Cheese- That last one should be a surprise, but I just realized whaat the problem with the show is. It is telling the story from the wrong perspective, and the wrong lead. Astoria, when given her own episode, delivered the series best episode, with biting commentary on the expectations of being a wife, while also maintaining your own hopes and individual dreams. Murderbot proves to still be interesting and darkly funny, and I’m a big fan of the Midcentury Modern gang.

Best Audio Description: Sirens- beautiful. There’s just so much description and specificity here in terms of the description. When we were introduced to one of the sisters, we got the boots, we got heavy eyeliner, and my favorite choice, the “skort”. The team at DVW really nailed what it means to give a show a good head start by supporting the first episode with a true depth of description.

Runner Up: Etoile- I’ve really enjoyed this AD track all season long. It crafted one of my favorite scenes in the show so far, and knocked it out of the park.

Worth Mentioning: she The People, Government Cheese, Midcentury Modern- She The People actually does pretty well for description of a pilot. it does fight a different format, as this is a comedy, so the dialogue takes over a lot, but there’s a decent amount of setup here and a great choice of narrator. Government Cheese had a lot to work with, and while I’m not consistently impressed with the show, I thought this episode nailed its bits. The last spot in the top 5 was a coin toss between Midcentury Modern and Your Friends and neighbors, and with admittedly very little reason, I felt like I’ve enjoyed Midcentury Modern more consistently.

Best Performance: Simone Messick (government Cheese)- She really hasn’t been given much to do, but the former All rise and Luke Cage star reminded us that she can carry her own weight when David Oyelowo is not in the episode. She spent half the time talking to a manifestation of representation of what a wife should be from a TV ad, and the other half with her wacky neighbor who is stretched far too thin. Loved her this week.

Simon Callow (Etoile)- Man, Crispin was pissed this week with his diva ballerina, and took to a hilarious and also creepy scene where he squared off reminding his talented muse that she should learn to pick her fights, in one of the more straight menacing threats his character has made all season.

Worth mentioning: Meghann Fahy (Sirens), Alexander Skarsgard (Murderbot), Ramon Rodriguez (Will Trent)- Fahy is Devan, the poorer of the two sisters, and she has to schlepp her way across the country to get her sisters attention. She stands out the most in the pilot because she makes no attempt at fitting into high society, creating several standout moments. Skarsgard is still doing some hilarious work as Murderbot, who cannot be bothered, but still has to be so he isn’t reported and destroyed. And then, yes, even though this season of Will Trent has been a hot mess, Rodriguez has had several scenes all season. With one of those absolutely bonkers finales, it was unclear if Will would or would not Trent this episode, but he certainly fought with vigor to try and save the lives of his ensemble, who were all in life or death situations.

Best Moment Of audio Description: The Security Team (Etoile)- This was what I was talking about. Part of this truly is just expert writing from the show itself, but the description needed to catch the joke, and they did. crispin mentions, even though it doesn’t look like it, he always has security around. And, boy does he. The sight gag we would have missed, is Crispin leaving, and his security team following, but no one was dressed like a bodyguard, so it just looks like a bunch of random people from all walks of life following him out of the park.

Runner Up: Devan’s description (Sirens)- I truly loved her introduction. I think we got every aspect of her outfit, colors included. maybe we didn’t get fingernails? It was really well done, and stood out to me.

runner Up: 2- Bartleby’s Return (Sirens)- I also thought this scene was really well done.

Runner Up 3- Coulda been A Rockette (Government Cheese)- the wacky neighbor is just the beginning, from a random mention of her kicking her leg out while working on her home trying to find termites, to just sitting on the floor mid-conversation, to her revealing the secrets of all the other women in the neighborhood, complete with us getting a little picture of those lives. She was a hoot.

Runner Up 4- Nope (Your Friends And Neighbors)- I just loved how we picked back up, we know a dead body is in the house, and we get a description of the housekeeper going up to the door, opening it, looking in, being surprised, and backing out and closing the door. Nope. Not today Satan. Also, props to the show itself for not just giving us a stereotypical scream. Not everyone screams. That can’t be a thing.

Worst of…- Tyler Perry. Seriously. Who does he make shows for? Who is this show for? She the People is one of the weirdest premises, because you would think it might lean political a little (but after seeing one episode of The Oval, I think Tyler Perry avoids politics at all costs), and instead we focus on a woman running for Lieutenant governor who essentially gets the job because everyone saw her daughter doing something on their phones, and they all sympathized with her because they all have kids that suck. And the election scene at the end makes me realize Perry has no fundamental knowledge of how election results work. The worst part, or perhaps the best because I haven’t seen her in forever, is jo Marie Payton is in the cast. this queen deserves better. I grew up learning that Family Matters, and she was a huge part of that being the matriarch of the family. Now she’s like eighth billing under people I’ve never heard of on a desperately forgettable Tyler Perry sitcom. Granted, she has had steady work, and to the less fortunate who haven’t seen Family Matters, they’d recognize her voice from The proud family. I recognized her voice immediately. this show was a hot mess, yet somehow better than his last Netflix series, which was dark and abysmal. Ironically, while I wouldn’t recommend the shows, the audio description tracks are strong, and actually his films have pretty much had consistently good audio description. but, Tyler Perry is my pick for loser of the day. When you already have all the money in the world, and your own production complex, and you still don’t care about striving to tell better stories for your audience, you become the cinematic equivalent of junk food. You may think you want it, but if you look at the ingredients, there’s really no actual food inside.