Coming This Week: Ironheart (Disney Plus), The Bear (Hulu), and Squid Game (Netflix). Hold on to your butts!

TV Shows Watched: the Waterfront: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description, Revival: S1E1 (Peacock) with audio description, Murderbot: S1E7 (Apple plus) with audio description, tires: S2E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Top Chef: S22E14 (Peacock) with audio description, the Rehearsal: S2E4 (MAX) with audio description, We Were Liars: S1E2 (Amazon) with audio description, Ginny and Georgia: S1E7 (Netflix) with audio description, King Of The hill: S1E77 (Hulu) no audio description, the Great North: S5E15 (Hulu) no audio description, Pop Culture jeopardy: S1E21 (Amazon) with audio description, Bosch: Legacy: S3E7 (Amazon) and Hacks: S4E9 (MAX) with audio description

Best Episode: Hacks, Runner Up: revival

Best Audio description: Top Chef, Runner Up: Bosch Legacy

Best Performance: The Ensemble Of Hacks, Runner Up: Tristan (Top Chef)

Best Moment Of Audio Description: Deborah Visits Jimmy (Hacks), Runner Up: The First Corpse Rises ((Revival)

The Waterfront- As Outer Banks is looking at its final season, this new family crime drama looks to easily replace it. that is the best and closest comparison. It isn’t soapy the same way Virgin River or Ransom canyon are, nor is it young adult oriented like We Were Liars or the Summer I Turned Pretty. there’s a complicated family at the center, and we’re going to watch it play out. Random acts of violence and death are here. I’d say nothing too extreme, but that ending on the second episode certainly felt like an escalation. the audio description is Ok. I didn’t think about it much, and it just didn’t stand out.

revival- the new cheesy SyFy show is based on an Image comic, where a town of about 30K experiences some odd incident where all who have died in the last two weeks come back to life. They have done this kind of show before, and I don’t trust SyFy to improve upon past failures of returning family members from a dramatic perspective. However, as a horror leaning show, it takes a lot there. David James Elliot (JAG) stars to prove he’s still alive. The audio description, while it starts fine, becomes not great as there are clearly moments where characters are looking at something that never gets described. Sometimes it later gets verbalized, but not always. I wanted to highlight the first opening sequence, because it was all downhill from there.

Murderbot- I’ve never loved this audio description. I constantly feel for a science fiction show this is dramatically underwhelming. I do watch a lot of TV, and most of what Apple does is really pretty solid. this is below their average. The show is entertaining though, and Alexander Skarsgard continues to impress as he keeps his humans alive.

Tires- Shane gilles’s show has some jokes I wish he wouldn’t make. this week was definitely the case, though I think it might have gone over a few heads. The structure doesn’t allow for great audio description, because these guys never shut up, but it is pretty decent for the structure.

Top chef- I gave it the win because this was the first season of the show to have audio description at all, so I just wanted to thank the team for making this happen. that’s all. it also got Runner up because while he wasn’t my favorite, the winner was my second favorite.

The rehearsal- the episode seems to bleed into a far more interesting set up as I think Nathan is about to testify in front of Congress, and I can’t wait for that. That seems bananas.

We Were Liars- the wrong narrator for this show. Way too upbeat for the content. This narrator seems more appropriate for Wizards Of Waverly Place or modern Family, but not this. The second episode ends in tragedy, and she cannot find the right note. Sorry, but this is one of the super rare occurrences where the choice of narrator is so wrong, it is actually distracting me. I rarely feel that way, even if I’m not a fan, or think it could have been different, here after two episodes, I can’t shake what I didn’t want to say. She actually hurts the show.

Ginny And Georgia- Seven episodes into season 1, this track is mostly OK. I’m enjoying this more than I remembered. The audio description is fine. It is a bit like The waterfront, in being consistent, without standout moments.

King Of The Hill- Hank got an Asian neighbor. No audio description.

the Great North- beef got a new friend, who then fights with him over a belt. no description.

Pop Culture Jeopardy- I always do well. I’m still in knockout rounds, 21 episodes deep. How long is this season? Jesus. it is hard to really mess this description up, so it is one of Roundabout’s stronger projects.

Bosch Legacy- a sturdy and steady crime drama winding down to its series finale. the audio description compliments the tone, and hits the necessary marks in terms of this being somewhat of a mystery.

Hacks- In what I’m shocked wasn’t the season finale, I was blown away by the whole cast. Everyone did great, I wonder if Paul W. Downs can win supporting actor. I’m so pleased by the choice Deborah makes, and I’m hoping the finale is them finding a way to stick it to Bob.

Worst of- I acknowledge that The Great North and King Of The Hill were without audio description, but the audio description for We Were Liars really stands out among some shows that were just OK to solid. nothing really blew me away today, which is how I was able to put Top chef on top. Revival even has deeply inadequate audio description, but with We Were Liars exploring some darker tones in its story, and having this big emotional climax at the end, it revealed that the choice and casting of the narrator just didn’t work.