Today was a great day. I hope to give more on that later. But for now, you came to find out whaat i watched.

TV Shows Watched: The Waterfront: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Smoke: S1E3 (Apple plus) with audio description, the bear: S4E10 (Hulu) with audio description, Bet: S1E10 (Netflix) with audio description, The Better Sister: S1E8 (Amazon) with audio description, A Different World: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Scrubs: S1E4 (Peacock) no audio description, King Of The Hill: S2E4 (Hulu) no audio description, Silicon Valley: S2E10 (MAX) wit audio description, The office: S3E16 (Peacock) no audio description, The Guilded Age: S3E3 (MAX) with audio description

Best Episode: the Bear, runner up: Bet

Best Audio Description: Bet, Runner Up: Smoke

Best Performance: Ayo Edebiri, Jeremy Alan White, Eben Moss Baccarat (The Bear), Runner Up: Jurnee Smollett (Smoke)

Best Moment Of Audio Description: Smoking (The Bear), Drugs (The Waterfront)

e Waterfront- Kind of hilariously, my best moments are Smoking and Drugs. So, maybe not the best or most kid appropriate day. Neither would this series be, which is increasingly trying to format itself as the heir apparent to Ozark, as a family crime drama unafraid of its inherent dark tones, and embracing the need to kill someone every episode to prove its point. Topher Grace continues to be one of the weirdest and best casting decisions of the year, and this thing is growing on me. I pegged “drugs”, because there’s a scene where drugs are very integral, and really they are mentioned all over. Even alcohol in the room. Drug paraphernalia. It also comes back around, so you understand why so much context was given.

Smoke- Apple’s drama about hunting arsonists is still a compelling one. Smollett once again got a note for her characters determination not just in solving the crime at hand, but she also is given more depth in her backstory. As if her backstory wasn’t already tragic enough, we see that she has her own past in terms of fire, and how it affected her when she was very young. When she’s asked to let bygones be bygones by her family, and let a certain responsible family member out on parole, she can’t. And, as she was infuriated by “She believes she was saving your life, so what does she have to apologize for?”, I was equally baffled at the audacity to ask that question.

The bear- While the episode is titled Goodbye, The bear is returning for a 5th season, so it isn’t the series finale. it is, however, a very revealing and tense conversation between Sydney and carmie about what Sydney learns at the end of episode 9. to complicate things, Richie joins in, and later Natalie does. I didn’t include Abby Elliot, not because she isn’t good, but because she’s not in as much as the other three. The conversation between Syd, Richie, and carmie is captivating, and just all around some terrific dramatic work for a series that keeps insisting it is a comedy. I pegged smoking, because it is oddly a huge part of the episode. Syd actually takes up smoking for this scene, and has her reactions to doing it for the first time, and Carmie smokes after having quit (his character has been chewing nicotine gum since last season). So it was kind of a big moment, for a mundane thing. Roy did an excellent job narrating the season. I loved every episode except 7, which just overextends itself, and needed a tighter runtime.

bet- No way does Netflix order a second season. I’m just not that lucky. So, Bet will go in with Teenage Bounty Hunters and some other one season wonders I miss. Loved the season finale, which perfectly sets up season two, while also adding a new dynamic between yumiko and Keira. And, someone dies, which has been the mission of the series.

The Better Sister- It did find an ending that was more complex and interesting than I first thought. It isn’t the most mind bending twist ever, but certainly more than I was expecting. That final shot of the dead body felt like what every limited series does now.. try to get a second season. Sometimes, you just are a limited series. No need to extend.

A different World- I realized this had audio description on Netflix, and I wanted to check it out. I’ve never seen an episode, but this feels like it could be my jam. Deluxe is responsible for the audio description, and for a sitcom, there’s some here. honestly, such a small fraction of classic sitcoms even have audio description, this feels like a small miracle, so i just wanted to point it out for any fans.

Scrubs- Speaking of no audio description for classic sitcoms… this episode had our core group dealing with loss by the end of the episode in each of their cases. JD has all these little daydream type things that really would benefit from audio description.

King Of The Hill- A Halloween themed episode. hank stands up for Halloween against a bible thumping neighbor, and I’m reminded that LouAnn is going to have to have a new voice actress in the reboot, and it made me sad. RIP Brittny Murphy.

Silicon Valley- I did actually think the audio description here was a little standout, as the team tried really hard to keep PiedPiper up and running by increasing what their server could take as one of their cameras went viral. Walls were torn down, a fire started, and the chaos was actually well described. i didn’t feel lost, and the sight gags all worked.

the Guilded Age- i don’t really watch the series. I sit through it, and pretend to watch it so that someone else can watch it, since they watch all my own stuff. We all probably have a show we take the bullet on, and this is mine. I’m not a fan, and I don’t know why. I have noticed that at times I struggle with shows that have too big of an ensemble at the beginning, since I lack facial recognition. It could totally be that. I almost need to be eased in. Like, I can follow a series with a ton of characters, like House Of The dragon, but you have to spread them out. have discernible lead characters. Dune Prophecy suffered a bit from too many characters in a rushed format. That might be why this series doesn’t register with me, and the only scenes I truly enjoy feature Christine Baranski, whose voice is instantly recognizable to me.