A new theme for the blog. I’ve been told by the Happiness engineers that this is a theme with great accessibility, and the ability to easily add a search bar. Now I’m just waiting for the instructions on how to do that. but, i do believe, from what I can tell, a lot of the garbage from the previous theme is gone.

TV Shows Watched: Smoke: S1E4 (Apple plus) with audio description, Building The Band: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, tires: S2E7 (Netflix) with audio description, the Pitt: S1E12 (HBo MAX) with audio description, and destination X: S1E8 (Peacock) with audio description

While I’m still trying to figure out what this is all going to look like, it made the most sense for me to continue to advance some shows that if I were to do a review at this point, they would be for the whole season.

Best Episode: The Pitt

Best Audio Description: Smoke

Best Performance: Jurnee Smollett (Smoke)

Best Moment Of Audio Description: Streaking (Smoke)

Smoke- Episode 4 was a little heavy on the (likely) misdirection by turning one of the characters we’re supposed to trust and like into a prick. However, Smollett’s performance is really woven nicely in as she has this heart to heart with her brother, followed by a very careful examination of her new partner. Ultimately, she realizes the best way to get what she wants is to get a few drinks into her new boss. She’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers, in an episode largely dedicated to changing how you see Taron Edgerton’s arson investigator. Roy Samuelson’s narration is great, as usual, and I have to admit that the opening credits are really well described. I find it so hard to believe, fully knowing that this is just the policy right now, that there is no way to give us some of those visuals during the credits, while also giving the actual credits. Here’s my best case argument to Pixellogic. If audio description is supposed to bridge the gap by detailing the visual elements and bringing context to scenes that would otherwise lack context, then what context are we bringing by only describing the random visual aspects of the opening credits, which are there to support, you know, credits. If your strong choice is to just do the visuals, what are you contextualizing? If anything, these opening sequences are a break from the narrative structure, and the visuals are often just a clever title sequence that supports the overall look or theme of the series, but still serves as a way to get the various names necessary on screen. Just a thought.

Building The Band- Allison is the cliffhanger. Basically by the end of Episode 4, we have built 5 of the 6 bands. Part of me is a little surprised no one has taken the shot at doing a five piece band. These kids can apparently see which band just got created, and there’s already a trio of girls, so Allison is dead set on forming yet another trio? Right now, there’s only one mixed group, and no one has five members. it should be about standing out. I’m hoping Allison has a brainstorm at the last minute and combines both duos she’s talking to into one mega group. I don’t think she will, she seems only interested in self preservation, and the closest way is to just pick a trio and be done with it. There are these little bursts of description in a difficult to describe series, where we get a little bit of description of someone. I’m still not sure every singer who has advanced got description, but there’s six episodes remaining plus the final showdown they just added yesterday.

Tires- I’m loving that this show is on the path to finding a place for Thomas Haden Church next season. This show needs his energy really bad. I keep comparing him to when the It’s Always Sunny team added Danny DeVito and it feels like that. Church gives everyone a new flavor to play off in the cast. His episode with Will is surprisingly fun.

The Pitt- Preparing for the oncoming of tragedy is a tough pill to swallow, especially for these doctors who are all near the end of their shift. The waiting room is still packed, and they give seemingly a never ending barrage of bad news to patients and their families. We’ve had our share of uplifting medical dramas (I do miss New Amsterdam), and it’s time for a realistic one. congrats on the multiple Emmy nominations, including for Best Drama Series, and also congrats to the audio description team for being one of five nominees this year for the People’s choice Awards at this year’s upcoming ACB gala. voting is still open until July 20th, so you can vote for The Pitt right now, if this show is your favorite.

Destination X- Now tht I’m aware of the inherent problem with the audio description,I’m not sure how to fix it, or even that it can be. The thing is, sometimes at the end, when Jeffrey Dean Morgan points out his little clues, they are so benign that you wouldn’t pick them up possibly even as a sighted person, even though they are all visual clues. it will be something like, using the colors of the flag for the country they are in to decorate a room, or the dishes being used at dinner had some unique paintings on them. They’re sometimes so left field that if the audio description were to point it out, it’s actually too much. and for those of us who watch open audio description with the family, it would ruin clues for them. Sometimes, the format of something, or what a show wants you to glean from it is not easy to translate. He does tip his hat quite a bit to the location, an based off how the show is edited, and the contestants talking, I’ve never had a problem guessing their location. But if you feel left out by JDM’s clues sometimes, I’m not sure how to fix that, or that it can be.