TV Shows Watched: Too Much: S1E10 (Netflix) with audio description, Smoke: S1E6 (Apple Plus) with audio description, The institute: S1E2 (MGM Plus) with audio description, Euphoria: S2E1 (HBo MAX) with audio description, Adaptive: S1E3 (Peacock) no audio description, Silicon Valley: S3E2 (HBO MAX) with audio description, The Daily Show: Monday (Paramount Plus) no audio description, and Ballard: S1E3 (Amazon) with audio description

Too Much- full review coming shortly…

Smoke- Now that the series has pulled at a thread, the show is unraveling a little bit before the finale. It might have been a little too early to push at Taron Egerton’s character, simply because it has shifted the dynamic. so even in the final moments of this episode, which should seem heroic, they don’t. Greg Kinnear has a nice moment, but otherwise I feel like we’re stalling out, if not headed down. the audio description is still excellent, as i unintentionally listened back-to-back to Roy Samuelson narrate.

The Institute- The Stephen King adaptation has caught my attention, and they are a little in slow burn mode. It isn’t managing the level of no answers, just questions, which From does so well, but it does seem to lean more on not giving you answers, but leaving it easier to follow? like this is still just Maine. i still think Stephen King writing a book in something like feudal Japan, or the Roman Empire would be fun, just so we see some horror outside of Maine, but such is life. Still a nice AD track, and I’m interested to continue to see this series grow.

Euphoria- It really tries to put an artistic spin, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. it has a very talented group of performers, who are theoretically up for anything, and because the casting was so strong, the series pushes through almost all of it. I don’t enjoy Euphoria though. I appreciate it for artistic merit, but I actually don’t enjoy the show.

Adaptive- Ironically I was planning on reviewing this, and tried to binge the whole thing to get this out for disability pride. i might just write a separate piece about the failure of not providing audio description on a disability docuseries during disability pride month, but that’s it. Some documentaries can be enjoyed sans audio description because of their structure, and while this does feature a lot of interviews taking up space, it is still about sports, and these athletic situations which really do require description to make this work. if I was being really honest, this is something I would have to give a rotten score to, because of the lack of audio description, but is also something I know would get fresh if it was accessible. that doesn’t scream disability pride, and I hope to find a better outlet next year to platform disability pride.

Silicon Valley- the scene where TJ miller is “breaking up” with the Japanese guy is so stupid it’s funny. I know he’s got problems, but he really made this show work.

The Daily Show- Again, loved the first part, and then the second part was a frank conversation about Gaza from two Jewish men. I appreciated his guests willingness to point out that standing against genocide is not anti-Semitic, and some of those standing there would have stood for Jews during WWII. Also, hot take. While I enjoy sometimes “the others” who get to host, maybe with Colbert, he can come back and do a day, so I have two days I feel like I need to watch.

Ballard- i wish they’d saddle her with a normal storyline. I don’t know why Renee Ballard has to be complicated by these things we always throw at women, when guys can frequently anchor shows, and just seem almost asexual. the easy thing it to play how they’re doing it, but the hard thing is to continue to play her as a woman who puts work first, and doesn’t care about the other bullshit. I thought that’s what we were getting. also, we introduced a character as a “good guy” who is played by a character actor known for almost always playing the bad guy. Come on guys, you can do Renee Ballard better than this. Maggie Q deserves a real shot.