TV Shows Watched: The Runarounds: S1E1 (Amazon) with audio description, Platonic: S2E5 (Apple plus) with audio description, The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox: S1E3 (Hulu) with audio description, and Mindhunter: S1E10 (Netflix) with audio description.

The Runarounds- I’m glad I got to this quickly. So, if you are interested in The Runarounds, DO NOT stay for the preview of the season that runs at the end. I’ve never seen such a spoiler laden thing in my life. It’s ridiculous. it is one of those “this season on The runarounds”, but everything they showed had a far different tone than the pilot, which is a very light, carefree show about some high school seniors wanting to be rock Gods. The series seems to take a bit of a Daisy Jones and the Six turn, and have more serious material thrown its way, and stuff for the band to deal with as they move forward. I liked the pilot. it felt really long, but I did like it. I’m not sure I loved it though. I certainly wanted to tell you not to watch the little preview they have at the end though. Solid audio description. I don’t think I caught any problems with it.

Platonic- Hated this episode. The writers of the show sacrificed all logic for the purposes of laughs, and they did it straight across the board. it was like the whole episode was stupid, and couldn’t get itself out of this hole. I love Platonic, but this episode is so poorly written. We start with Charlie, an educated lawyer, and father to children, flubbing Jeopardy by thinking the movie is called “Beauty and the Beastmode”, which feels like the writers gave up on finding a funny answer, and went with a profoundly stupid one. But it is this answer that basically causes Charlie to be catatonic and blow his one shot at Jeopardy. then he wants to try and keep the episode from airing. meanwhile, Will, who still works with his former fiancé, is experiencing actual illegal workplace harassment because he called off the wedding. this is why companies have HR departments. Yet, instead of using his best friend’s husband WHO IS A LAWYER, he decides to try and rise above it? But considering no one at the company is really talking to him, it’s hard to rise above when you basically have no job. Again, this is illegal. So, when Will finally teams up with Charlie, I thought perhaps they might actually do the smart thing, and use Charlie for what he’s good for, since he needs a pick me up. Instead, Will convinces Charlie to essentially break into a house. he convinces a lawyer, and a father of two kids, to break into a house. truly, I hated this episode. I’m actually scared to see where we go from here. this was like a car crash.

The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox- So the takeaway I have from this show, is that Italian police are both stupid and corrupt. Knox is a producer here, and I’m consistently shocked by the things that happen in this. If this story is even 90% true, America should sue Italy on her behalf. I’m not really a true crime junkie, and I don’t go down rabbit holes like this Amanda Knox story, but I have passing knowledge of who she is, and this is mind blowing.

Mindhunter- Fincher kinda went for broke on the season 1 finale. He basically, in true TV fashion, throws everything into chaos so he can leave on a cliffhanger. This is a great series, and but I’m prescribing the narrator a Red Bull before every recording session. My persistent take on audio description is pretty simple. If you want to maintain the use of human audio description against AI that is getting more efficient and closer to parroting human interaction, than the best way to do that is to sound human. All of these flat AI adjacent narrators have got to put some spark in their description. If it becomes so that the audience can no longer tell if a human or a TTS voice is narrating, the studios are going to choose the cheaper option. In many ways, flat voice talent are actually creating a path to put themselves out of work. They may think I’m just being mean, but the reality is, if a company has to pay you 500 for a track, and you sound identical to a voice they have on a computer program that isn’t asking for any money, which do you think they are going to choose? not only will the companies commissioning tracks stop paying for it, but less altruistic AD companies will stop hiring you because they could spend that money elsewhere. And since getting AD credits is a gamble, as I’ve started to hear projects with no AD credits at all, we don’t even get a name at the end as proof of life every time. You do not have to attack every script like its Shakespeare, but find the “talent” in your “voice talent”.