TV Shows Watched: Alien Earth: S1E6 (Hulu) with audio description, The Girlfriend: S1E1 (Amazon) with audio description, Dexter: resurrection: S1E9 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Red Fish Blue Fish: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description, The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball: S1E9 (Hulu) with audio description, Irish Blood: Season Final (Acorn) with audio description, and The paper: S1E2 (Peacock) with audio description

Alien Earth- No spoilers. I’d say, all things considered, a well described episode. The little bit of description I liked the most was just the inclusion of the soldier that Joe/Kermit is with, and her braided hair. She felt like a minor character, yet we now know at least one distinguishing characteristic about her that makes her feel less like a red shirt waiting to die. For two episodes now, two of the Lost Boys have done virtually nothing, but Smee has almost entirely been forgotten in episodes 4 and 6.

the Girlfriend- I did not care for this at all. The series, the description, really nothing worked. Basically, there’s this giant opening sequence suggesting all this danger happening, and then we’ll get to see it slowly unfold? Playing your hand, and then we get to see how you played it? That’s a tight rope to walk, and only the best auteurs are able to pull it off. Nothing I got in the pilot felt like that was the case. It is centered around a mother and her son’s girlfriend, who clearly will not be best friends, and the weird shenanigans that go on between them. There’s a fair amount of sex in the first episode, and I appreciated the frankness of the description, but there’s something about how this track is laid that bothers me. I’m going to watch another episode, and hopefully I’ll be able to put my finger on it more. I was more focused on the pilot, and the starting of this story, and less on the audio description, but right now I wouldn’t recommend this.

Dexter Resurrection- I’m caught up to that episode now. At a certain point, it became extremely predictable anyway. I’m wondering if there’s a surprise coming with Gina.

Red Fish Blue fish- Tristan Snyder is the narrator, and this is his zone. Just some terrific work. I love when Tristan is on kids/family stuff, as their voice suits it perfectly. The second episode is still Red and blue having adventures, and other animals working around too, like Turtle, Crab, and Whale. The first half they have to rake leaves from a lawn, and later they have the ironic “character who doesn’t need a bath takes a bath” moment we seem to have for every underwater character. I know SpongeBob bathes himself needlessly, and apparently, so do these fish. Why? So your kids will see that bath time is fun. Sweet spot on this I still say is 3-6, or 4-7 years old. It isn’t earlier, because it isn’t educational. It isn’t blues Clues, Dora, or Sesame Street, nor is it mind numbing like Teletubbies. It just aims for little kids, much like how I remember shows like Little Bear doing back in my day.

the Wonderfully weird World Of Gumball- A new guilty pleasure of mine. Love this show. It’s so silly, without being overly crude, or specifically pandering to only little kids. It has decently broad humor, but isn’t just for adults. I think I’ve compared this to bob’s burgers in the past. Adventure Time maybe as well, since I know people who grew up with that series still watch it as adults.

Irish Blood- And my Acorn experiment has ended. Irish Blood has wrapped, I have a show I can review should I so choose, to discuss how Acorn should consider being accessible. It isn’t the hardest show to follow, but has some pretty big elements and moments that were head scratchers. Hopefully, Alicia Silverstone will get more work.

The Paper- I’m not sure if the written descritpion is as good as the narrator is. I watched this with someone, and they filled in quite a few times on some sight gags that didn’t make the cut for the track. I was Abel to follow the story, but for a comedy, the nuance is in those jokes. In a way, the show still benefits from Dave Wallace doing the AD track, because he feels like a symbiotic part of the show, not an add on. You could probably play this track for sighted people and they’d be far less thrown by this audio description because it is so complimentary to the style of the program. It isn’t the Office, but why should it be? Aside from Oscar appearing in the first two episodes, there’s no real connection. If you think about it as just being shot the same way, like Parks and Rec, Abbott Elementary, St Dennis Medical, or American Auto, then it is just another one of these types of sitcoms. It works.