TV Shows Watched: High Potential: S2E1 (Hulu) with audio description,Platonic: S2E8 (Apple Plus) with audio description,The Runarounds: S1E4 (Amazon) with audio description, Red Fish Blue Fish: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Black Mirror: S4E6 (Netflix) with audio description, Next Gen Chef: S1E3 (Netflix) with audio description,Last Week tonight: most Recent (HBO MAX) no audio description

High Potential- With Jimmy Kimmel back, so is Hulu/Disney content. So, I caught up with the Season Premiere of High Potential, which I was disappointed to find out was using the same AD team as last year. Although, I’ve heard worse, from this narrator and company. The episode seemed to get most of the visual clues, except there was one moment where our two leads spent so much time at the beginning of this masquerade talking about which mask they’d be wearing, it would have been nice to have SOME reference. They spent a hot minute talking about the masks, and then they never put any descriptors in the dialogue, a king us fully reliant upon the AD. It isn’t like a make or break for the overall plot, but it will be disheartening to an expectant audience based on the time they spend using it as a gag.

Platonic- A party is planned for a celebrity who is also not a great guy, leaving some light conflict between Sylvia and Will. Will feels seen because the guy loves his idea for a bar, and wants to invest, but the actor also can’t be bothered to remember his best friends name.And back at home, there’s still a mid-life crisis happening as Sylvia’s husband is trying to find the meaning of life after bombing on Jeopardy.

The Runarounds- It’s fine. I also need to vent, because I kinda hate shows like this from a musicianship standpoint, because they make it seem like people learn and create music at freakishly quick paces. there’s a scene where the girl Charlie likes hands him lyrics, and he immediately has a melody, and then the band suddenly knows how to play it. Glee did this too. They’d all just suddenly know the music, even though actual Glee club kids would rehearse before performing. I think this gives the youth of the world an unrealistic expectation of being a musician, which is why I see so many kids get to college and drop out because they didn’t know they would need to know what a note is, or what key a song is in.

Red Fish Blue Fish- I finished this, and I’m deeply considering doing a review for RT. just in case, Tristan Snyder did a perfect job narrating, and IDC made what I think is an engaging track for kids. I think.

Black Mirror- An anthology episode within an anthology series. Inception. A girl visits a crime museum where the tour guide tells us three terrible stories involving technology and idiots in the future. The first was a story about a doctor who agrees to an implant so he can feel what his patients are feeling. Things take a dark turn when he experiences death without dying. the second was just silly as a couple is ripped apart by a tragic accident that leaves the wife/mother in a comatose state living in San Junipero, but she’s missing out on seeing her son grow up. In comes technology that allows her to become the voice inside her husband’s head. I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose this, but the plot gets darker as the husband is finally given an off switch, so he doesn’t have the voice all the time, and later can transfer her consciousness into a toy monkey. Mommy needs a hug? mommy needs a divorce. The last tale is a death row inmate who signs away the rights to his soul so his family can have money to live off of, not knowing his consciousness will be used for a macabre attraction where people can keep doing the whole electric chair experience to him forever. Interesting episode, I’ll give it that.

Next Gen Chef- What this show lacks, is a personality. I mean that both in terms of what makes it different as a show, but also within both the cast, and judges. Everyone is dull, and you don’t have any standouts. The judges and hosts are boring too. Top Chef benefitted so much at the onset from Padma and Tom, Hells Kitchen and Masterchef clearly have Gordon Ramsey, and every show since has seemed to understand this formula. I don’t really understand why this is so dull.

Last week tonight: John Oliver went hard on ABC for cancelling Jimmy Kimmel (for a few days), and also talks to a clinically depressed German bread.