I’ve got one more of my awards nominations down, as my votes were cast for Critics Association Of Central Florida, and I had the pleasure of voting for many of my favorites. Narrowing down lists was hard, and I did certainly ask myself if there was at least a small possibility someone might vote for that person, so like while I enjoyed Taraji P Henson in Straw, I voted for someone more likely. Even trying to decide my Top 5 Best Picture nominees was tough, as I was pretty sure The Baltimorons is a “me” thing, so I ended up looking at my 6-10 spots and figuring out how best to use my 5th spot. But I did vote for The Plague, Twinless, If I Had Legs I’d Kick you, Bugonia, Train Dreams, Sinners, One Battle After Another, F1, Die My Love, Marty Supreme, Wicked For Good, Is This Thing On, the Testmanet Of Ann Lee, The Fantastic Four First Steps, Hedda, Christy, After The Hunt, Weapons, Hamnet, Blue Moon, Noubelle Vague, The Perfect Neighbor, Come See Me In The Good Light, K-Pop Demon Hunters, and Frankenstein, all of which have audio description. AD made a huge impact on my list, with very few nominations without.

TV Shows Watched: Simon Cowell: The Next Act: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Star Wars: Visions: S2E2 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Heated Rivalry: S1E2 (HBO MAX) with audio description, Palm Royale: S2E2 (Apple Plus) with audio description, and A Man On The Inside: S2E5 (Netflix) with audio description.

Simon Cowell: The Next Act- I met him like 20 years ago when I auditioned for Idol, and he wasn’t grumpy then. It’s weird that he got known for those nasty comments, because this is a bit more of what I saw anyway. This show is poorly conceived, which it admits, as it struggles to get people to audition. Perhaps, it is because most kids aren’t sure who he is, and this show sounds like a docuseries. The audio description is fie, but I don’t remember what any of the singers look like. Basically, it is a reality show where Simon tries to make the next One Direction. It is also a hybrid, as it shows his home life with his son and wife. Odd choices.

Star Wars Visions: Is it just me, or does this AD track not sound like the same quality as other tracks? I’m not as good at hearing that whole mono/stereo thing, but it sounds degraded to me. But then again…

Heated Rivalry- Is this AI? It is very flat, and sometimes doesn’t complete a sentence the way a human would. Last episode I pointed out “smokes cigarette”, where we would say “a cigarette” or “the cigarette”. Maybe it was holds cigarette? It was weird. I am liking the series a bit more overall, as I learn more about the characters. I felt the pilot threw us in with no backstory, and now we are getting some backstory. It’s very provocative, but we can’t just like things because of sex. If we did that, Pillion would win the Oscar for Best Picture this year. Hands down.

Palm Royale- How can a cast be this good and this boring? What are we even doing in season two? Please give this very talented cast a script that has a bit more dark or intentional comedy. It is just so awkward, but not the good Napoleon Dynamite kind. The AD is fire though, probably the best of the day. On the flip side, this was also my least favorite thing I watched.

A Man On the Inside- I hope Mary Steenburgen sticks around for a third season. No idea how this season ends, but watching her and Danson together makes up for a lot, plus the supporting cast here is pretty great. The audio description is Vito, because someone keeps giving him sitcoms and comedies, and I can’t figure out why.