For those of you eagerly anticipating the 2nd Annual Blind Film Critics Society nominations, we did meet and vote yesterday. An announcement at a later date. I’m proud of our nominations, and our growing membership.

TV Shows Watched: Mr Scorsese: S1E5 (Apple) with audio description, High Potential: S2E8 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Simon Cowell: The Next Act: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description, Murdoch: Death In The Family (Disney Plus) with audio description, Has Been Hotel: S2E3 (Amazon) with audio description

Mr Scorsese- finishing out the last 25 years of his career, from Gangs Of New York to Killers Of The Flower Moon. Heavy focus on Gangs, The Aviator, his win for The Departed, Shutter Island, Wolf Of Wall Street, and The Irishman. He barely mentioned Silence. I also think the show totally ignored Shine A Light, but there was a broad statement about how Scorsese wears many hats and does other things… including documentaries. We hear from his daughter, we learn about his wife, his own mental health struggles during Shutter Island, and DiCaprio, Day-Lewis, DeNiro, Blanchett,and Robbie all offer color commentary. This was a magnificent series, harmed only by the assumption fans didn’t want more. I wanted all his films and thoughts, and every time we brushed past a film, it kinda sucked. I felt like I purchased the collected works only to find out it is just the greatest hits.

High Potential- If you’d like to keep doing audio description, think about times in the project where a character reacts to a visual cue of any kind. this was a problem before for this company,and remains so. For example, in this episode, Morgan is trying to tell Karadac about her theory. He apparently does some reaction, because she says something like “don’t look at me like that”. Like what? Did he make a change? Because there was a beat there, enough to add a little Karadec looks pensive” or karadec frowns”. But, she reacts to something we can’t see, and the description isn’t interested in helping us find out.

Simon Cowell’s Next Act- What a bizarre show, and a test of my love for Simon as an individual. It is such an odd format, such a weird vanity project. I want more Simon, but this is not the droid I’ve been looking for. I think the AD is fine, though I can’t remember a single singer, which could be a fault of teh description, but likely is the format of the show.

Murdock: Death In The Family- Alex does a good job convincing everyone of his grief. This is the fallout from a brutal murder episode, and the AD is great. The acting here is stellar, from Gerald McRainey to Jason Clarke.

Has Been Hotel- I so want to like this show. It is musical theatre, fresh, unique, and theoretically right up my alley. I just cannot bring myself to love it. I don’t know why. I’m slowly forcing my way through it. I respect all the fans, and I wish there was a chip I could implant so I could enjoy this as much along with you. I just think it is fine, but not great, and the songs are OK, not bangers. The audio description is good though, and that’s a small victory. it is also very original, as a show.