TV Shows Watched: the Traitors: S4E4 (Peacock) with audio description, All’s Fair: S1E3 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Heated rivalry: S1E3 (HBO MAX) with audio description, The Night Manager: S1E1 (Amazon) no audio description, The Masked Singer: S14E2 (Disney Plus) no audio description, Loot: S3E10 (Apple Plus) with audio description, and A Man on The Inside: S2E5 (Netflix) with audio description

The Traitors- I’m shocked they couldn’t focus their attention on the banishment they’ve been trying to do. I’m a little surprised at who the Traitors chose to murder, and I’m keeping this all light and spoiler free. though the trailers make it look like Michael is about to become a huge problem. I hope not. he’s wildly entertaining in this dynamic which has some really dull, but recognizable reality stars flying safe under the radar. Mark Ballas, for example, would be an excellent Traitor, as I think his peers forget he’s alive. Michael, on the other hand, enters every situation like he’s about to street fight in one of the five boroughs. Also, thank you again to Peacock. The audio description is noticeably better this season. Can I get an Amen?

All’s Fair- How Ryan Murphy managed to get two Oscar nominees (likely three soon), along with Emmy Winners Niecy Nash and Sarah Paulson to read these scripts aloud is the magical question we will never know the answer to. I assume, people don’t do his shows anymore out of the understanding that the former Kingmaker behind pose actually makes good shows, but rather he has blackmail. Honestly, I don’t love the audio description here. it abandons us for far too long, albeit it is a dialogue heavy show (which is why it sucks), but still. Find the beats, and let me know my narrator is alive. “Emerald smirks”. I think you can fit in small reactions like that to help flesh out the description a bit more instead of waving a white flag.

Heated Rivalry- i refuse as a gay man to be excited by a show simply because of representation, or the forward and frank nature of sex in a project. I actually don’t even like the Russian half of this “Rivalry”, and while the show does slowly get better, i still believe we needed a stronger foothold in who these people were from the get go. Now we are looking at supporting characters, trying to flesh them out more, and I still need more from my two male leads. The sex is great, I get it. But sex does not a great show make. the audio description here is sadly average. it doesn’t even sound like it was recorded or mixed at the highest quality. Like, compare this to The Pitt or Welcome To Dairy, and tell me if you think WBD put the same focus on the experience as they did for those shows. This isn’t a mirage, I’m not drinking sand.

The Night Manager- Not really a review. I was willing to give this show a start, as its second season dropped this week, but for some reason, Amazon doesn’t have AD for the first. Considering Amazon at least slaps AI audio description on just about anything these days, it feels so weird to have a second season of an English language show (albeit, apparently British), with no audio description. I can dialogue boost though. That’s fun.

The Masked singer- I considered dropping this after the Croissant reveal. I had less of a problem with the family member previously, but the Masked Singer’s casting department wanted something for people to talk about, but sometimes that can and should backfire. I know we hand out pardons like candy if people pledge allegiance, but that does not mean they need to find their way onto The Masked singer.

Loot- It felt like a series finale, but an unfulfilling one. They do leave it open ended, but it also does have the kind of “just in case” ending so audiences might be partially satisfied. I wasn’t really, and I hope they get a true finale. There’s a couple here I really need to end up together, and I’d really love to see the political trajectory happen for a character offered in the finale. I’m not going to review this.

A Man On The Inside- Warning. While Apple hasn’t renewed Loot yet, Netflix also hasn’t picked this up. I don’t know how this season finishes, but if we can focus more on the Danson/Steenburgen dynamic, I’m here for it. The real life couple have a natural chemistry from having been married for so long. It just feels right. I couldn’t bother with this episode though. I need to talk to the show’s writers. One of them has their Mom there, and makes her Mom share with the room what she did to piss her off so much, which isn’t great. Sure. But she totally lost me with her character going off the tantrum cliff. There’s a little exchange where the mom says “when she was about 12”, to which the daughter interrupts with entitled conviction, “I was eleven!” Girl. That is “about 12”. I ended up feeling bad for the mother, far more than I think was intended. Unless you JUST turned eleven, and that was your birthday, she likely was Elen and some change, which is… about 12. Like, if you are approaching your 25th Anniversary, you say “we’ve been married for about 25 years”, or “almost 25”, something like that, because we naturally round up in most circumstances. I know I’m way over thinking this, but I fucking hated it. She went from having my sympathy to losing all of it. Her mother could have kept going, siting all her crimes, and I still would have likely taken her side in the end. That line, which i continue to dissect, needed more ambiguity. mom needed to say, “about 13 or 14’, or the daughter needed to be 10. It was too close for her reaction to do anything except piss the audience off.