Coming up next week… not much. There’s a new Mindy Kaling produced comedy at Hulu called Not Suitable For Work, Apple is dropping their high profile Cape Fear series with Amy Adams, Javier Bardem, and PAtrick Wilson, Netflix has a limited series in The Witness, and the documentary Michael Jackson” The Verdict, while NBC returns America’s Got Talent, and Amazon brings back The Legend Of Vox Machina. On the film front, Hoppers hits Disney Plus on Wednesday (oddly before Avatar 3), Pillion is your master starting on Friday on HBO MAX, Peacock has Lorne, and Netflix has the Jennifer Lopez romcom Office Romance.
TV Shows Watched: THe Boroughs: S1E6 (Netflix) with audio description, Star City: S1E1 (Apple) with audio description, Paradise: S2E7 (Disney Plus) with audio description, MIA: S1E1 (Peacock) with the sounds of ass flying through the wind, Bait: S1E4 (Amazon) with audio description, Marshals: S1E5 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Madison: S1E3 (Paramount) with audio description, and Hacks: S5E3 (HBO MAX) with audio description
The Boroughs- Pure excellence. The gang is made an offer they’d rather refuse, but Wally is made a different offer and gets to see behind the curtain. Meanwhile, Sam goes too far, and we learn the secret to the sauce. Love this show. Morrie Morrison’s audio description through Post House/VSI was among the best of this crop today. Easily.
Star City- I love For All mankind, always have. Star City has a different vibe, and an uphill battle, because it is made with American sensibilities, where we focus on the evil inside Russia damn near immediately, and it lingers over the whole thing. What is doesn’t do is try to establish clear good guys, people to root for, and keep them anywhere center. Motivations are vague, and everyone seems oddly malleable. It is fine, but it isn’t For All Mankind. It does, however, have the same narrator. So that’s something.
Paradise- This episode was fantastic. Season 2 has really gotten better, but this episode shoots like a rocket, and is on the precipice of greatness, so when it starts playing The FInal Countdown, I believe it. James Marsden’s little speech is terrific as well. The audio description, I think by Bill Larsen, is wonderful. Everything was going great until…
MIA- Peacock’s atrocity. Man, I fucking hate this audio description. We *just* had this discussion about AI and audio description, and I’ve put up with Vito, and She-Ra, and all jokes aside, but MIA has acquired past-gen AI, like the sound of that shit they use on Celebrity Jeopardy, where it sounds like the AI came from the earliest programs. I was so distracted by the shitty audio description, I could barely focus on the weird plot of a family full of drug runners, which begins like a warm family drama where the daughter gets to learn the family business and go out with her dad on a run. I couldn’t really focus on that plot, because this is one of the worst AD tracks I’ve heard on a scripted series in a while. I’m being bold, because Peacock wanted me to immediately watch the second episode, so I didn’t hear credits. If this is, for some ungodly reason, human… what the fuck happened?
Bait- It hasn’t shaped up to be the show I wanted it to be, about this atypical Bond choice, and how even just being floated could change his life. That’s how it started. This episode is basically a clubbing episode. Nothing wrong with the AD, the episode was just fine.
Marshals- Casey is trying to rescue girls being trafficked, and will do anything to save them, while Tate prepares for a memorial for his mom. Part 1 of a 2 part arc. The AD here, like for all Taylor Sheridan shows, was very pensive.
The Madison- The family from the city is still roughing it, learning how to fish, going floating down a river (though if you have to row… is it floating? And the best friend from New York flies out to be with her bestie Michelle Pfeiffer. The take a number scene was cute.
Hacks- Both women gain a man, and lost them, in the same episode. Not gonna lie, when I saw where the episode was headed, I really wanted Deborah to say Yes at the end. Even with a list of caveats, but there was something that was leaning very sweet, that I think they could have made it work. I always enjoy their scenes together. This thing is winning a ton of Emmys.
