TV Shows Watched: The Boroughs: S1E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Witch Hat Atelier: S1E13 (CrunchyRoll) with audio description, Unconditional: S1E3 (Apple) with audio description, Will Trent: S4E12 (Disney Plus) with audio description, The Comeback: S1E9 (HBO MAX) with audio description, The Daily Show: Monday (Paramount) no audio description, Breaking Bad: S4E3 (Netflix) with audio description

The Boroughs- I finally finished, and as I predicted, The Boroughs is excellent all the way through. They clearly set up a mystery for Season 2, which Netflix rudely rebuffed. I think they were on the right path with shooting the next two seasons back-to-back, because the wait for some of their shows is strangling them. Stranger Things can maintain a years long wait, but something like Three Body Problem is likely going to struggle in its second season. I think The Sandman suffered a lot for the same reason, and even The Witcher loses significant audience due to long breaks. Avatar will be a test, since it has name recognition beyond just this series, as does One Piece. Either way, If you can’t get a show back within 2 years, it’s a gamble. I plan on reviewing The Boroughs to spite Netflix.

Witch Hat Atelier- I finished this as well, and will review it. This is one of the best AD tracks with a non-human voice ever. The writer of this show should be getting job offers all over. There’s a rightly earned stigma with AI voices, but this voice is mixed well enough that some of the flat human narrators sound comparable, or even worse. If I had to create a guideline for best practices or a benchmark in using AI TTS, it would be this. While the voice is approachably neutral, the writing for the AD is exceptional. I also really did like this series, and I’m glad CrunchyRoll made me watch it. Ha.

Unconditional- It was really a pretty good day for me in television, because Unconditional is another strong recommend. The English dub track, unlike a previous Apple show that kept the original German singing, actually has a moment in the episode where someone needed to sing, so the dub voice does it. Color me surprised. This is still an excellent show about a mother fighting tooth and mail for her daughter, constantly choosing to believe the best in her, even as evidence is presented to the contrary.

Will Trent- I don’t like where they are taking Will, as a character. At all. And, Amanda… girl. GIRL. *claps hands in Amandas face* The fuck is your problem? You almost, coupled with Will’s psychotic break, caused me to quit the damn show like I did The Rookie. Amanda, who is the senior, mature, officer in charge, handed a woman her own personal firearm. Come the fuck on, writers. I know you’re clearly struggling, as the writing for your lead character is nonsense, but now you have Amanda just handing her gun over? At first, I think she tried giving her government issued gun to the girl, but instead it was her personal gun. And of course, this episode ended how it did. The AD is fine, the episode is not. On the flip side, what kept me going was the side quest revolving around the dead musician. I thought that was fun, and gave Franklin more to do. But Will Trent has entered the danger zone.

The Comeback- Lisa Kudrow is so good in this, but this AD is just awful. The narrator is fine, but it would be nice if they actually gave her some things to say. Writers matter just as much, if not more so, than narrators. We don’t say that enough, because they often go uncredited, but even the most talented voices in the industry can’t make lemonade, if they aren’t even given lemons to start with.

The Daily Show- I really only came for the first half. I didn’t watch the interview. I don’t even remember who it was.

Breaking Bad- Still playing catch up. Walter and Jesse take mostly a backseat to storylines that elevate Skylar, Marie, and to some extent, Hank. Wonderful audio description still from DVW and Dine Newman.

Will Trent had the worst episode, but THe Comeback was the worst AD. The best overall AD was probably Breaking Bad, though of the six shows with AD, only The Comeback has what I would say inadequate audio description.