This is always about the previous day, but when I write it on a day, it feels like I can’t just not point out that today is July 4th, and thirty years ago, Will Smith saved us from aliens. I think about that day a lot, and I understand there will be a lot of events to commemorate his heroism, and that of President James Whitmore, who gave such an inspirational speech. We’ve really bounced back and rebuilt since that time. Today, we celebrate, our Independence Day.

TV Shows Watched: Silo: S3E1 (Apple) with audio description, XO Kitty: AS3E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Off Campus: S1E5 (Amazon) with audio description, Top Chef: Top Six (Peacock) with audio description, Gold Land: S1E4 (Disney Plus) with audio description, The Four Seasons: S2E5 (Netflix) with audio description

Silo- Another show great at asking questions, and not answering them. Season 3 tells stories across two timelines, the one we started in the Season 2 finale, and the return of Juliet to the Silo. We missed some time, as now she can’t remember anything, and is Mayor, and Common is spreading lies about the death of Bernard. I’m intrigued. The audio description here seemed fine, notably helping a lot in the fighter jet sequence.

XO Kitty- Kitty thinks Mino cheated on her with Eunice, but after ruining everything in a scene where I was thinking “this is all your fault”, now she has to walk things back. Good luck, psycho. The AD here is exceptional, and they use multiple narrators due to the heavy amount of Korean translation.

Off Campus- I think this is Media Access Group? Off Campus has some nice AD, even if the bar is easier to clear, with a bunch of college kids getting romantically entangled. This has been a huge hit for Amazon, and was picked up for a second season ahead of the first. of course, the also did that with Etoile, and then just yanked that away, so nothing means anything anymore. I like this show, I don’t love it, but I like it.

Top Chef- Six become five, and the audio description by She-Ra could be better, as evidenced by what Media Access is able to pull out of Culinary Cup, but I’m happy to have what is here. It will never be enough, because the audio description will never be able to describe the food at length enough to make anyone hungry for those dishes.

Gold Land- I just wanted to point out, Disney commissioned human audio description for this International import, something worth mentioning since they are now allowing AI voices on Marvel properties. How did they have a budget high enough for Gold Land, but not X-Men 97?

The Four Seasons- We stall a bit in the fall, as we prep for Thanksgiving, and everyone is about to make bold choices, and head in fresh directions. Kerry Kinney is still the star of this season. One of the better tracks I heard this day, but it always fights its format getting enough description into a comedy with this much dialogue.

I’d say the best AD was XO Kitty, while the worst is Top Chef. I’m glad to have the AD on Top Chef, but it is a low effort affair from a narrator who either refuses to be credited, or isn’t real, versus a track that uses multiple AD performers to make sure we get the most out of the series we possibly can.