The Emmys, which chose a non-comedian to host, are now dropping categories so they can have more skits and music performances in the live telecast. What I always look forward to at the award ceremony for the best in television every year, are those banger music performances. Unless they are gonna rock out to some familiar TV theme songs, they can eat my shorts (something I learned from television).

TV Shows Watched: Silo: S3E3 (Apple) with audio description, Nemesis: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Scrubs: S10E9 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Invincible: S4E7 (Amazon) with audio description, Ted: S2E6 (Peacock) with audio description, and Marshals: S1E9 (Paramount) with audio description

Silo- Point of order. You have kids in the Silo, if Vitamin D+ causes people to forget familial connections, then who looks after the kids? If I were in Camille’s shoes, I’d be figuring out a way to remove the tanks and whatever other safeguards the silo has in place.Sabotage that shit. Although, Season 4 would be weirdly interesting if everyone had collective amnesia. The AD here is still solid. I approve.

nemesis- Excellent, though Stylez is becoming a bit insufferable. His “at any cost” nature is exhausting, and makes me like Coltrane more. That’s great, because one of my favorite films is Heat, and you get that dynamic there between Pacino and DeNiro. I’m glad this show got a second season, but I only watched six programs, rather randomly, and two of them have the same narrator, who I just set ablaze yesterday. I do not understand how he gets this much work, and I do not understand how someone looked at Nemesis as a series, saw what it was, and thought… this guy. As I hear more and more TTS, and Netflix proudly asserts 300 of their programs (TV/Film/etc) have used generative AI this year, and they see no problem in that, I’m done dancing around feelings. I want excellence in audio description to be self evident so the human quality isn’t lost. Continuing to coddle performers who are consistently mistaken for synthetic voice is not helping the conversation.

Scrubs- I did review this yesterday, the last two episodes have a ton of weight to them thanks to the return of Dr. Cox, but the AD here isn’t good. And the thing is, I actually believe it can be better. While I acknowledge the format for Scrubs presents a challenge, they simply have hired a company unwilling to meet the challenge, resulting in missed cutaways and sight gags. Sure, the argument exists something is better than nothing, and I suppose if I was wandering the desert, a little sand in my growling belly is better than the absence of… or maybe not. Again, tracks like this have been commissioned for a reason. ABC knows that there is excellence in audio description, but if they can avoid it, by lowering the standard their audience has come to accept, it becomes a lot easier to push out synthetic voice, and eventually scripts written by AI.

Invincible- The best track of the day. It tracks an epic battle, which seems to not even be the final battle of the season, as this wasn’t the finale. How much can Mark actually take? I loved the description of carnage, with one hero being described as mangled at one point, and another as floating through space as his entrails start to fall out. Thanks Amazon for paying for appropriately great audio description.

Ted- I did crack up when Marty threw the chair through the window to exit the house, even if it made no sense. Plus, it was clever to send Susan to jail, where everyone needs a mother. The AD here is lackluster, even with Vito as the voice, as like Scrubs, is misses sight gags and visual cues. When Susan tells the one inmate “that’s not what those holes are for”, there’s no AD to support the joke. In a mens prison, sure, I’d maybe get that gag. In a women’s prison? Also, Susan cleans up a jail cell… how? There’s really no emphasis on it being dirty before, or clean after. Not good enough. Sorry.

Marshals- Media Access drops their typical Taylor Sheridan description onto a Ruby Ridge/Waco style episode, where Casey and the crew are still trying to get Andrea back from her survivalist captor, who has a grudge against Casey. This was solid, and has a perfectly cast narrator for the show. When you hear his voice, he sounds like the guy Taylor Sheridan would handpick for all his programs. Casting matters. I think this is Peter Jaycock, and he’s the Sheridan whisperer.

Best: Invincible, Marshals, Silo

Worst: Nemesis, Scrubs, Ted