TV Shows Watched:The Agency: S2 E1-5 (Paramount) with audio description, Shelved: S1E3 (Peacock) no audio description, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: S5E3 (Disney Plus) with audio description

The Agency- Yup. Tried to knock out another show, but this one is another 10 episode behemoth, and I couldn’t pull it off, so I’ll tackle 6-10 likely on Saturday. I don’t remember much of Season 1, but this has so many different beats to it than a typical Taylor Sheridan production. The cast is stellar, and John Megarro has a lot to do in the first five episodes, where I don’t remember what he did Season 1. Fassbender and Wright are predictably terrific, and it is weird this series is ignored performance wise by Emmy voters. The AD is decent, but oddly for Media Access Group, no one is credited here, and Media Access does nearly all of Taylor Sheridan’s shows, and a bunch of Paramount/CBS stuff. I don’t know who is doing this, nor do I recognize the narrator. That gives me pause. Credit your shit.

Shelved- This quirky Canadian import was recommended, and I’m slowly making my way through. No AD though, but it is a cancelled sitcom from Canada that ran one season. My question would be… did it have AD in Canada? If so, then Peacock could acquire it.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire- Did VerbIt do a focus group on Millionaire blind fans and the small collective decided to say “fuck the 50/50””? It feels like one of the most obvious things to describe. There are four choices, and you cut it in half. Which two are left? Also, epic fail, as there’s AD as Jimmy is reading the answers to one of the questions. Apparently, it was more important for us to clock the physical reaction from Wendi McClendon-Covey than it was to hear all the answers read. I could be nice about it, but VerbIt isn’t giving me reasons to be nice. Their AD is nearly always shit. I swear, they are just a rebrand of DeCapta, because the same shit quality is coming out this year from shows DeCapta used to do, and are now done by VerbIt. next year, maybe we’ll get another name change. I suggest a slight modification of the current company name, to fully embrace the attitude toward the accessibility produced. Just swap Verb out, and the new company name can be FuckIt. At least then, it would all make sense.

I’m not deeply enthused by anything to do a Win/Loss, except the quality between The Agency and Millionaire is like the Grand Canyon. It did have a few good moments, describing some actions, reactions, and tense moments, and with Shelved not having AD, I guess The Agency wins, and the other two lose.

(As Ned mentioned ViTac, it is possible that a different company other than DeCapta did the AD for Millionaire, however, if I was ranking a Bottom 5 AD providers, DeCapta, VerbIt, and ViTac all make the cut, so saying DeCapta instead of ViTac is somewhat irrelevant as all three companies are racing to the bottom. Do better. If you make great audio description, I will praise you for it.)