TV Shows Watched: X-Men 97: S2E9 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Ted Lasso: S4E2 (Apple) with audio description, Nemesis: S1E6 (Netflix) with audio description, Sheriff Country: S1E18 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Comeback: S2E3 (HBO MAX) with audio description, and- S4E8 (Netflix) with audio description
X-Men 97- What a bumpy ride this was. I do have every intention of doing a season review because I’m a big fan, but I’m deeply disappointed that Disney cut the budget on Deluxe, forcing them to use a synthetic narrator for one of their branded shows. It’s already entering pre-production on Season 4, so if we can’t stop this absurdity and return human to a show about finding the humanity, then we’ll be stuck with this for a while. I didn’t catch any specific issues with the description, though the show is certainly swinging for the fences. When did Siryn just show up like that? Did the X-Factor trade her for Wolfsbane? Still, that sacrifice was heartbreaking.
Ted Lasso- I really wish we had stayed in America. This just feels like a reboot. it feels like Saved By The Bell: The College Years, where they kept some of the cast, introduced new people, and thought that inherently changing from Bayside to college made it interesting. it lasted 19 episodes. Ted returning to coach the female team at the same place, with half the original cast, and the promise his family will eventually follow isn’t nearly as fun as flipping the concept and making the Brits come here, and the many jokes they would have saying soccer, or being found more attractive simply because of your accent, and driving on the other side of the road. There’s far more potential there than there is just having Ted coach the girls in the same place with some familiar faces. Saved By The Bell The New Class?
Nemesis- Styles fights for his freedom, but it looks like he may need to fight to keep his son alive. Vito is like a one man wrecking crew, single handedly advocating for the use of synthetic voice over his human tracks. Is it possible, perhaps, he could learn how to pronounce Malik? Or, perhaps, and this is just me thinking out loud here, how about we authentically cast a narrator who doesn’t need to be taught how to say Malik, because that name is inherently part of their culture. I might be crazy, but that’s just food for thought.
Sheriff Country- Probably the most consistent narrated episode, and yet, the actual story behind the episode was a bummer.
The Comeback- Decidedly inadequate audio description powers this charged second season where Valerie spends an entire episode discussing filming a blowjob scene, with guest star Seth Rogen.
Breaking Bad- Hank closes in, and Gus tries to figure out what his next move is on a few different fronts. I didn’t love the flashbacks, because the one narrator voice thing for every character isn’t great. DVW normally kills it here, but that was basically an entire sequence with one guy voicing like five different Spanish speaking men, talking in a conversation. Here is where performative AD can come into play a bit, as if the AD is read just a little differently for each character, it at least adds a break. I’ve also seen other companies use the less fun way of saying the name of the character speaking before reading the subtitles.
Best: I had the least problems with Sheriff COuntry and Ted Lasso. Aside from the flashback, the rest of Breaking Bad was excellent. Even the actual description in the flashback was great. I just didn’t love one guy voicing five dudes in the same conversation.
Worst: man, I really dislike THe Comeback’s audio description. I’ve used Season 1 as an example of how inadequate audio description can be. And X-Men 97 had synthetic voice. But for me, hearing Vito give at least three different ways of saying Malik just pissed me off the most. I said at the start, he wasn’t the right fit, and this highlights that I’m not crazy. It isn’t ignorant either, it is just lazy. Chris Rock said it best at the Oscars when he said we had no problem pronouncing Schwarzenegger, but had a hard time saying Quvenzhane. Hell, my screen reader can pronounce the first, but not the second, and I checked the spelling. But my screen reader nailed Malik. If this series was produced, written, and narrated by people who looked like Malik, perhaps Vito wouldn’t pronounce his name like Terrence Malick.
