A lot coming up this week for fans of returning shows. Not only do we kick off the week on Monday with The Emmys, but Dancing With The Stars (ABC), RJ Decker (ABC), The Voice (NBC), Masterchef (FOX), Kitchen Nightmares (FOX), Slow horses (Apple), South Park (Comedy), Mobland (Paramount plus), and Outlander Blood Of My Blood (Starz) all return, the latter of them may not have audio description. Netflix is also smashing the Lizzie Borden story with Eileen Wurnos for reasons unbeknownst to anyone but Ryan Murphy in Monster. Perhaps because there’s already a well known film titled Monster that deals with Eileen already, so he has to toss her into a story where she does not exist. At least Sarah Paulson is playing Eileen, but I just heard her comments at TIFF about All’s Fair, and she seems to believe she made quality television, and people are being mean. Now, she just needs an intervention from Ryan Murphy, and to work with better directors and producers. And if you care, Stranger Things: Tales From 85 drops Season 2. Of the new shows, Golden Axe (Paramount) and The Traitors: New Blood (NBC) catch the most attention.
TV Shows watched: The Audacity: S1E6 (AMC Plus) with audio description, Berlin: S2E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Rick and Morty: S9E3 (HBo MAX) with audio description, Black Torch: S1E3 (CrunchyRoll) with audio description, and Pop Culture Jeopardy: S2E19 (Netflix) with audio description
The Audacity- i started to find a bit more charm in the series, and I’m starting to see it a bit more as a comedy. This is also on Netflix now, if you want to check it out. No idea who does the audio description. It has a talented cast, and slowly, they’ve been given more to expand with, which makes me more excited for Season 2.
Berlin- Finished Season 2. The finale is a movie, clocking in with a runtime greater than the new Gal Gadot movie on Amazon. Parts of this were entertaining. Berlin tonally shifts a lot, isn’t as funny as it thinks, and often lacks gravitas. it can be interesting, but would probably work better, if paced tighter, maybe with six episodes instead of eight. that last episode was brutal. I’m behind on reviews, and I don’t feel motivated for this one. Vito did the AD here with Diffuse, and it was exactly what you would think of in terms of audio description after hearing that.
Rick And Morty- Excellent audio description. This felt shorter than normal for some reason, like the episode flew by, but I appreciate the TLC this team puts into the audio description.
Black Torch- so I learned in episode 3 why the series is called Black Torch. It’s an organization.An interesting new series where our lead is recruited into said organization after they realize he may be valuable and easier to keep an eye on and/or use as bait. Global 3 has terrific writers. They don’t know what a human narrator is, but their writers are pretty terrific.
Pop Culture Jeopardy- Best Game Show narration that seems to have bled over somehow into the new Jeopardy Masters. Bless you. Roundabout (Season 1) and Descriptive Video Works (Season 2) both worked to make this an exceptional experience, which has raised the bar for the other Jeopardy spinoffs.
Winner: Rick And Morty- In a slow day, this human narrated adult animation led the pack. Adult animation is hard, and this team works really well.
Worst- Berlin- Sure, I could tag the synthetic AD from Black Torch, but I was underwhelmed by Vito’s flat narration and average description. Do we ever strive for excellence, or just to be passable. Like, the kid who is really excited because he got a D instead of an F, and is perfectly content with a D. Even I was a student who at least wanted a C, and I was pretty lazy.
