Kicking off the Small Screen Diaries for the day is Ted Lasso, season four, episode nine, which is on Apple TV+ with audio description. I didn’t have any problems this week with Ted Lasso. I didn’t think there was a scene that was missing something like last week. This episode has the girls fighting to get their underdog team promoted to the next level, and it revolves around the game that will either do that for them or not. There’s also still the mystery of who is trying to steal the team by buying shares, and Keeley has a little surprise, and it’s not just high blood pressure. We did actually get to see Ted’s son this episode, which is one of the things I’ve been noticing about this season. His entire reason for leaving after the first three seasons was to be closer to his son and be more of a father figure. While we saw that in the premiere, it’s been really hard for the show to balance that storyline with the typical soccer club, or football club depending on which country you’re reading this from, drama. But I still like the endless optimism, warmth, and kindness that Ted Lasso puts out into the world, and I think that’s worth something.

Next up on the list, I watched another episode of Mating Season on Netflix. Just kind of a weird episode overall that featured Ray the raccoon, voiced by Nick Kroll, falling for a goose who was a schoolteacher. There are also these weird musical numbers in this episode, and they don’t normally do musical numbers. Although, considering this is from the people who brought me Big Mouth and Human Resources, I’m still pleasantly surprised by how interesting I think Mating Season has been so far. I’m not quite at the end of the season, but I do like the audio description track, which I believe is from International Digital Center and narrated by Christopher Wren.

After that, I’m still trying to finish DMV season one because it deserves to be finished. It was a good show and didn’t need to be canceled. I’m on season one, episode 15, and it’s payday. This is an exaggerated form of poverty that the DMV workers seem to be in, since nobody can afford anything until they get paid, and they’re having to go to extreme measures to try to stay afloat. I thought the episode was a little silly, and it revealed that our Australian import is independently wealthy and basically chooses to work, which explains why he was the one person who wasn’t struggling. There are some good gags here, but I don’t think everybody working at a government office like the DMV struggles this hard toward the end of every pay period. Typically, government jobs pay decently, which is why people want them and put up with the bullshit in order to stay in them. The audio description by Media Access Group was once again solid, and I didn’t notice any gaps where I couldn’t follow along.

Then I knocked out The Shards, season one, episode eight, which has Bret being stalked by the Trawler while also receiving a package that sends him into a flashback about an encounter at a hotel he probably should not have had. Despite the fact that The Shards says this is a work of fiction and any similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental, I mean, that’s kind of bullshit. The main character is Bret Easton Ellis, and in this episode they directly reference the fact that he’s trying to sell Less Than Zero. So you can try to claim that nobody in here is a representation of a real figure except, you know, the guy who wrote the book The Shards literally wrote himself into it. I feel like that statement should say, “Other than Bret Easton Ellis, everyone else in this show is made up.” The Trawler definitely never existed, and we’re still trying to figure out who that is. I’ve become more interested in The Shards than I thought I would be, which is a positive thought for a series that is very much a mixed bag. I wonder which side we’re going to land on. It’s actually close enough to the middle right now that the finale could make the difference as to whether or not this is a fresh or rotten show.

Lastly, I started President Curtis, season one, episode one on HBO Max with audio description. This is the Rick and Morty spinoff, and it’s definitely funny and trying to find different beats instead of simply copying Rick and Morty, while also trying to appeal to that same type of humor. That’s a very narrow line to walk. You’re trying not to replicate something while simultaneously courting the exact same audience. Keith David voices President Curtis and does a wonderful job. I assume the rest of the supporting cast is going to continue developing as I get into the next few episodes, but overall, I thought this was a solid pilot and I enjoyed it. The audio description, like Rick and Morty, was also pretty strong for adult animation.

Those are the only five shows I watched. It was a busy day for me, and I didn’t really dislike anything, so I can’t say there’s a loser of the day in terms of audio description. If I had to pick a loser, it would be the fact that Disney doesn’t credit anybody at the end of The Shards. No narrator, no company, nothing. But I don’t want to say The Shards itself had bad audio description, although it wasn’t my favorite of the day. That distinction is going to Mating Season. It’s a really difficult show to narrate, nearly impossible, and while they obviously can’t include everything, I’m impressed by how much they’re able to get in. Christopher Wren’s audio description performance also matches the humor and quality of the show. On a very evenly matched day where all five shows were nearly at the same level of quality, there’s something about the actual vocal performance in Mating Season that gives it the edge. I also don’t think I’ve awarded it before. It definitely misses things because there simply isn’t enough time to describe everything. The show functions around a core group of animals and then is constantly inserting new ones, so the audio description is always trying to introduce new characters, explain what kind of animals they are, and somehow keep up with a show that leans heavily on sight gags and is also incredibly raunchy. There’s a lot happening here, but there’s a very valiant effort being made to maximize every available second, and the actual performance of the audio description is stellar.