The Small Screen Diaries for today should probably be dominated by a hot new series, but just because something new hits streaming doesn’t mean it immediately rockets to the top of my rankings. You’re going to have to wait a minute for that one, because today’s number one show is something I’ve already been watching, and it deserves to stay on top because it is truly excellent television. That distinction is important, because while I basically enjoyed everything I watched today, there’s a difference between something being entertaining and something being genuinely great. First place remains Furious, season one, episode four, on Disney+ with Hulu, with audio description. This Emmy Rossum and Lola Petticrew-led crime thriller continues to impress me, largely because of the magnetic performances from its two leads. There’s a dichotomy here that worked exceptionally well for Killing Eve, but Furious maximizes that dynamic by keeping these two women at odds without intertwining them in some sort of personal entanglement, at least not yet. It’ll be interesting to see where the series goes and what a potential second season might look like, but this is really compelling stuff. Both actresses are delivering knockout performances, and the audio description is pretty excellent as well. Nothing else I watched today really came close to dethroning Furious as a top-tier series.

Second place is where I’m willing to make a few concessions, because I watched the first two episodes of Crystal Lake on Peacock, with audio description, and found the premise interesting enough to earn this spot. A lot of that comes down to the performances from Linda Cardellini and William Catlett, along with the potential for some interesting character development. Do I agree with all the choices being made? No. Do I think this is as strong as Carrie? Absolutely not. But Cardellini is wonderful as Pamela Voorhees, bringing humanity to a character who was never necessarily intended to be a villain. She wasn’t inherently deranged. She was a mother who lost her child, and hell hath no fury. The series finds an interesting way to turn an antagonist into a protagonist, even throwing in some unexpected developments involving Pamela and Jason being part of a secret program. I can’t explain much more than that because the first two episodes don’t explain it particularly well themselves. They’re apparently hiding from someone for some reason, and when Pamela gets the opportunity to claim her first victim, it’s technically self-defense. So the killer isn’t necessarily born out of revenge, at least initially. She’s born out of necessity. What I don’t like about Crystal Lake is what they’ve done with Jason. Just because we made certain choices in the 1980s doesn’t mean we need to keep making them in the 2020s. They’ve unnecessarily saddled this poor, adorable child with physical deformities, suggesting that he’s somehow inherently monstrous, despite the fact that the young actor gives one of the most endearing child performances I’ve seen in 2026. Jason is so likable. He’s the kind of kid you want to give a hug to, not someone you want to point at and stare at, or someone you would naturally imagine evolving into the killer we know from the franchise. As Mike Flanagan has explored so wonderfully in Carrie, bullying is bullying. It doesn’t really matter what the reason is. Bullies will find something and magnify it, whether it’s something almost everyone experiences, like Carrie’s first period, or something they don’t understand because it doesn’t fit their definition of normal. Oftentimes, they’re just projecting their own insecurities onto somebody else. Crystal Lake doesn’t seem particularly interested in exploring that. The bullies who torment Jason are wildly underdeveloped, serving more as catalysts than actual characters. Instead, the series seems more interested in showing you Jason beneath all this elaborate body makeup, almost inviting you to be repulsed by him, as though that somehow makes his eventual death and transformation into a killer a natural progression. But this child isn’t mean to anybody. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. There’s one girl who shows him kindness, other than his mother, and he essentially dies trying to do something nice for her. That makes the whole thing even more frustrating. The audio description is interesting, including a moment where it identifies Don Knotts appearing on television without necessarily identifying the program he’s appearing in. There’s also a particularly gnarly death in the first episode, and the description does a good job of communicating the gore. We’ll see how the series develops.

Third place goes to The Paper, season two, episode five, on Peacock with audio description. The Paper continues to handle its central romantic entanglement in a very odd way, with the characters seemingly terrified of letting everyone know they’re dating, even though he’s already informed HR, just in case. Otherwise, this was a fun episode. The series is cute enough on its own, and while it’s certainly not The Office, it doesn’t have to be. It can establish its own identity without constantly being measured against its predecessor. The audio description, performed by Dave Wallace and produced by Iyuno, is wonderful, and continues to be one of my favorite aspects of the series.

Fourth place goes to Mating Season on Netflix. I’m not even sure what episode I’m on anymore, because I thought I had finished the series, only to discover there was another episode waiting for me. This is one of those adult animated shows that has managed to hook me, and I’m hoping Netflix continues with it moving forward. It’s not perfect, it’s not always hilarious, and some of the plots can be genuinely cringe-inducing, but when it lands, it really lands. The audio description is also quite good, although there are some limitations I’ll get into in a moment. I basically liked everything I watched today, so fourth place isn’t necessarily a criticism. Something had to land here.

Last place, again not necessarily indicating that it’s bad, goes to Lioness, season two, episode four, I believe, on Paramount+ with audio description by Media Access Group. I’m still catching up on this series, and I’m still frustrated by the decision to have both a Joe and a Josephina in the same show. I don’t know why we couldn’t have chosen literally any other name for Josephina, but I can only beat that dead horse for so long. We get a little more exploration of Josephina’s backstory, including how many kills she’s actually made in the field. Meanwhile, Joe discovers somebody following her and makes him regret that decision, while also providing plenty of exposition about just how dangerous the world around her has become. Eventually, the team finds itself between a rock and a hard place when they discover far more trafficked children than they anticipated, without anything resembling the necessary resources to transport all of them out. And then the series essentially cuts away. I guess we’re just supposed to assume that magic will transport everybody to safety. It’s still an engaging series, and I’m enjoying catching up, but this particular episode landed at the bottom of today’s rankings.

As far as audio description goes, my favorite of the bunch is still The Paper. What Dave Wallace does so well is match the tone and quality of the series, to the point where his performance actually enhances the experience. There’s a wonderful symbiosis between the show and its audio description that makes everything feel like it’s working together. However, I don’t think there’s a loser in this bunch. None of these shows had mediocre or bad audio description, so I would have a difficult time ranking any of them at the bottom based purely on quality. If I absolutely had to choose, it would probably be Mating Season, and that says nothing about the quality of the performance. The problem is that the series presents a higher degree of difficulty than most of the others. There’s so much happening, and so little room for description, that you’re not always aware of what kind of animal a particular character is supposed to be. Sometimes you get the feeling you’ve missed something, and frankly, you probably have. But that’s not necessarily the fault of the audio description. Some shows are structured in ways that make it almost impossible to communicate everything a blind viewer needs to know. Unless we start seriously exploring extended audio description, or become more comfortable allowing description to overlap dialogue, there are always going to be things we miss. When a show doesn’t provide enough natural gaps for description, there’s only so much a writer and narrator can accomplish. Mating Season is a perfect example of that problem, and I think it’s important to recognize the challenge rather than automatically blame the people providing the accessibility. Ultimately, this was a pretty strong day for audio description across the board, even if some shows gave their description teams a much harder job than others.