The Small Screen Diaries- 05/08/24

Started a new show today, Dark Matter (Apple plus), which has Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, and Alice Braga in the cast, and has Kline of a twist ending. I will say that when the twist is revealed, the audio description becomes more necessary, and appreciated. Speaking of that audio description, Jedidiah Barton is here as narrator, so you know you’re in good hands. I could see the twist coming, and I won’t reveal it, but it is basically the whole reason to watch the first episode. I’m interested in the “how” we got to the twist, and I’m hoping later … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 05/08/24

Bob Marley: One love

From the director of the Oscar nominated King Richard comes another biopic that hopes to capture just a fraction of the acclaim of the directors previous effort. I’ll give it a fraction, and I wasn’t even someone who believed King Richard warranted a Best Picture nomination in the first place. Like its predecessor, bob Marley: One Love becomes about the performance of its leading man, and to some extent the actress who lives in his shadow. Following the formula that worked before, bob Marley: one Love leans on the talents of Kingsley Ben-Adir as bob Marley to sell the film, … Continue reading Bob Marley: One love

The Small Screen Diaries- 05/07/25

Good news! The audio description has been fixed for Jeopardy masters (Hulu), so now I can mention it. It’s the same voice that vi-Tech also has been using this year on Not Dead yet and Will Trent.It’s helpful when you don’t know what the scores are, but admittedly, I watch regular Jeopardy every night without AD, because I’m there for the questions. I play along, and I think a lot of people do. But, thanks to ABC/Hulu for making sure this actually gets done. Parasite: The Grey (Netflix) is an interesting series, still gory as anything out there, but I’m … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 05/07/25

Tiger

Disney’s requisite DisneyNature release this year is Tiger. Clearly, this is about the diminishing White Rhino population. These titles are always so vague. Like, what is Chimpanzee about? Is Bears an LGBT movie? Kidding aside, if you have the desire to sit down and watch a tiger not know she’s being followed by a camera crew, and given some random name to help us narratively through the feature, then this is your game. For me though, I’ve felt almost exactly the same about every single one of these. Pretty much, they all land at a B, or B-ish. I can’t … Continue reading Tiger

The Small Screen Diaries- 05/06/24

First off, my diary from two day ago should be edited to reflect that Jamie Treacher did the audio description for Tales Of The Empire. Totally botched that name. Sometimes, my notes make no sense, as I use a mix of voice dictation, and trying to phonetically spell things out, but… this has to be on me. That is not a hard name. I don’t know what happened.My apologies. In today’s list, I’m getting closer to the longest adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley finally finishing, as Ripley (Netflix) has to be coming to an end soon.While Fargo proved you … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 05/06/24

Rebel Moon Part II: The Scar Giver

And we’re back, as quickly as the Wachowski’s sent us into Revolutions after being Reloaded, we are once again sent back into whatever universe Rebel Moon is set in. It can’t be the Snyderverse, because fans already used that name for something else. It is hard to say that this is a disappointing sequel, because that would indicate that the first one was good. No, rather it is a continuation of disappointment, and grandstanding by a director who is exploiting his fan base for his own personal gain. Promising more Rebel moon, and teasing that all these versions have longer … Continue reading Rebel Moon Part II: The Scar Giver

The Beautiful Game

Often I find myself clicking on random titles just because they are trending or new, and have audio description. Such is the case with The Beautiful Game, which immediately gave me mixed emotions. The film is about the Homeless World Cup (yes, Homeless, the film uses that word), that we’ve apparently been doing for some years now, where the unhoused populations of participating countries come together to raise money/awareness for their being unhoused. I’m sure people find this inspiring, but I also think can’t we just figure out a way to help the unhoused without making them play soccer for … Continue reading The Beautiful Game

the Small Screen Diaries- 05/05/24

Hope you enjoyed Cinco De Mayo! I finished the terrific limited series Shogun (Hulu), which has less than terrific audio description performed by one voice talent, but the written stuff is good, and the narrator’s voice would normally be fine. but this series was such a blast. I do feel like the ending was somewhat abrupt, as I didn’t feel like that was the moment where it was ending, but it was still a great episode, and the series produced some terrific performances. Luckily, the balance was such that I could hear the original actors underneath and the conviction in … Continue reading the Small Screen Diaries- 05/05/24

Titanic: The Musical

Sometimes, the barrage of new movies on other streaming services means I don’t get to use my Broadway HD subscription as much as possible, but every once in a while, I still check something out. This Tony winning musical from the 90’s has never really been a personal favorite. i decided to tackle it, because obviously titanic would have some visual elements, and broadway HD is 99% non-audio described. In an effort to get them to consider expanding their selection, I still talk about these titles. I ended up enjoying the musical more than I thought I would, sitting down … Continue reading Titanic: The Musical

Scoop

Films about journalism have had a broad impact, as we have classics like All The President’s Men and Spotlight, and even well-reviewed but slightly less classics like Frost/Nixon and She Said. So I’m sure someone thought that the world really wanted a film about the earth shattering Prince Andrew interview from 2019. Instead of making a broader look at that Epstein scandal, this is laser focused on just how this interview came to be. It’s the kind of minutiae that definitely wasn’t going to rock the box office. but sliding it onto Netflix, and who knows? right? Much like the … Continue reading Scoop

The Small Screen Diaries- 05/04/24

Was the fourth with you always yesterday? Well, for me it was. I checked out the new animated Star Wars entry Tales Of The empire (Disney Plus), and after realizing how short it was, I did the whole thing. So that’s behind me now. It’s basically a sequel to Tales Of The Jedi, but with a new focus, and one on the darker side, focusing on elements of the empire, and some series staples like General Grievous. The show has excellent audio description by Descriptive Video Works, which immerses us with narration from Jamie Treacher. While I’m not sure the … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 05/04/24

Night Swim

Night Swim hurts like jumping off the high jump with a belly flop into a kiddie pool. If you thought I was going to buck the trend on night Swim, and tell you it is the most groundbreaking horror of the year, you haven’t seen Night Swim, or you just woke from a coma since birth, and this was the only movie you’ve ever seen and have no point of reference. Night Swim ultimately fails to deliver any chills or thrills, and instead devolves into a frustrating mess. Whether it is underveloped characters, a half baked plot, or its reliance … Continue reading Night Swim

The Book Of Clarence

I actually remember when religious outrage was a thing. Films suffered backlash because of their thematic elements. Somehow, and likely because it flew completely under the radar, there wasn’t any noise here. Still, this basically was abandoned and buried at the beginning of January with a theatrical release that was extremely underwhelming. So, is this the next Dogma? No. The director of The Harder They Fall has once again assembled an insane cast, including Lakeith Stanfield, who pulls double duty as twin brothers. One of them is a disciple of Jesus, the other is Clarence. Clarence is just a regular … Continue reading The Book Of Clarence

The Wages Of Fear

Sadly, I’m not talking about the 1956 version. No, I clicked on a random Netflix title, and I got a French action film that somehow passed the audio description quotient at Netflix. i don’t understand why I can see this with audio description, but Oscar nominees Roma, Bardo, and El Conde all lacked audio description. Three filmmakers whose content I’m actually interested in, and this random terrorist thriller got audio description. To be fair, it got AI audio description. And while I might have mistaken some human voices as AI in the past, I will not budge. This is not … Continue reading The Wages Of Fear

The Small Screen Diaries- 05/03/24

Since today is Star Wars Day, let me start off by saying May The 4th Be With You. but, this is about the shows I watched on the 3rd, which isn’t Star Wars Day. So, no Star Wars here. Sorry, Force fans. Second day in the row i get to talk about how audio description for an ABC show failed to make it to Hulu. This week’s episode of Abbott Elementary (ABC) had no audio description as of 6PM EST on 05/03/24. This episode is from Wednesday, so it really should have had it. The episode was still fun, but… … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 05/03/24