The Small Screen Diaries- 02/26/24

Let’s kick this day off with the big new debut. The Ones Who Live (AMC Plus), which AMC has finally added audio…. Oh wait. no. They haven’t. This show, like Daryl Dixon, Dead City, and the flagship show completely lacks audio description. Great. I wish the show I love loved me back. I’m stuck in an emotionally abusive relationship with The Walking Dead universe, ever since my vision loss. One of the biggest TV shows of all time, which has produced now SIX spinoffs, has no audio description. In Comparison, one of the biggest and longest running TV shows, NCIS, … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/26/24

The Small Screen Diaries- 02/25/24

Let’s go ahead and get the big title out of the way first. Avatar The Last Airbender (Netflix) is finally out, and I even conferred with a friend, a sighted one, who is obsessed with the original series. he loves the new show, and hated the movie. I think his direct quote was “The first 15 seconds of this show are better than that 3 hour movie”, and went on to tell me all about the actors, and how close they look and act like their cartoon counterparts. as a late stage fan, who technically has seen all Airbender related … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/25/24

Nei Nei and Wai Po

I just want the world to know, that as a blind film critic, I take on this years Oscar nominees as presented to me. Disney Plus currently has this nominee for Best Documentary Short, and much like they’ve been doing with all their other Oscar hopefuls, they said “hey, you know those blind people? yeah, fuck em. Fuck em hard, the Mickey Mouse way.” I totally sat through this film which is entirely in another language, so i could write a review that pointed out that yet again, Disney Plus has put out another Oscar film without audio description.Bobby Wine: … Continue reading Nei Nei and Wai Po

Journey To Bethlehem

I gotta admit, I was expecting something else. i certainly wasn’t expecting this very odd musical that panders to everyone about the birth of Jesus. This movie seems catered to try and rope in teenagers who don’t go to church. The best part? It has audio description. readily accessible audio description. Other faith based films from 2023 like Jesus Revolution and Sound of Freedom hit streamers without their tracks, but this odd rock musical with Antonio Banderas as a jealous King had audio description day and date on Netflix. It is basically the story. It just has a very modern … Continue reading Journey To Bethlehem

The Small Screen Diaries- 02/24/24

Man, i hope the SAG awards stay on Netflix. no commercials. Say anything you want. Fantastic. The predictable awards were predictable, and the other trophies painted a picture of the Actor and Actress race. Cillian Murphy has now won both the BAFTA and SAG, defeating Paul Giamatti at both. I cannot shake the feeling that Giamatti is winning for The Holdovers. It may just be because of how much I adore Paul, but I love both films and performances. On the actress side, Lily Gladstone closed the gap between her and Emma Stone by winning the SAG Actress trophy, while … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/24/24

Ferrari

Michael Mann deserves more love than he’s gotten in his career. I think people forget he directed Heat, and somehow assume based on the casting it was Martin Scorsese, but it isn’t. He also did excellent work with The insider, and I even enjoyed his little seen Black Hat. Ferrari isn’t Heat, it isn’t perfect, but it also walked away with zero Oscar nominations. Did it deserve that fate? For my blind fans, you can watch this film on demand right now. It’s from Neon,which had been sending their films to Hulu. The existence of audio description isn’t super consistent … Continue reading Ferrari

Suzume

Nominated for a Golden Globe for best Animated Feature, this CrunchyRoll film caught my attention. i just didn’t want to pull that trigger right away. It doesn’t have audio description. in fact, nothing on CrunchyRoll has audio description. Perhaps, that is the best reason for me to have watched this, because if Sony’s streamer doesn’t show a metric that there is a demand among the blind community for audio described anime, then will they ever choose it on their own? CrunchyRoll as a streaming service predates many existing services that currently have audio description, including MAX, Peacock, Apple Plus, Tubi, … Continue reading Suzume

All Dirt Roads Taste Of Salt

The title is a lie. I found a dirt road, and it did not taste of salt. it tasted awful. Luckily, this feature debut from Raven Jackson, and has a few Independent Spirit Award nominations. As a voter, I was provided with a screener. As a blind voter, I was not provided with accessibility. As a human being, I was ignored by A24, so I hope Raven can take some solace in the fact that I did actually pay to watch a film I had a free screener too just because I’m disabled and apparently that’s a big problem for … Continue reading All Dirt Roads Taste Of Salt

The Small Screen Diaries- 02/23/24

Last night, I was on the panel discussing this years nominees at the Oscars, and their audio description tracks. I had a blast, and a huge shoutout to The Audio Description project, The American Council of The Blind, and my fellow panelists Erika, Carl, and Renee, for inviting me to be a part of the experience. No idea how broadly watched this program was, but I did really have fun talking about this year’s best films. I wish Poor Things had its VOD drop already so I could have been 10/10 of the Best Picture nominees. On the TV side, … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/23/24

The Small Screen Diaries- 02/22/24

Big TV news for fans of True Detective! HBO has ordered a fifth season of the anthology drama following the success of the just wrapped fourth season. Also, Paramount Plus put a ring on those tossed salads and scrambled eggs, and the Frazier revival is officially returning for a second season on the streamer. Now that Julia is axed, will David Hyde Pierce guest star? The Traitors (Peacock) is getting rough. I don’t think the shows producers even expected someone to turn down being a traitor, so they had to move quickly to come up with some episode extending twist … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/22/24

The Small Screen Diaries- 02/21/24

While it doesn’t have audio description, I just need to mention that I doing think Teresa Giudice listens to music. Ever. She managed to earn 10K for her charity just by standing there on Name That Tune, despite not being able to name a tune. Even the one that was a TV show theme song from her generation, and not her competition, she couldn’t figure out. It was really silly to watch David essentially win the whole thing, but his final guess didn’t count. I think he still had some new scoring record. I love that Jane Krakowski says that … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/21/24

The Small Screen Diaries- 02/20/24

I am going to be a guest this Friday, 02/23/24 at 8PM EST, for the American Council of the Blind’s Audio Description Project Community Call on The Oscars! Tune in and hear me and three other panelists discuss this years Oscar nominees and so we think will win, as well as the audio description. You can join and listen in by either downloading the ACB Media app, and tuning in to Channel 6 at the scheduled time, or you can ask Alexa to “Open ACB Media”, where she then will ask you to choose a channel from 1-10, and you … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/20/24

The Small Screen Diaries- 02/19/24

Good lord. Sexy Beast (Paramount Plus) is going the shock and awe route. This week, there’s a scene where a terrifyingly fantastic female performance leads to a tragic loss for one of the characters. I was more gripped to this show than I have been so far. There were some other brutal moments in the third episode as well. The audio description is solid, I just hate that it seems to dodge a lot of the porn scenes by just kinda mentioning that porn is happening. If a sighted audience can see it, it should be in the description, and … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/19/24

The Small Screen Diaries- 02/18/24

Sunday. The day I start watching new shows for my rotation. I jumped in on Tracker (Paramount Plus), which has excellent audio description. The same narrator (Andrew Thatcher?) who did Lawman is doing Tracker. It sounds great, he sounds great, and I really fell instantly in love with Justin Hartley’s show about a man who finds missing people. There’s some kind of mystery in this show that will play out over the course of the season, but this was really good stuff. Great call to have it launch after the Super Bowl. One Day (Netflix) is fine, if you like … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/18/24