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

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

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

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

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

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

Not a groundbreaking day for TV News,but I did watch Not Dead Yet (Hulu), whose audio description has gotten worse. Sitcoms do not offer many gaps in dialogue to add audio description, so it’s painfully obvious when the narration is this bad. There were some obvious gaps where we could have gotten something, perhaps to either explain what just happened, or set up the next scene. I think the narrator spoke twice outside of the title and the end crediting the company Vi-Tech. Right now, I wouldn’t work for Vi-Tech if my life depended on it. I’ve heard this narrator … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/17/24

So what did you watch for Valentine’s Day? I tried yet again to get into Feud (Hulu), which has an exceptional cast. You know I would love to say this is great because this cast is flawless, but I haven’t a real clue why this is a thing. I hope Treat Williams gets a posthumous Emmy nomination though.Also, it is in Black and White? Come on Audio Description. Let me know these things. Griselda (Netflix) features Sofia Vergara (who I adore) in a series I don’t adore. However, she is good in this show I don’t like, which is why … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/14/24

So, who won the Puppy Bowl? I know that is the thing on all of our minds this morning. One year, I hope they get Bow Wow to do the halftime show at the Puppy Bowl, or Snoop Dogg. Aside from what everyone else watched, I started Season 2 of Halo (Paramount Plus), which still suffers from its biggest Season 1 problem, which was not having enough distinguishable Spartans other than Master Chief. The Season 2 premiere does work on the development of Bokeem Woodbine’s rogue Spartan, and introduce a new antagonist, but it still needs more than just Master … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/11/24

A couple of quick items of business to discuss. Disney not surprisingly went ahead and renewed Abbott Elementary for a 4th season. Honestly, I don’t know why it gets 1 season pickups. Dick Wolf’s dramas still get multi-year deals. Does ABC think Abbott isn’t going to go for a 5th season? Just give it a 2 year deal. Or hell, a 3 year deal. Disney is also sticking with Goosebumps, which I think is a good call, and is considering airing the second season of Only Murders In The Building on linear TV at some point. Also, The Golden Bachelorette. … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/10/24

Ryan Murphy must really not like Truman Capote because he’s not getting great treatment from Feud (Hulu), which honestly isn’t even that interesting beyond that one performance. And, he’s not even the first actor to tackle Truman, so it’s hard to even say he’s better than Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won his Oscar for playing Capote. The audio description is well produced though, which in this day and age seems like a challenge. I also enjoy the audio description on Quantum Leap (Peacock), and I recognize the narrators voice from other projects. Bouncing around through all the leaps and keeping … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries- 02/09/24