2018-06-19 13:55:23

Everybody talks about audio description with TV series, my self included.
This brings me to the other part of the question though:
Which TV series are perfectly watchable without audio description?
And following up on that: which TV series did you enjoy either without any extra info or with a wiki or something like that to fill in gabs?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

With kind regards, Mslion

2018-06-19 14:25:27

First thing that comes to mind is Shark Tank, it's 95% talking heads so audio description isn't necessary, and yet ABC pays to have it audio described anyway, I guess it's cheaper to audio describe a show that doesn't need it compared to one that does, and it counts towards their minimum required quantity of audio described programming.

Cops is another show I've watched that is perfectly enjoyable without audio description, although some minimal audio description wouldn't hurt.

NOVA on PBS is another show that doesn't really need audio description, but PBS has it audio described anyway.

American Experience, Modern Marvels, Engeneering Disasters, The Universe, How it's Made, How the Universe Works, Dateline, Last Defense, and Survivor.

I'm sure there are others, I just can't think of them right now.

2018-06-19 15:54:07

blackadder is certainly one, there is so much dialogue that the bbc actually released just the audio as tape cassettes in the nineties since there is literally no action and all the comedy is through speech. Actually, I'd recommend you do not! watch the audio described blackadder, since the only version I found on blind  comes from an American channel who both cut the episodes and bleeped parts of it in very silly places, for example in the first season episode "born to be king" which is all about whether Edmand blackadder or his brother is really a legitimate heir to the throne they bleep the word "bastard" which is just plane stupid as it was being used in its actual sense.

Another on the American side is Frazier for the same reason, namely that its a comedy all about the dialogue, indeed essentially its a televised play, though I've not seen as much of Frazier so can't say for certain, and my  believes the same regarding friends though that's not something I can confirm.

Sadly, while you can! watch the simpsons and futurama without description and understand quite well what is happening, there are so many little touches and sight jokes you'd miss that it always pays to have the description there.

Getting away from comedy, all en carnations of startrek have traditionally been very dialogue heavy, ditto babylon 5, and I've been surprised how watchable buffy and angel are without description though I have had to resort to scripts occasionally to tell what is happening with a particularly grizly death or dramatic fight, not to mention the entire episode hush which is all about characters getting their voices stolen.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-06-19 16:53:06

Surprised that Star Trek Voyager, or The next generation were not mentioned. Also quite good without description.

2018-06-19 17:11:42

You're missing stuff though, and sometimes, it helps piece the story together when you learn of it, so its like, how much visual stuff are you willing to miss. The way I'd recommend testing this is to either watch a series that has audio description available without it, then go back and watch it with it on, or go back and rewatch something you watched a while back but that now has description.

It just helps when you know that type of thing, hard to describe its effects, its like an aha moment.

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2018-06-19 17:20:44

Yes: I've heard TNG with description, but I feel i can live without the description, which is why I recommended it.

2018-06-19 18:17:18 (edited by Orko 2018-06-19 20:09:09)

Yeah, I could probably enjoy the original Star Trek as well as The Next Generation without audio description because I saw all the episodes several times before I lost my vision, though I'll agree with Ironcross32 in that they are probably more enjoyable with the description.

I would love to be able to get my hands on all of the Babylon 5 series, with or without audio description, with it would be preferred, if available. It was a great show, but in the area where I lived when it was being aired, the station kept moving it around so I missed a lot of it. At this point I'd just start from the beginning and work my way through to the end.

2018-06-20 00:26:56

@serrebi, I mentioned startrek and I was mostly thinking of Tng and Ds9 since those are my favourite series.
This topic actually makes me wonder about trying some trek with my lady. There are many bits of tng I think she'd really love, but I just can't get it described.

I always found startrek great from a low vision perspective. but ironcross is right that dialogue heavy though they are you do miss things, though fortunately over on memory-alpha.org/wiki/Main_Page they have some very detailed plot summaries that can fill in blanks, indeed on my last go through I alternated watching episodes of the series and reading up the memory alpha articles just to get the extra background etc as well as any visual elements I might have missed.

@Orko, you can get a very nice complete box set of all 5 seasons of b5 plus all of the films.
This was how I watched it myself, since back in 2006 I had bought all of Tng when I found it cheap on dvd, but ds9 cost rather more so I bought b5 instead on others recommendation as it was cheaper and really enjoyed it.

I don't know what the status of it is these days, though I would be willing  to bet the dvds are still available, heck its probably available to stream too though generally from what I have seen buying dvds tends to work out cheaper than streaming unless you have a subscription service, and even then, if you just want to watch a specific series the subscription isn't likely worth it.

Again I would recommend a synopses or two for some visual moments, but its not as bad as many more action oreintated series.

Heck, in some ways Tng and B5 are less visual than a lot of classic doctor who, since classic who tended to go on horror moments and visual scares than plot in a lot of episodes, for all that the Daleks were always great at telling you what they were up to big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-06-20 19:43:40

if you want to go old school, watch dragnet. It's a famous detective series from the 1950s with some rather clever sound design.

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2018-06-20 20:01:45

Suits. Marvel shows on Netflix. Orange is the new black.
Dexter. Sons of anarchy. Lucifa. Stranger things. Power. Eastbound & down.

Recently watched 13 reasons why. Never thought I would enjoy it.
But that first season was deep.

2018-06-20 21:38:32

Yeah, with Friday narrating most of it, plus the dialog in those parts he doesn't, Dragnet should be very enjoyable without audio description. I remember watching it when I was a kid and later binge watching the entire series on Netflix. That show is a classic!

2018-06-21 06:52:16

How it's made is pretty good since they explain what's happening.

2018-06-21 07:34:55

Rescue 9-1-1 and Mythbusters come to mind.  As does  Discovery's Storm Chasers series for the first few seasons where they had a narrator.

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2018-06-22 18:40:32

I just thought of another couple of shows I am watching and enjoying, they are both on Discovery Channel, Deadliest Catch and Battle Bots.

2018-06-22 19:48:19

none of you mentioned DragonBall, dragonball z, dragonball super, black clover, One peace, and My Hero Academia. They are all great shows, they pretty much describe themselves through the dialog, music, and characters talking to one another. It's easy to tell what is going on. They come on adult swim here in the United States. I also watch them on the KissAnime website. I just watched the english dubbed versions though of course.

2018-06-22 19:54:43

You are assuming that everyone watches what you watch, and that is a bad assumption.

2018-06-22 20:20:33

Can't speak for the rest of dragon ball or one piece etc, but I do recall Dbz was pretty good on narrated action as you said since either the program's own narrator would tell you what was happening, or else people would comment rather like an audio drama.

On the other hand, since you could have literally entire episodes where nothing happened but one guy stood there and powered up aka going "raaaaaaaaah!" for 20 minutes, not to mention planets which were supposed to blow up in five minutes and then took four twenty minute episodes just to then tell you that only one minute was left, one minute wich took another two episodes, the  plot wasn't exactly moving at a fast pace for most of the series big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-06-22 20:22:23

yes I agree. if you get the chance watch the dragonball kai versions. the plot moves a long much faster and is more watchable.

2018-06-24 01:52:55

Mythbusters is good because they explain how things went after doing the various tests. Even if your missing out on allot of the action you can still follow along easily.

2018-06-24 15:02:33 (edited by Orko 2018-06-24 15:08:14)

Good one, Defender! While you do get to hear them, you do miss out on the explosions, and they do seem to like blowing things up.

Another good one is called Time Warp, where they do a variety of stunts and film them with high speed cameras, then show you what happened in super slow motion. Initially you might think that this show wouldn't be worth watching without audio description, but I've found that they describe much of what happens as it happens during the slow motion display that audio description isn't really needed.

2018-06-24 19:11:45

I always have to watch South Park without audio description and I miss so much. So I usually watch it with a sightling. I know that Blind TV had some South Park described but I have no idea where or how they got it. A lot of cartoons when growing up like Hey Arnold and Doug I had to watch without audio description. For me I’d always rather have audio description but you can get by without it sometimes. A TV show like 24 would be very difficult to watch without someone describing things to you or having it described.

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2018-06-24 20:57:35

Oh yeah, I'd love to see somebody go back and audio describe those old looney tunes cartoons, especially Road Runner.

2018-06-25 08:06:41

ACtually Orko if you watch any of the old disney films described you can get an idea of the sort of thing that cartoon description might include with all the slapstick bits in something like Little mermaid.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-06-25 13:52:14

I already have. Even though I saw them before I lost my vision, I liked the Disney movies enough to watch them again with audio description.

2018-06-25 13:55:19

Orko wrote:

Good one, Defender! While you do get to hear them, you do miss out on the explosions, and they do seem to like blowing things up.

Another good one is called Time Warp, where they do a variety of stunts and film them with high speed cameras, then show you what happened in super slow motion. Initially you might think that this show wouldn't be worth watching without audio description, but I've found that they describe much of what happens as it happens during the slow motion display that audio description isn't really needed.


Tha'ts one of the main reasons I mentioned them in my post, and Rescue 911 has similar traits, for being an older show, but everyone's always explaining what's happening, even if it's not the host, Shatner.     Storm Chasers has very good narration description, and in the later seasons, the chasers do their own descriptive narrations, so that's why I mentioned these three initially.


I agree that I'd love to see the original Looney Toons described, as well as the  original TMNT cartoon series, and Mork & Mindy.

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