Anexis Matos

I love trash TV. It’s a great way to shut down since it’s not mentally stimulating. It’s fun. For this reason, I’ve chosen not to review these shows. I want to keep them fun and not make them into content. That changes now. Well, sort of.

I won’t be reviewing Too Hot to Handle. There are definitely things to critique, but I’m going to leave that to other creators. I specialise in stories. Instead, I’m going to review the audio description. Refer to this post to see how I reviewed Heartstopper so you can see the format I’ll use for future series that have audio description.

Audio description is a separate audio track added to visual media that describes visual aspects. This is mainly intended for blind and visually impaired audiences. In the post referenced above, you’ll see that I reviewed audio description separately from the main story review. This is because it’s an addition to the series in order to make it accessible for blind and visually impaired audiences. Accessible content is a right we all deserve. Anything less is insulting.

While mainly intended for blind and visually impaired audiences, audio description can be useful to anyone. Assume you’re watching a really good series. Unfortunately, you have very boring activities you have to do like cleaning and laundry. You can turn on audio description and watch it while you’re doing the boring stuff.

I’m still considering a post on audio description. In the post referenced above, I gave you an idea of my thoughts on it, but there are definitely more I didn’t share.

I decided to review audio description because it’s important to bring awareness to it. It’s known, but, in my opinion, not enough. Credit to this blogger for giving me the idea of reviewing audio description when watching his interview in the podcast The ADNA Presents.

Series Premise

Too Hot to Handle is a Netflix original reality show similar to Love Is Blind and Dated and Related. It’s a social experiment where singles attend a retreat to find love. The difference here is that they’re not allowed to kiss or do anything sexual. They’re motivated by a prize fund. If the players break established rules, they’ll be fined, thus the prize fund will be decreased.

The hope is that the participants make genuine connections based on emotions rather than physical attraction. To achieve this, they’re guided by Lana, an AI program and workshops led by relationship experts. Lana observes and determines whether the participants are committed to her process and willing to make genuine connections or not. Those who aren’t are asked to leave.

Series Information

Genre: Reality TV
Category: Adult
Explicit violence: No
Explicit sex: No
Content warnings: There are four seasons so far and each follows different participants. I recommend doing research if you plan to watch it.

Review

The writing is good. The descriptions are very easy to understand and I personally don’t have a hard time with it. I would have liked more details regarding people and setting descriptions, but it’s not terrible.

Word choice and phrasing are good. Descriptions are very literal and there are few metaphors if any. I like this style because it’s not confusing.

The audio describer is great. Their voice is pleasant and there’s a lot of excitement when describing actions. The describer also doesn’t interrupt the dialogue or commentary. They also allow for the viewer to appreciate moments of silence and the background music.

The describer’s vocal performance isn’t one that always works for me. Their voice is very engaging, but it doesn’t hit the sweet spot. The sweet spot is good enough to be engaging, but not distracting. The viewer should be able to focus on the show and not be pulled out by the describer. This kind of vocal performance tends not to do that for me.

As much as I love the describer’s vocal performance, I feel like it doesn’t work for this show. The show’s host is very active, providing commentary on everything that happens throughout the series. The audio describer is also active, so they clash. This describer also narrates the audio description for Love Is Blind. It’s the same kind of vocal performance, but it works much better in that show because there is no active host providing commentary. In Too Hot to Handle, it’s a lot.

My other critique is unfortunately very common. This series only offers audio description in English. This is irritating because you’re able to watch the series in other languages. I see this issue pop up a lot, especially on Netflix which is the streaming service I mainly use. If you’re going to offer series in several languages, then offer the audio description in those languages as well. Other viewers who are blind and visually impaired will miss details because the streaming service has decided not to do so.

Conclusion

Overall, the audio description is mostly good. I expected nothing less. It’s produced by Descriptive Video Works. I rate this three stars.