Anexis Matos

I’m so excited to write this audio description review for my favorite reality show, The Circle. It’s so much fun to watch and, if you want something easy to engage with, this is it. All reality shows are easy to engage with, but The Circle is very game-centered, so it’s fun.

For those who are unaware, audio description is a separate audio track added to visual media that describes visual aspects. It’s mainly intended for blind and visually impaired audiences. However, anyone can use and benefit from it.

Series Premise

Players enter this game as themselves or someone else. Throughout the series, players rate each other and one or two become influencers. Influencers then block one or two players. This all depends on what twists the game has. By the end of the show, one player wins 100000 dollars.

Series Information

Genre: Reality TV
Category: Adult
Explicit violence: No
Explicit sex: No
Content warnings I noticed: It depends on the season

Review

The writing is good. The language, while simple, works well for the show.

Descriptions are very simple and easy to understand. They’re similar to Too Hot to Handle and Love Is Blind. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

The describer’s vocal performance is good. It’s not emotionless, but it’s not distracting. It’s easy to focus on everything else while also listening to them narrate.

I mentioned in Too Hot to Handle that the describer is distracting. While they’re engaging, they deliver description with a lot of emotion. This can distract the viewer from the things happening in the show. A describer should deliver a description with just the right amount of emotion to both engage the viewer and not be distracting.

The Circle has a very interactive host, providing commentary throughout the show. A describer like the one who narrates Too Hot to Handle’s audio description would be distracting. This describer is barely noticeable, allowing the viewer to focus on the interactive host and people.

This vocal performance tends to work for me. I don’t get bored or distracted. I will say, however, that, if the describer becomes completely unnoticeable, the audio description suffers. It becomes difficult to listen to. Audio description where describers become mostly invisible can be what makes me quit a show.

My critique of this description is one I’ve given before. One that’s very common. Netflix offers this series in several languages. However, the audio description is only in English. If they offer the series in several languages, audio description should be available in those languages. Otherwise, it excludes other viewers who are blind and visually impaired. I was recently informed that this was not the case. Netflix has no excuse to exclude viewers.

Conclusion

Overall, the audio description is good. It fits the show really well. I rate it four stars.