We’re back with the Lacheys. I know. Too short a break. I’m sorry. It just happens to be the next thing I finished.

I’ve been watching Love Is Blind since the beginning. It was my introduction to reality TV. For that alone, it holds a special place for me. It got me into easily digestible masterpieces of trash TV. It also got into some good reality shows like How to Build a Sex Room.

For those 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, but it can be enjoyed by and benefit anyone.

Series Premise

In this dating experiment, contestants date without seeing each other. Men and women are separated and talk to each other through pods for 10 days. After 10 days, one has to propose to the other. It’s only once they’re engaged that they get to see each other. In four weeks, they either get married or don’t.

Series Information

Genre: Reality TV
Category: Adult
Explicit violence: No
Explicit sex: No
Content warnings I noticed: There are four seasons as of writing, so it depends on the season

Review

The writing is good. The language fits the audience it targets. The word choice is similar to shows like Too Hot to Handle and The Ultimatum.

Descriptions have enough detail. I can’t remember if this was the case in previous seasons, but, at least for this one, they make an effort to describe everyone’s appearance and setting as well. Most of the physical features are described in the first few episodes and, while I forgot which physical features belonged to who, I appreciate the descriptions.

People’s clothes are described in good detail. I find that there’s a strong focus on women’s clothing. I don’t see an equal effort to describe what the men wear. Because of this, there’s very little balance. This is a bit irritating to me, but it doesn’t ruin the experience. In my opinion, if the effort will be made to describe clothing, make it for both men and women or don’t do it at all.

For the most part, I don’t feel like I missed anything. However, while descriptions aren’t in a minimal style, it does contain elements of it. There are areas that could have used more detail, such as the house and apartment tours, but, from what I can see, there’s very little space for them to be added. Participants fill in some of the details, but not always.

This is where I wish Netflix had extended audio description versions for their audio described content. Standard audio description is fine, but, sometimes, more detail is necessary and can’t be added due to lack of space. An extended version would allow for those details to be added. It may also gather a different audience. One who isn’t always happy with standard audio description.

The describer’s vocal performance is very engaging. They’re easy to listen to without being distracting. Not in this show, anyway.

The describer is the same person who narrates Too Hot to Handle’s audio description. If you recall, I mentioned in that critique that their performance was a lot. In Too Hot to Handle, there’s a very active host offering commentary. Having a very excited describer narrate and an active host makes Too Hot to Handle’s audio description performance overwhelming. Love Is Blind does have commentary, but the hosts aren’t very active. The commentary mainly comes from the participants. The describer’s narration isn’t overwhelming because the participants aren’t always as engaging as they are. In this case, they compliment each other.

Finally, the describer doesn’t interrupt dialogue or commentary. As I said, most of the commentary is provided by participants. Usually, they say who is stating something before the participants speak.

One of the biggest issues I have with this audio description is that not all the episodes are described. Love Is Blind has a reunion episode which has no description at all. The reunion episode doesn’t have a lot of space for description, but there is some. They showed never-before seen clips where audio description could have been added. They also gave a tour of the places where the married couples live now. While most of the episode may not be described, some parts should be.

The fact that they didn’t describe the last episode isn’t strange to me. The reunion episodes or portions tend not to be in the Netflix reality shows I’ve seen. The Circle has entire portions of the last episode not described. In The Circle, this makes a lot more sense to me since it’s not an entire episode. It’s the same with Perfect Match. I don’t see any reason why an entire episode wouldn’t be audio described.

Unfortunately for viewers, Netflix only offers Love Is Blind audio described in English. However, they offer the series in several languages. This is a problem Netflix needs to fix. By doing this, they exclude viewers who are blind or visually impaired who don’t speak English.

Conclusion

Overall, this audio description is good. It can definitely be better, but it’s enjoyable. I rate it two stars.