What did you say?
Just about a month or two ago I found myself sick with strep throat and my doctor highly advised that I take a couple days off work. The primary reason was probably the fact that I was contagious. Once the antibiotics had 24 hours to work though, it was more a matter of getting my rest.
Far too many times I have seen my wife (who used to get strep several times a year) think she is feeling better after the initial dose of antibiotics, only to realize she overdid it and ended up adding an extra day to her recovery.
Although I felt fine, I decided to follow the doctors orders and take it easy. I had just finished watching Echo on Disney + so I was looking for something new to watch. Somehow I settled on The Gentlemen on Netflix.
I think "Snatch" is one of the greatest movies ever made, so I am definitely familiar with Guy Ritchie's stuff, but I am not familiar with the movie "The Gentlemen" which he also made and though not tied to this show admittedly happens in the same "universe".
It didn't take me long into the first episode before I was hooked. There are certain things that Ritchie does really well. The setting, music, and dialog all slap so hard in this show.
I finished the first episode and I was ready to start the second when I realized that @mrsbozz might enjoy this show. I had to abstain and wait to watch the first episode with her again.
Fun fact: It was just as good the second time.
She agreed it was something she might be interested in, and we just finished the first season this past weekend. It was fantastic, I highly recommend it.
As much as I love telling people how great this show is, it's not really the reason I am writing this post. The real reason ties back to a news story I saw a few months ago talking about subtitles and how more people are using them despite not having a hearing impairment.
It was about halfway through the first episode of The Gentlemen when Suzie Glass was talking to her brother and I realize I couldn't understand half of what they were saying. That UK accent (I'll let you break down the region yourself) was just too heavy and too much for me to take.
If you think Americans have a lot of slang words, you probably have the UK to thank for that. It's just lousy with slang over there, "innit"?
We ended up watching the entire first season with subtitles on and I have to admit, it made the experience so much better.
Back to that news story... It appears there are a number of reasons that viewers are turning closed captions on these days. Part of it has to do with dialog. Things like slang and "low talkers" (hands up if you got the Seinfeld reference) have become more the norm, so a lot of times things get missed.
Additionally, studios don't always have the budget to provide top notch audio. Maybe they are short of funds, maybe they decided to spend more money on the video effects than the audio, who knows, but in some cases, the audio is just lower quality. That makes captions almost a necessity.
I never really thought about it, but it's actually a delicate dance trying to get dialog, music, and sound effects mixed properly in any given scene in a movie or tv show. It makes sense now that I say it, but I just never would have imagined before.
This fondness for captions has also ushered in a new market for being able to viscerally describe stuff via the written word. Take a look at the story I linked above to learn more, but basically captions have to come from somewhere. Eventually AI might fully take that part over, but until then, it takes real people using the proper words to elicit the emotion that a particular scene means to convey.
I was talking to my father in law and my brother in law about captions the other day. My brother in law made the comment that his step daughter watches everything on TV with the captions on. He wasn't sure why, he just knew that she did.
Apparently, she is not alone. I'm not saying I am going to start watching everything with captions on, but I'm definitely going to feel a little less embarrassed in the future when I have to switch them on.
I can't imagine half the stuff I would have missed in The Gentlemen if I hadn't broken down and flipped them on. My wife appreciated it too.
Have you watched The Gentlemen series on Netflix? What did you think? Did you need the captions? Do you often use closed captions when you watch TV/Movies?
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Captions meaning subtitles? I have them on permanently as I will miss half the dialogue otherwise.
I used the two terms interchangeably. They are basically the same thing.
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I loved The Gentlemen! I too had to turn the volume up just to make out some of the scenes and there were parts where I just couldn't understand. I thought I might be losing my hearing at first! There were some "low talkers" for sure. I kept turning the volume up and down...
It's one of the better shows I've seen in a long time, very well done. You really do get hooked early in the first episode.
Even the volume levels wouldn't have helped me. It was the slang and how they mush all their words together. Kind of like those mushy peas they are so fond of. I think what I really love about The Gentlemen was the dialog. Ritchie has a way of picking very precise and specific words for scenes. It just works really well.
I agree, it was tough to understand. I wonder if they will go for a season 2?
I sure hope so!
I've heard Christopher Nolan blamed for the current sound situation. He evidently prefers realism instead of mic'ing everyone up well, claiming that it's more real to not completely understand everyone.
Whoever is responsible, I hate the trend. Nothing about movies is realistic, so why does sound have to be realistic? I can't wait for the trend to change and bring back more balanced sound recording so that we can actually hear people.
I have several UK friends around here so I think I'm pretty used to a lot of UK slang. That said, I don't know. I kind of want to watch this series you mention just to test my UK slang knowledge!
They mentioned Nolan in the article that I shared, so you are definitely right on that account. I've noticed with a lot of the stuff on Disney + the dialog is low, then the action scenes are super loud, so I will turn it up, then suddenly my wife gets up from her nap and slams the bedroom door because it is so loud. I've tried to explain it isn't my fault. :) Even without the slang, The Gentlemen is totally worth a watch. Probably one of the best shows I have seen for some time in my opinion.
I went back and read it. Yeah, I've heard that thing about newer actors no longer knowing how to project their voices. That's pretty nuts. Seems like it should be acting 101.
Yeah what you mention is the same with my son's action shows like Ultraman. The action is incredibly loud while the voices are much softer. Sometimes you can cheat that by boosting the central channel in surround sound mode, but not always.
That's a good bit of advice. We just have a soundbar, but it makes total sense.
I love Guy Ritchie and Vinnie Jones. He is the gamekeeper in this and was a hard as nails footballer who played for Wimbledon and was part of the Crazy gang.He is hard as nails.
Ah yes, I have seen him in quite a number of things over the years!
Yeah he has been with Guy Ritchie for forever and a day. Great program and I do love the fact Edward is Edward, as us Edwards rock!
I'm actually surprised Jason Statham didn't pop up as they seem to do a lot of stuff together too.
That’s a great idea, gonna have to try it
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