Subtitles

Subtitled shows come ready-made with assumptions, at least for most Americans whose first language is English.  They’ll be difficult to watch, probably high-brow and/or pretentious, and possibly boring.  Those assumptions are pervasive enough that it can be hard to convince oneself to dive in and watch a subtitled show.  It took me months (seriously) of amassing episodes of Borgen on my DVR before I finally managed to sit down and watch even its pilot episode.  When I did, though, I was rewarded with the interesting, enjoyable, funny, thoughtful show everyone had told me it would be.  Borgen isn’t alone, of course—I watch a lot of subtitled anime, and most of it is about as far as can be from high-brow, pretentious, difficult, or boring.  In fact—and this should come as no surprise—it’s about as varied as American TV.  Some is frivolous.  Some is high-quality. Some is touching and thought-provoking.  Et cetera.  

The point is that we’re ill-served by the stereotypical American assumptions about subtitled television.  There are, however, two points that are reasonable to assume.  The first is that subtitled TV will (for the primarily English-speaking viewer) almost certainly demand more attention than TV in English.  As I’ve mentioned before, I usually work with the TV on, which necessarily means that for a lot of my “TV time,” I’m looking at my work, not at the TV.  That’s impossible for subtitled TV, which requires direct ocular attention.  The attention probably benefits the show quite a bit—it goes without saying (and yet I’m about to say it) that an audiovisual medium almost certainly benefits from audiovisual attention.  On the other hand, that also makes it harder to find time to watch it, since it requires setting aside time during which one can devote one’s full attention to the screen.  The result is that subtitled TV needs to be just that much better than English-language TV for it to be “worth” putting on a regular watch list.  Which leads me to the second fair assumption: in order to air on an English-language channel in the US, TV in another language is probably the cream of some crop or other.  No one would bother to import it and subtitle it if it were total crap.  Combine these two assumptions, and subtitled TV, once it makes the watch list, ends up feeling like a “special occasion”—watching something that has earned, and will receive, full attention.

The Returned (Les Revenants) (Sundance channel, French, new to USA. Supernatural drama.)

Watched: First two episodes

Premise: Several people who have died return home mysteriously and suddenly to a small mountain town, un-aged and with no memory of their deaths or the intervening passage of time.

Promise:  The show is beautiful, meditative, and mysterious.  Two episodes in, we still have nothing resembling (or even pointing toward) answers, only difficult questions.  (What happened?  Why these people?  And many more.)  Much as The Killing focused as much on the family and friends of the victim, this show focuses not only on the Returned, but also on the people to whom they return, and how their lives are shaken by this impossible, confusing circumstance.  In fact, the show reminds me of the Killing in a few ways. Its pace is slow—maddeningly so at times—and its characters are complex and often opaque.  But they are interesting enough to care about, perhaps all the more so for not knowing what they’re thinking all the time.  The show is as concerned with its characters’ emotional states as with the central mystery, and I expect the facts will unfold gradually. 

The show is beautifully filmed, and maintains a horror-like tension despite its slow pace.  The result is that the show demands attention even when not much is happening, which is an impressive feat.  I don’t know how long it will hold that level of attention—after enough time without much happening and without any answers, I imagine there’s no amount of tension or beauty that would keep the viewer hanging on—but I’m guessing that even if we never get solid answers (and we may not), there will be enough to care about.

Verdict:  Gripping and interesting enough to merit subtitle-levels of time and attention, at least for now.

On the DVR:  A few things that I know I’m never going to watch, and a few that I’ve watched but not yet reviewed. These include, but are not limited to, Lucky 7 (canceled), Sean Saves the World, Witches of East End, The Pete Holmes Show, Naked Vegas, The Paradise, and Adam Devine's House Party.  So I’ve definitely got some posting ahead of me!