![]() They’re not for fluent English speakers watching something in fluent English. Subtitles serve an important purpose for people with hearing or cognitive impairments, or for translation from a foreign language. My soul can’t bear the notion of someone watching The Sopranos for the first time and, as Tony wades into the pool, looking down to the bottom of the screen to read. Because now, instead of focusing my attention on the performances, the costumes, the cinematography, the painstakingly mixed sound, and how it all works together to tell a story and transport me into an alternate world, my eyes keep getting yanked downward to read words I can already hear. All that came out, though, was: Why? They don’t like missing any of the dialogue, he said, and sometimes it’s hard to hear, or someone is trying to sleep, or they’re only half paying attention, and the subtitles are right there waiting to be flipped on, so … why not?īecause now I’m reading TV, not watching it. Now, I don’t like to think of myself as a snob-snobs never do-but in that moment, I felt something gurgling up my windpipe that can only be described as snobbery, a need to express my aesthetic horror at the needless gashing of all those scenes. “Oh,” the husband said, “we always leave the subtitles on.” “Oh,” I said as the opening scene began, “you left the subtitles on.” Our younger neighbors had come over with their kids and a projector for backyard movie night- Clueless, I think, or maybe The Goonies. The first time it happened, I assumed it was a Millennial thing. Return to Audio Described Titles on Hulu.This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday.
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