I understand why it is, but I would prefer subtitles. I think it makes it more immersive and obviously realistic despite how well these English actors are. But either way I really like this show so far and I'm impressed.
share
I agree.
😎
I want to watch a movie.....not read it.
shareI always prefer language spoken in native dialogue with subtitles. The worst for me is war films where both sides are speaking english.
shareThe biggest turnoff so far has been the British actors and proper British accents when this is supposed to be a Soviet Russian cover up.
shareI would still be pissed if they used Murican accents but proper British accents?!? Really?!?! They should have at least spoke English in a Russian or Ukrainian accent. British accents are annoying, they are exponentially more annoying when they are not supposed to be there
share100% agree. The British English is annoyingly anachronistic and gives it an artificially cheesy feel. Like this show is about a cover up by the British Crown of a secret nuclear power plant in Leeds instead of Chernobyl.
shareIt might be because I'm a foreigner, but Brittish accent sounds so damn neat and well to me. It is so much more elaborated (no offense to Americans) and has a royal sound to it (yeah I know this might sound obvious.
American english and its various accents have their beauty as well. There seem to be more freedom in the way Americans use it, while Brits, sometimes, sound a bit machinal and to-the-book. It is also way easier to learn with it and as someone who learned English mostly by watching movies, I can confirm.
However, in a way or another I agree that this show should had been made in Russian with subtitles.
A bunch of actors doing Russian accents would have sounded comical and stupid. Even the show runners thought so.
shareNot just "a bunch of actors", the director found the British, Irish, and Swedish actors they had cast in the leads were not dynamic enough to pull off using Russian accents naturally. They were too engrossed in "acting the accents".
‘What we found very quickly is that actors will act accents. They will not act, they will act accents, and we were losing everything about these people that we loved.
Nah, casting all Russian actors sacrifices acting quality. Hire the right actors for the role. Which the casting director did perfectly.
shareSo you're saying Russian actors can't act? I think you're wrong.
shareI’m saying hiring Russian actors just for their accents/dialect is wrong. Especially if there are superior actors for the role. Like I said, cast the best actor for the job. Cast the actor not the accent.
shareBut no one was suggesting they hire shitty Russian actors just for their accents. Of course you hire the best.
shareWhich they did. The casting was perfect
shareIt was a UK production. They limited themselves to only considering/casting English actors. Russian actors didn't audition and weren't considered so we have no way of knowing whether those were the best casting choices that could be made, but I highly doubt it. Typically the larger the labor pool you're evaluating from, the greater the talent. This is just a statistical truth.
All we do know is that the English actors they did cast were shitty when they tried to pull off Russian accents, so they scrapped the idea.
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theres a 3rd option:
Dialog in English with Russian accents?
This is what I wanted too. Two or three actors in it can do a Russian accent? It was like everyone was Kevin Costner.
The show seemed cheap and like standard BBC serial quality for the first couple episodes. Either I got used to it or they improved their game by the middle.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I payed close attention to the event when it happened and even revisited the subject decades later. Yet I still learned things I never knew from this. 8/10
"cheap and like standard BBC serial quality for the first couple episodes"
Yeah I got acclimated after a few episodes too. The other actors were better cast IMO, but for me it was mostly the lead of quintessential British actor Jared Harris and his perfect British English that I found most annoying in the starring role. But that aside, he made the most of it.
The creator has explained why they didn't do the Russian accents.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/07/chernobyl-cast-asked-not-put-russian-accents-make-emotion-authentic-9854176/
Retarded people will complain about the most retarded things...
shareSo that's why you're complaining?
shareDo you know the meaning of the word "complaining"?
shareSo why are you criticizing yourself for being retarded? That's really self-defeatist of you.
sharehttps://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/complaining
You're welcome.
Like I said, that's really self-defeatist of you.
shareOk Timmy
shareYou do have entertainment value. Your self-pwn was utterly amusing.
share"self-pwn"
Go back in your time machine Timmy
lulz. The best part was how you tried to prove you weren't retarded by looking up a word you used in the dictionary.
shareI simply copy pasted the definition to teach you the meaning of words you employ incorrectly. I hope you learned something but probably not.
sharelolz. Stop trying to pretend like you're not the retard complaining about retarded things in your OP. You've already thoroughly clowned yourself. Having to look up a word you used in the dictionary only cements how mentally challenged you are while proving my point.
shareApparently you STILL don't understand what the word "complaining" means. Oh well, I tried. Your IQ is just too low.
sharelmao. Coming from the guy who owned himself by inadvertently calling himself retarded, your accusation of anyone else being low IQ really doesn't pack any punch. 8p But like I said, you do have entertainment value. ;D
shareThe OP is not really complaining. He just wants a bunch of people he does not know, and will never meet, to think that he is world-wise and erudite.
No one wants to read a movie. People just say they do to impress others.
Yours is a silly comment. The series got widespread criticism over the perfect British English that made a docudrama set in Soviet Russia appear inauthentic and cheesy. That's what moved the director to publicly respond to the criticism.
https://junkee.com/chernobyl-accents/208607
"No one wants to read a movie."
Get real. If this were really true no one would ever watch foreign language films. Speak for yourself.
Okay you get your opinions spoon-fed to you by critics. Nothing to be embarassed about I guess as many people do the same.
sharelulz. Seeing as how I'm one of those critics, your weak attempt to troll faceplants. Check the dates genius. My criticism here predates that article and came right after the initial episode aired.
My point was how silly you sound for accusing a random person on an anonymous movie chat board asking if anyone shared their criticism (which incidentally turned out to be a pretty widely held opinion just judging from this thread and my article citation) of trying to impress people by appearing "world-wise" and "erudite". lmao, seriously how old are you? Nineteen with a pseudo-intellectual inferiority complex? Maybe that's why you come here but you'll have to trust me when I tell you most people couldn't care less about appearing erudite to random anonymous strangers they don't know and will never meet.
My point was how silly you sound for accusing a random person on an anonymous movie chat board asking if anyone shared their criticism
"No more silly than person who comes on an anonymous movie chat board asking if random people shared their criticism."
That's your opinion and I'm just doing the favor of telling you why it's wrong. Most people don't come here for affirmation like you do.
"Or maybe you think that there are enough Russian and/or Russian speaking actors in Hollywood to cast this movie with."
This wasn't cast in Hollywood. HBO partnered with Sky Television out of the UK. I guess you're just grossly ignorant this was cast with UK actors along with Skarsgård, who is Swedish. Where do you think the British English came from genius? You should brush up on what you're commenting about so as to not embarrass yourself since you've defined your goal as appearing erudite. So far, you've failed.
I also prefer original languages with subtitles but sometimes they can be deceitful. Like in "We All Loved Each Other So Much" from Ettore Scolla. I watched it translated at first and a second time with friends and subtitles. At the end of the movie, 2 friends are shouting when the 3rd one confess his crimes which is impossible to understand such a redemption with the subtitles. It's really like two different endings.
I think there is probably a lot of similar problems with subtitles. If you speak two languages, you can see they also generally cut corners because it's hard to read as fast as they speak.
They could at least learn pronouncing the names correctly in Russian, and not using the English accents in the names like "Di-atlov".
That was a great idea that they left the news, announcements, written text on anything in Russian, so they should made an effort learning the names right without accents...
The full English language doesn't bother me, would have been much worse in English with just Russian accents. That's hard to maintain all the way through for all the actors without become a parody. Going full Russian would have been a long shot commercially, they had to draw a line somewhere.
4th otion:
get russian actors to speak english