We’re not used to dubbing or subtitling, really. “We’re used to sharing our stories with the rest of the world. Fellow satellite-only network Link TV has been airing “Borgen,” a shockingly smart Danish political drama that’s a favorite of critics who’ve managed to track it down.Īnd Hulu has become an invaluable resource for a dizzying array of international series, from Parisian law and order drama “Spiral” to anime favorite “Naruto: Shippuden,” Korean dramas to Spanish-language telenovelas, not to mention many English-language series from the U.K., Canada and Australia, like family dramedy “Offspring.” Coming soon to the streaming site is the original Danish/Swedish coproduction “The Bridge,” on which both FX’s “The Bridge” and the British/French “The Tunnel” are based.Ĭharlotte Koh, Hulu’s head of content, points out that it’s particularly American to be so much more accustomed to exporting our culture than importing it. home for acclaimed British anthology series “Black Mirror” and Australian crime drama “Underbelly,” which, while not subtitled, were certainly on the wish lists of Americans who’d heard about them online. DirecTV’s exclusive Audience Network has been the U.S. It was great to watch on social media the conversation between viewers.”Ĭertainly the proliferation of platforms for watching TV series, on cable, on satellite and online, has made more programming from other countries legitimately available than ever before. “Only really a small handful of viewers who were disappointed. “We certainly saw, in terms of social media reaction, initially there was surprise about the subtitles,” said Barnett.
The quality of the work and the ability for it to really engage would be there regardless of the subtitles.” And while there was some resistance expressed via Twitter about the format, it wasn’t a major backlash. “What we loved about this piece was that the genre nature of it to us outweighed the signification of the subtitled TV show. “People’s perception of subtitles films, let along subtitled TV shows, is that they’re really hard work - somewhat obscure,” agreed Sundance Channel President Sarah Barnett. “The Returned,” which had attracted significant critical praise in its run here ( some of it from us) feels unmistakably Gallic in its rhythms and its characters in addition to its language, and has been playing on a network with a history of airing foreign films, even if they aren’t as common on the schedule anymore. the emphasis was on the agent investigating the returned soldier, on a more American issues of distrusting the government and of a fears of agents among us. On making “Prisoners of War” into “Homeland,” for instance, creator Gideon Raff noted that the original series focused on the experiences of and the idea of POWs, which he called an “open wound in Israeli society,” but that for the U.S. market, the small screen still frequently serves as a reflection of its viewers.
While Hollywood studios are increasingly in the business of making films that have as much (if not more) appeal abroad than in the U.S. Maybe it’s that, more so than film, TV tends to feel culturally specific, tailored to domestic tastes - it gets piped into your home, and for many people serves as audiovisual wallpaper in the background while their attention is mainly focused elsewhere, something that’s impossible when you have to rely on subtitles to understand the action. At the same time, interest in remaking shows that have been successful in other countries continues to grow - “Homeland” is based on Israeli drama “”Hatufim” (Prisoners of War),” “ The Killing” on Danish production “Forbrydelsen” (The Crime), and “The Returned” itself has been targeted for an English-language remake. via legal means outside of foreign language channels. It’s also in French, a fact that seems more novel when you manage to catch the series on the air alongside televisions other homegrown Thursday night offerings - subtitled television, still a total rarity on American networks.įoreign films have a place on the arthouse circuit, but where can you find foreign TV? Aside from British imports, which PBS and BBC America have staked out for years with great success, international series have in the past rarely made their way to the U.S. It’s a great series - moody, mysterious, combining an exploration of grief with gorgeous imagery of a picturesque town being literally haunted by its past. The supernatural drama is set in a small mountain town in which the dead have started coming back - whole and looking just like they did when they passed, even if that was decades ago, craving connection with their old lives rather than the more gory appetites of the typical genre undead. “ The Returned” wraps up its eight-episode run on Sundance Channel tonight.
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