The wire writer George Pelecanos says that watching the wire using subtitles is criminal – you’ll miss a big bit of the experience.
“We wrote it so audiences would have to work at it!” he said in an interview with The Independent.
“We were not going to compromise in making it immediately accessible for everyone.
“It [subtitling] kind of reminds me of scenes from that [1980 disaster film spoof] comedy, Airplane!, when two black guys speak, and subtitles appear on the screen.”
Read the full story at the independent
The wire writer George Pelecanos says that watching the wire using subtitles is just criminal – you’ll miss the whole point.
“We wrote it so audiences would have to work at it!
We were not going to compromise in making it immediately accessible for everyone.
It [subtitling] kind of reminds me of scenes from that [1980 disaster film spoof] comedy, Airplane!, when two black guys speak, and subtitles appear on the screen.”
Apparently the Brits are having a difficult time to get to grips with the Baltimore street slang. Read the full story at the independent
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Don’t get those people who use subs, half of the fun is starting to understand the lingo
people are just to much ‘instant gratification’ nowadays!
I’m from London and have no problems understanding Baltimore street slang in the wire.
most brits who watch this show are soft southerners watching it on their massive flat screens because some shitty middle class newspaper told them to
I could only wish most BRITISH series (example Wire in the blood etc) would have a sub titles option. It would make things a lot easier at times. No need to have it on all the time , but there are times when not understanding a few words could mean the difference between getting the whole train of events or not getting it at all.
this has got to be the most pompous thing i have ever heard. i’m from baltimore and worked as a probabtion agent in west baltimore. i am not less of a fan because i need subtitles…although i may be getting old…
I watched the entire series with subtitles. It was either that or rewind on every other segment of dialogue, which I was pretty much already doing. Rewinding scratches discs, so the choice to put on subs seemed obvious. Plus, there’s just nothing wrong with subtitles in the first place, no matter the race or dialect of the character. This is some trivial shit, people.
I really want Japanese subs for my wife, she’s really interested in the show but her English just isn’t good enough to keep up.
It’s true that the accents and the speeking way in The Wire is really important, for example, you can notice how black guys talk with a closest accent when they’re with the police. But english is my thirth lenguage so yes, I used subtitles to whatch The Wire, I’m sorry George Pelecanos