There are certainly examples where dubbing can be successful, and I think that lies mostly with animated series, like “Cowboy Bebop’s” famously great English dub. So I tend to toggle back and forth between the two language settings, which makes me feel like a philistine, but also makes the task feel far more manageable. When you watch a subtitled show, it’s the only thing you can do - even note-taking to a degree is more difficult, because you have to focus on reading the subtitles - where the dubbed versions offer a bit more freedom to either multi-task a bit or simply not sweat so much over the long expository/filler stretches in the middle. But we live in a time where there’s a flood of content, where lots of the foreign shows we’re getting are the kind of intensely serialized, not always briskly paced, dramas that we already have tons of in English, and I’ve found that going back and forth between dubbed and subtitled versions is the easiest way to move through something like “Babylon Berlin” relatively quickly. In an ideal world, we’d only ever watch foreign films and TV shows with subtitles, which provides the original performances in their entirety, and the rest unmarred by dubbing that doesn’t match, even when the audio performers are good.

I do sometimes make an exception with Spanish-language shows-because I’m Latinx myself - and challenge myself without dubbing, but even then it can get tricky. And my love for subtitles is mostly just a habit: I’ve always watched TV with subtitles because it makes it much easier for me to focus on what’s happening (and because I have tricky issues with the sounds of certain words/letters which is why I find it extremely annoying that screeners aren’t required to have them). The dubbing preference is because I tend to do other things while watching television, whether it’s taking notes for a review or washing dishes, so even if I’m not looking at the screen at any given moment, I can still hear what’s happening. (This is partially inspired by the report that Netflix defaults to dubbing because viewers are more likely to finish a series than if it defaulted to subtitles.) Pilot Viruet Freelanceīoth, sort of! I usually go for dubbing when it’s available but I also always, always prefer subtitles on everything I watch, no matter the language, unless it’s a live event with terrible closed captioning. This week’s question: Do you prefer subtitles or dubbing on foreign-language TV shows? Why? Are there cases in which you’d make an exception? (The answer to the second, “What is the best show currently on TV?” can be found at the end of this post.) Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Tuesday.

Spirited away english dub subtitles