I have a problem. My hearing isn’t what it once was. It’s frustrating. But I’ve never been good with accents. Never. My friend and I went on a trip to New Orleans years ago to attend a writing conference, and we stopped at a restaurant in Mississippi. The waitress came to take our orders and to tell us what the specials of the day were. We both listened to her and looked at each other. What did she say? “Can you repeat that?” I asked. She did. We still had no clue what she said. Her southern accent was so strong, we couldn’t make out what she said. We both ordered off the menu. I was too embarrassed to ask her to repeat the specials again.
I love English mysteries. So does HH. We watch more of them than we should, and we’ve always been able to understand what everyone says in every Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. We watched every White Chapel and never had a problem. We watched all of the episodes of Pride and Prejudice without a hitch. But lately, it’s hit or miss if we can understand what the actors are saying. I asked a few of my friends, and they’re having the same problem. The actors talk fast and lower voices, and HH and I look at each other and say, “What?”
We tried to watch the new mystery, Karen Pirie. The acting was wonderful. The story was topnotch. I’ll never watch another one. I didn’t understand key scenes and had to rewind them to try to figure out what people were saying. One of my friends uses Closed Caption to READ the dialogue. If an actor can’t deliver lines that I can understand, I’m not watching her or him. I have other options. We have a Bose speaker, and sometimes, that helps. The words are crisper, clearer. But the new way of acting that mumbles words in a low voice is just plain irritating to me.
Time for me to start watching Hallmark mysteries. The actors are easier to understand.
Judi Lynn 
I’m all about the subtitles at this point in life, solves the problem with viewing something on my tv
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Ahh, I’m glad it’s not just me and my friends:)
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We’ve used closed captioning for years. My husband’s hearing was severely damaged by chemotherapy when he was in his thirties. I’ve become so accustomed to the captions, they don’t distract me.
My hearing isn’t what is once was, either.
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I’m going to have to break down and try that. It’s a real bummer, though.
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The waitstaff issue might not be hearing related. I used to work with a Cajun fellow in the mining industry. He asked something of my survey crew one day and we had him repeat it three times. Eventually he tapped the water cooler on the back of the truck to indicate he needed a drink. I stopped watching Dr. Who during the Capaldi era because it was so overproduced with background noise and music, added to the fact that he mumbled I lost the story threads. In other news, I’ve started watching a lot of Korean dramas on Netflix. You need to read the subtitles, but they seem to tell a better story than most recent things in America.
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When I watch TV anymore, it feels like I’ve called someone for tech advice who speaks another language, and I don’t understand the advice they’re giving me. Ich!
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I often ask for someone who can speak clearly.
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I fell in love with the Extraordinary Attorney Woo and I usually avoid anything to do with a courtroom. A lot of Korean TV is high quality, and their acting is so fine that the subtitles aren’t distracting.
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I’ll have to look for that. The Great British Baking Show ended, and we’ll have to find something to watch on Friday nights:) HH’s other favorite, Somebody Feed Phil ended, too.
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That’s cool. I tried that one, but it wasn’t quite in my wheelhouse. It was still well done.
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