Sadly, this is so.
Watched it and quite enjoyed it, the puns where spot on and the satire behind the communism & such was great, however, I think It would be very difficult for a foreigner to understand it totally from start to finish.
They did an amazing job with it.
I would imagine that would definitely add another dimension to it. Despite being American, I enjoyed it greatly though.
Do you think it would have worked better from a Romanian perspective if it were not dubbed but subtitled? I feel like some of the humor came from the dubbing itself and the disconnect between the facial expressions and the dialog, so I'm wondering how it would have played if it were subtitled (or if you were Romanian and didn't need subtitles)..
Actually, funny enough, the dub is not that acurate. I caught some moments where the actors lips were saying nonsense, which, imho, I think it was done intentionally, something like: Goats float in space in romanian, while the dub was talking something serious.
I think the dubbed and subs are playing a huge huge part in why this show is good. Without those, It would had been decent, but not as good, if you ask me.
SEMI SPOILER AHEAD
The puns with Nadia Comaneci, or random pics with Ceausescu are fantastic. Also, the names of the staff that are shown at the start. Google them. I think the greatness of this is in the details, but I think, people are used to simple and bad laughs, maybe that is why The Big Bang Theory still works.
Agreed, there were a lot of funny little details that I caught and many more that I know I didn't. I particularly liked the signs at the embassy protest, need to go back and pause to see what they all say ("Baseball is boring" is the only one I remember).
I think the dubbing was a good choice for this. In addition to creating an air of absurdity, it also worked to enhance the perspectives of the 'creators' of the show, with the Americans all sounding like they were from New Jersey or Texas and being complete buffoons obsessed with money, sex and Big Macs. I also love the fact that they mentioned it during the one of the introductions. Great bit of self referential humor there.
The premise of CD is probably a hard sell and would only be appreciated by a few, which is a shame because it's unlike anything else out there.
SPOILER AHEAD
For me, by far the greatest scene in the entire series is in the last episode, near the final showdown when they drink that soda similar to Pepsi and colapse. A blonde woman is telling them to wake up, then she disappears, like a mirage or something.
That lady is Margareta Irina Nistor, "the voice". In the communism and after, early 90s, she was the voice of every bootleg movie romanians could see from the west. From Predator to the Godfather or Grease, you name it she dubbed it.
Her being there made the whole show fantastic from my point of view.
That's fascinating. They really went all out on this thing. What a great touch.
shareYou don't need a romanian this tv show was made for american and world audience not for romanians. And there is not much to undestrand i thought it was just a piece of boring crap
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