THE MORNING RANT: My Gripe Against Hollywood – the Unintelligible, Artistic Mumble

Hollywood is not my normal beat. I once wrote a piece about David Zaslav’s looting of Warner Bros Discovery after he ran the company into the ground while extracting generational wealth for himself. But in general, I am happy to keep up with the business of Hollywood by following Christian Toto (Hollywood in Toto), George MF Washington’s Hollywood-insider substack (The Continental Congress) and by reading Ace’s accounts of Disney’s self-immolation.

So, with Ace and them fighting the political fight involving Hollywood, I’d like to weigh in on another subject related to the industry - I can’t understand half the dialogue in the shows I stream.

Dear Hollywood: Enough with the artistic mumble.

Watching streaming series is a relatively new thing for my wife and me. Both of us fell out of the habit of watching TV series several decades ago, and it was only in the past five years or so that we’ve picked up the habit again here in the streaming era. On weekend nights when we’re not out, we enjoy watching a couple episodes of whatever show we’re following, but I sometimes feel like giving up on it since half of the dialogue nowadays is barely intelligible.

The problem is not a hearing issue. At my office, I’m sometimes involved in whispered conversations about semi-confidential matters. There are also women who talk in vocal fry. In office meeting there is overlapping chatter. In all these circumstances, everyone is still understandable. The problem is not my ears.

I’m not sure if Hollywood is full of actors who no longer know how to articulate, or if it’s sound engineers who make the actors’ speech inaudible, or some combination of the two.

The speaking affectation in modern shows seems to be equal parts mumble, whisper, and vocal fry. I cannot turn my TV up loud enough for some conversations to be greater than a whisper, or understandable. I might think it was my TV, but we replaced a TV recently, and nothing changed. Even more telling, the speech in news and sports broadcasts is still loud, crisp, and easily understood, as are old sitcoms and TV series.

At times I wonder if there is a “mumble filter” through which Hollywood sound engineers are now subjecting audio. My wife and I were very late to the series “Justified.” We watched the original series just about the time the 2023 reboot, “City Primeval,” came along. We never had any problem understanding what was being said in the original Justified, but the reboot was almost completely unintelligible. Almost all speaking was a barely audible mumble, and even Timothy Oliphant now sounded like he was whispering through a mouth full of marbles, unlike in the original series. Was a conscious decision made to have spoken words be mostly inaudible?

People do not talk like this in real life. This Hollywood speaking affectation is just as fake as the Mid-Atlantic accent of Hollywood’s golden era – but at least we could understand what was being said in those old movies.

It’s also noteworthy that despite the prevalence of the “artistic mumble,” there are still actors who will not be mumbled. Billy Bob Thornton speaks slowly and clearly, and I never have any trouble understanding him. Jamie Lee Curtis has been in several shows we’ve watched recently. She still projects her voice and speaks with authority. There is far more art in their performances than from those actors who are mumbling lines without breathing or moving their lips.

Please, Hollywood, I’m willing to consume your product. Can you have your actors and sound engineers retire the artistic mumble before I give up on Hollywood again?

Throckmorton’s First Law of Live Music: “If There’s an Upright Bass in the Band, It’s Probably Going to be Good”

Something sweet and heartwarming happened on Twitter/X this past weekend – a mutual-admiration love affair broke out between conservative Americans who respect Japan and its culture, and conservative Japanese who admire our culture, all of whom seek to preserve their own cultures against hostile immigration.

There was a lot of good-natured ribbing and affectionate cultural appropriation flying around between Japan and the U.S., including Japanese cowgirls, celebrations of beef and sushi, and some cross-pollinated music.

In that spirit, here is a Japanese band performing the bluegrass classic “Fox on the Run.”

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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