Netflix fans told to turn off setting to make thrilling new show make sense

Netflix viewers have recently been treated to a new mystery series called 1899, a period drama which follows the story of a group of immigrants who leave London on a steamship in search of a new life in New York City.

However, while making its voyage across the Atlantic, the steamship encounters another migrant ship and the journey takes a dark turn.

Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, creators of the German series Dark which ran for three seasons between 2017 and 2020, are behind the making of 1899.

The series has already racked up an impressive 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with audience viewers already loving the series and even drawing comparisons to Inception and The Matrix.

But fans are being warned to turn off a setting to make all the twists and turns actually make sense in the show.

Being a German series which also includes dialogue in a multitude of languages, including English and Cantonese, fans may be tempted to watch the series with dubbed audio for ease.

Netflix

Dubbing audio is a way of replacing the original dialogue in a clip with that of translated audio. For example, if you’re watching a film in Spanish, dubbing can allow those who speak English to watch the movie with English audio as opposed to the original audio.

But home viewers have now been told to turn off this setting, as the plot could seem confusing to those watching if you don’t listen to the dialogue in the way it was intended by Friese and bo Odar.

Because of the use of multiple languages in the show, dubbing can make the plot seem confusing as there are certain points in the series where the characters on the ship are unable to move past a language barrier when things are being discussed in different languages.

Unsplash

For example, if an English-speaking character hears another character speak in German and asks someone else who speaks both English and German to translate for them, the dub wouldn’t make sense for viewers as all the characters would just be speaking English.

If you do choose to listen to the advice and switch off the dubbing settings on the streaming platform, you can instead turn on subtitles in order to better understand all the characters in the show.

To turn off dubbing, when you start the show, use your remote to click the speech bubble icon at the bottom of the screen.

Then, turn your audio to ‘English [Original]’ while subtitles can be set to ‘English [CC]’.