Why bizarre accents in Netflix's 'New Stranger Things' Below are actually 'extremely accurate'
Ever since Netflix ended Stranger Things earlier this year the streamer have been searching for a way to replicate the success of the show’s billions of hours views and rabid fanbase.
Netflix’s latest effort to attempt this actually sees them bring back one of the most successful Stranger Things actors since the show ended, Jonathan Byers actor Charlie Heaton.
Called Below, the brand-new horror drama features a star studded celebrity cast, including Josh Hartnett and Mackenzie Davis alongside Heaton. The series follows a small fishing village in Newfoundland that is plagued by a terrifying and mysterious sea creature, setting records on release after it received 17 million views in just six days.
Advert
As you can see in the trailer below however the accents in the TV show have been a major shock for viewers going in blind.
The series has been mostly well liked, with a score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, but there has been some criticism of Hartnett, Davis, and Heaton’s accents online.
According to multiple viewers who are actually from Newfoundland however, they don’t deserve a lot of the criticism they receive for the rather particular accent.
Newfoundland accents mix rural Irish and French-Canadian, and some locals have called the accents in the show ‘extremely accurate’
Newfoundland is the eastern-most province in Canada and was heavily settled in by Irish migrants between the 17th and 19th century.
The accents of the main trio of actors have been hotly debated, with none of them hailing from the area.
One fan on Reddit said: “As a Newfoundlander I feel slightly compelled to weigh in on the accents.
They are incredibly good, and usually whenever Newfie accents are portrayed in media they are really bad. It's probably the best I've seen in big production TV shows.
“There are a couple slips here and there but overall the show is extremely accurate to Newfoundlander outport slang and culture (I am a bayman myself).”
They added however that the accent changes greatly across the province so referring to a ‘Newfoundland accent’ is in itself a misnomer in some ways.
One Newfoundland fisher ‘HarbourCustoms’ posted to TikTok to add to this, saying that whilst he hadn’t yet had a chance to see it Newfoundland is a very large area, adding: “We’re known for having a large variation in the accent that you’ll find depending on what part of this beautiful province you’re visiting.”
He added that it’s not possible to nail down one unified ‘Newfoundland accent’.
Another comment on a different Reddit thread about the show said: “As a Newfoundlander, the Brits and Canadians in the show are doing well with the accent. Charlie Heaton, Ruby Stokes, Rohan Campbell have legit Newfoundland accents, if not entirely perfect. Josh Hartnett’s (American) is definitely not perfect, but what odds.
Largely they nailed the Newfoundlandisms and everyone here is enjoying seeing themselves on TV.”
Below’s executive producers said Josh Hartnett ‘threw himself into the accent from day one’
The executive producer of Below Jessica Rhoades said that he ‘threw himself into the accent’, with creator Jesse McKeown telling Variety: “I’ll just say Josh was incredible. Before he even came, he started listening to Newfoundland radio, the call-in shows and talk radio, which are like hugely popular in Newfoundland.
“There’s this show called The Fisheries Broadcast, which is the longest-running radio show in Canadian history. People just call in and talk about the fishery, and so he just immersed himself in that. He already had it in his head before he set foot on the island.”
The hard work clearly paid off as the reviews and ratings have both been stellar for the limited series, with Kaiya Shunyata of RogerEbert.com saying in their review: “As pressing as it is entertaining, the six-episode series shapes up to be one of the year’s best and most poignant.”
Below is available to watch on Netflix now.
Topics: Netflix, Entertainment, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin