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Comment by pimeys | Hacker News Reader

When I first started watching The Wire, I had to use subtitles. The slang for a non-native was almost impenetrable. Now after I've watched the whole series four or five times (I don't remember anymore), I can quote every scene and have a good understanding of the dialog. I definitely learned something.

This is funny btw, but I highly value most of David Simon's series, and I've watched Treme, Generation Kill and The Deuce many times over. I didn't really like any of these series on my first watch, but something pulled me back for rewatch. I'm glad it did. I think I've grown as a person while going through the stories they tell; all these series are now my absolute all-time favorite television.

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> The slang for a non-native was almost impenetrable.

I never thought about this. Having grown up in near NYC and Balitmore shortly before The Wire it still seemed like there were things I missed. I can imagine even with subtitles there are some things that aren’t fully understood immediately just with word play.

As a non-native speaker, it's definitely impossible for me to understand every detail of the conversations in The Wire. Especially the jokes.

But it's an interesting show anyway, even without the details.

I grew up in urban DC + public schools and I found it relatively understandable without subtitles, although perhaps not every single thing (some specific slang terms).

> not always in easy-to-understand dialects or accents

I'd never really considered this. Grew up in the south-eastern US, with one side of the family from the Northern Neck of Virginia.

Accent was definitely Baltimore, but I never had an issue.

The Chesapeake Bay definitely has a lot of interesting accents on various sides, though: http://aschmann.net/AmEng/#SmallMapCanada

Mos' def' bro.

And I mean, they do have a scene where the cops have to hire a local lady who speaks the slang well to transcribe some of the conversations.

True that.

I watched The Wire with my Italian (from Italy, not Italian-American) in-laws. Even with subtitles, I'm pretty sure they missed a lot of the story.

> When I first started watching The Wire, I had to use subtitles. The slang for a non-native was almost impenetrable.

And yet Dominic West/Jimmy McNulty and Idris Elba/Stringer Bell are English and Aidan Gillen/Tommy Carcetti is Irish.

Idris Elba does an excellent job, but it’s a little easier for him since he’s given the most slang and dialect to use. Dominic West sounds American at least, but to people who know it, he doesn’t really capture the ‘Bawlmer’ accent. With respect to accent, Aidan Gillen is not great. It’s not quite “Littlefinger on the Chesapeake Bay”, but he never sounds comfortable in the accent. That it's easily overlooked is a credit to the overall greatness of the show.

> Idris Elba does an excellent job, but it’s a little easier for him since he’s given the most slang and dialect to use.

Strangely, most of the significant characters in the drug trade are missing a Baltimore accent. I'm not really sure what accent Idris Elba is going for though it sounds vaguely New York City, while Method Man clearly sounds like a New Yorker when his character is from Baltimore. Wood Harris, who played Stringer's partner Avon Barksdale, sounds like he's from Chicago. The only ones speaking in a Baltimore accent are Proposition Joe, Slim Charles, and Snoop Pearson.

I'm not completely sure was it planned, but Stringer Bell was a character who attended community college, got his food from an organic food market, didn't want to be connected with the street. Almost like "coastal elite" and the New York slang would make sense there.

>With respect to accent, Aidan Gillen is not great. It’s not quite “Littlefinger on the Chesapeake Bay”, but he never sounds comfortable in the accent.

To be honest, his accent/affectation in Game of Thrones also always sounded kind of forced and uncomfortable to me. Still love his performance in both shows, though.

As a native speaker I needed subtitles.

SCREWBY!

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