Road trip north, part 9

This may not merit its own post, but I forgot to mention something about Poland in part 7 of the Road Trip North posts. The topic is dubbing.

American television shows and films are popular around the world, and they are often dubbed into the local language before being broadcast. For example, here in Italy we can watch Lost, Rescue Me, Veronica Mars, West Wing, Alias, and other shows in Italian. Actors speak in Italian over the lip movements of the original American actors. You can tell it's dubbed, but it's done fairly well with emotion, not just saying lines.

In Poland, though, it's another story. There aren't multiple actors playing each dubbed part. Instead, there's just one guy called a lektor reading the script. He reads every line of every character, whether it's a man or woman, little kid or old person. He uses the same monotone voice no matter how dramatic the situation. I read that it's a holdover from Communist times. Seriously lame! I wonder if this annoys Polish viewers. I found it at first laughable, but then unwatchable. They should go with subtitles.

The Wall Street Journal published this article about it in 2007.