I mentioned that whatever Hanna was doing, it wasn’t doing it well. By way of contrast, Kleo does it – and then some – very well indeed.
Kleo is another German-produced short-run series created for Netflix and available here in the U.S. via the streaming service. By default it is in (mostly) German language and subtitled, which is how I’d want to watch it anyway.
I had a strange experience about halfway through the series. While I was watching, the subtitles shifted from the bottom of the screen to the top*. As I sat there, I suddenly became confused. My brain yelled at me – “why did they switch to speaking German?”
Well of course they were speaking German. The show is almost** entirely in German. For some reason, though, the movement of the subtitles caused the part of my mind that was smoothly translating to hiccup and, instead of following along, I was forced to hear the dialog in German rather than letting the written words provide me with instant understanding. Very, very strange how the mind works sometimes.
I admit I know very little German. Nonetheless, there is enough commonality between our languages that, with a little subtitle help, I do understand plenty of words here and there. As I have enjoyed Kleo, I have been noticing a number of cases where the translation clearly doesn’t match what is said. In several cases, for example, I noticed the written translation was to a British-sounding idiom that, had a more direct, word-for-word rendering been used, might have read more naturally in American English. Or maybe not. I know I am missing out on something, lost in translation, but I have to wonder how much. It may simply be the professional translators are that much better at capturing the “spirit” of the dialog than a literal conversion of words and phrases would convey.
One further clue came upon me the next night. I had watched Kleo, on Netflix, after my son had been watching on stuff on his own “channel.” When I finished, I switched back to his library. Unlike me, he has set his default to use dubbed dialog. Netflix was pushing him to watch some new Korean-made show. I was presented with a preview that had the Korean dialog both overdubbed and subtitled, simultaneously. What that made clear is that the two translations just didn’t track very closely. The words I was hearing (in English) didn’t match the words at the bottom of the screen. Again, how odd.
How much do I miss out on because I am not multilingual?
Whatever the case, Kleo is plenty enjoyable just as I experience it.
For those that have no idea what I’m going on about, Kleo is an 8-episode series set in Berlin just as the Wall is coming down. The titular character was an off-the-books Stasi assassin who found herself betrayed by her superiors and sent to prison. As a result of the East German collapse she is set free from prison and she sets out seeking understanding and revenge for the wrongs done to her.
If you like the sound of that, don’t bother reading any more synopses and don’t watch the trailer. Just enjoy the show. Kleo is a series that defies pigeonholing and attempts by critics, amateur and professional, to do so may ruin it for you. The show is clever and funny, but its not a comedy exactly. I’ve seen it compared to Tarantino, and the comparison is apt, but to overemphasize the similarities isn’t helpful. One review mentioned that the police dramas set in East Germany in the 80s are popular in Germany now. I don’t know anything about that but it does make sense if this is, at least in part, a satire on a currently-popular genre.
Jella Haase is stellar as the lead character – especially in her ability to portray a psychopath in such a sympathetic manner. For some reason, I like that. Apparently, Netflix does too.
*It wasn’t clear to me at the time why this happened. It was a scene shot in a stairwell, so it may have been that the bottom of the screen was too light and the translation would not have displayed well… but I didn’t really analyze it.
**I keep saying this. The speaking is in whatever language the characters are speaking. Most of the time, that is German. Sometimes, its Russian, Spanish, or English as is required by the situation.
et tu, Bluto? 