I love the mystery aspect...but am I the only one that thinks everyone is speaking as if in a Shakespeare play? Especially Whittison, the Andrews,the Sheriff and the KIDS. Who speaks like this? Even in the 50's? really stilted/and very odd vocabulary.
I love the show, and I'm up to S2 Ep6 and it's starting to get to me...
I think that in the case of the kids and their vocabulary, the show is trying to establish that they are geeks so they use big and complicated words to show that. As for the diction and speaking as if in a Shakespeare play, I think that's just poor acting (especially Madeline).
shareActually, it's as if they are all reading from the Bible! The Sheriff and Hershel Jenkins are the WORST. I noticed they never speak with contractions. Very formal/unusual.
shareThe diction is only slightly more formal than might have been correct for a fairly literate, reasonably well educated small military town in the 1950s bible belt. The show is set in a very different period and place, and does a pretty good job of setting the tone and pace. Different as it may be, Mad Men has some similar qualities in the language. Things like colloquialisms, slang, swearing as constant punctuation isn't really "proper" english, no matter what you hear on "tv", and wouldn't have been appropriate for the characters of Granite Flats.
shareYour partly right. But this town is the focus of some very intelligent people brought there by our government for projects important to the cold war/national security.
shareHey folks,
I was around back then, and the language seems reasonable to me. I can assure you, however, if someone said, "Yo, Dude, you got to blah, blah, blah...," that would kill it for me. I am an old man. Hearing someone, anyone say, "Yo Dude..." is like hearing fingernails on a blackboard. Wait a minute, I bet there are a lot of folks here who have no idea what I am talking about with fingernails scratching on a blackboard?
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
I love how they speak, especially Herschel. It's easy to understand, no slang, no assumptions. He says it like it is.
Totally and completely love how they all speak.
I'm not commenting on the VOCABULARY, it's the DICTION. Yes, I get it that the language/vocabulary is appropriate. But the diction is a bit bizarre
share[deleted]
From the Midwest. I'm in my 60's and I have NEVER heard people speak like that.
Whatever-not important
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Odd... I've been to the mid-west as far as Missouri... when I visited my cousins back then in the late 1970's just prior to a major surgery. And my dad said he missed my clean diction from the short time we spent in Missouri! My Aunt, Uncle and cousin had VERY clean midwest accent. Their diction was VERY clean. And it cleaned up my Southern accent somewhat my 'accident'. When they moved HERE, my Uncle let it ALL go, and spoke where we couldn't understand him anymore... all just to gain acceptance from my grandfather and gain favors from him. And I'm not speaking of stereotype... I'm talking about personal experience! And I was unaware of my accent changing while we up in Missouri... but my Dad did. And you're worried about how clean the actors diction is on a TV show based in the mid 60's? Whatever... diction is learned when in music especially in choir and in drama class. Some people complain about Madeline's character, but it very well be her own diction. Or maybe somewhat forced based on the characters backgrounds... like maybe we're supposed to think her parents were so paranoid about her illegal background they over emphasized her American accent as she was growing up to help hide her background despite her obvious Asian looks...
3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!
We watched 2 episodes in Season 3 and characters used contractions... even Hershel when talking to the Chief on the roof/widow's peak on Arthur's original house.
3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!
I grew up in a small town in the 1960s and most of the deliver seems ok for how people wanted to be remembered, if not a bit more formal than the reality. Much of this can be attributed to characters that actually would think before talking.
The two that struck me were Madeline & Arthur's Aunt.
I wrote that off Madeline's stilted delivery to english as a second language for the character until it was revealed that she was adopted at birth. Then it falls on having two brainiac types for parents. I do know people whose parents scolded them for using contractions.
As for Arthur's Aunt, I can only assume her delivery is meant to make her seem even stranger than her lines. It certainly isn't southern as it sometimes appears to be intended. Not sure where she was going with this.