First there was Jacob, and his accent was excruciating to hear to a southerner. Now, there’s Ben who sounds like a cartoon character. Hard to believe that Wendy could have dropped her accent entirely and sound like a midwesterner. I really hate it when movies and shows can’t get southern accents right.
shareI'm British so I can't be sure, but I always thought Missouri was the 'gateway to the west'. It was neutral in the Civil War I believe, so not really part of the north or the south. But all the hillbillies seem to speak with accents from the deep south like Alabama.
shareAll the more reason it doesn’t make sense! Missouri isn’t even a southern state, and yet, what they’re trying to do are southern accents. As far as Ben is concerned, he did mention that he and Wendy are from North Carolina.
By the way, I’m impressed with your knowledge of American history and geography.
Thanks. You say Missouri isn't southern. What's the actual definition of southern? Is it a former Confederate state, or one that's south of the Mason-Dixon line? If it's the latter that would include states like NM and AZ which definitely don't seem 'southern' in the way states like LA and MI do.
shareI know you’re a Brit, but MI is the abbreviation for Michigan, MO is Missouri, MS is Mississippi.
It’s confusing to Americans as well. Here’s a good bit for a laugh
https://youtu.be/dLECCmKnrys
I’m from Michigan so idk what the accent is supposed to sound like. They don’t sound ridiculous to me, although they aren’t really consistent for the cast that are supposed to be from that area. Ben, Jacob, Ruth, Cade, Darlene all have some different form of a souther accents while Wyatt has none and he’s from the same place.
I'm from Missouri and Illinois. I lived in the Ozarks for a while. Depending on which parts of these states you go to, there is a certain twang, but the accents are not thick. This show doesn't get it right but then again, it's actually being filmed in Georgia which might have something to do with it if they're casting locals.
shareI'm not familiar enough with the Ozarks to know the accent for that area. I do know that the South gets a lot of crap from people doing that generic "cowboy" accent - some kind of Alabama-Texas mesh - instead of actual accents of the South.
I do know people who were raised in heavily-accented places and dropped those accents to "fit in" elsewhere. My guess is that somewhere in Wendy's early aspirations to politics she made an executive decision to sound as "all-American" as possible. That seems like the kind of chess move she'd make, too. Maybe she went to university out of state and "reinvented" herself?