When I lived in Japan it was absolutely depressing how few US TV shows were on TV there. Of course a big factor is that it's very expensive to add subtitles to a show and if a show is too complex/sophisticated then it's just too damn hard to translate. On occasion I would laugh at the way that whole sentences would be translated down to one word. If you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a great scene in Lost in Translation where a photographer is giving instructions to Bill Murray in Japanese and the translator is telling him whatever she feels comfortable with.
I remember hearing that Bay Watch was one of the most internationally watched shows. Apparently scantily clad men and women running on a beach is very easy to translate. Many science fiction series are very simplistic in terms of language which may explain why science fiction sells around the world. Some shows use complex new words to give the show an exotic-ness, but those words don't have to be translated.
Do producers of science fiction consider the possibility of foreign syndication in their language choices? What if they did? Would it change what we watch?
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