If you don't speak Spanish, prepare to read . . .

[Alias News]

From zap2it:

'Alias' Interruptores al Espanol
(Tuesday, March 22 09:59 AM)

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) The headline of this story translates to "'Alias' switches to Spanish." Which is exactly what the ABC series is doing this week.

So, as if the plot threads on "Alias" weren't enough to keep track of, non-Spanish-speaking viewers will have to read most of the episode as well.

Wednesday's (March 23) episode, which deals primarily with the back story of spy Sydney Bristow's (Jennifer Garner) half-sister Nadia (Mia Maestro), will feature dialogue that's mostly delivered in Spanish. English subtitles will accompany the show.

On one hand, it makes sense, given that the story will fill in details of Nadia's life in Argentina before she started working with Sydney. On the other, it strays from the well-worn movie and TV device of having characters speak a few lines in a foreign language before switching to accented English.

Jeffrey Bell, who co-wrote the episode with Monica Breen, says they were planning to do just that with present-day scenes, while keeping flashback sequences in Spanish. They decided, though, that doing so seemed false.

"The way this happened was fairly organic," Bell tells The New York Times. "And to the network's credit, they said they loved the idea from the get-go."

Breen, who speaks Spanish, and Bell wrote the episode in English and had it translated. Maestro, a native of Buenos Aires, lent a hand by adding some Argentine colloquialisms, the paper says.

In addition to the mostly Spanish dialogue, Wednesday's "Alias" is notable for the fact that Garner, who usually appears in nearly every scene, has only a small amount of screen time. She was laid up for a short time in January after injuring her back in a stunt for the show.

 

[Alias_Gay]

WOW ... this is gonna be so good ... I can't wait

Its an awesome idea ... since it wouldn't be logical to have those people in Argentina spekaing english only ... two thumbs up for ABC for showing the real people and having the real language spoken with english subtitles

This is awesome ...

especially since being multi-lingual myself ...

 

[GarnerForEmmy]

It's a great idea. I'm looking forward to it.