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When diving into the dark, gritty underworld of the Camorra in Naples, viewers often find themselves at a crossroads: is Gomorrah dubbed in English better, or is the original Neapolitan audio with subtitles the superior choice? While purists argue for authenticity, the English dub offers a distinct experience that caters to specific viewing styles and accessibility needs. Why Some Viewers Prefer the English Dub
While many fans strongly advocate for the original audio, a subset of the audience finds the English dub to be a viable and even "better" option for their personal needs.
Multitasking & Focus: For viewers who need to watch while working or performing other tasks, the English dub is indispensable. It allows you to follow the complex, dialogue-heavy plot without being anchored to the bottom of the screen.
Visual Immersion: Subtitles can sometimes distract from the show’s stark cinematography. By choosing the dub, your eyes remain focused on the actors' physical performances and the detailed environments of Secondigliano.
Script Adaptation: In some instances, the English dub actually uses more natural or localized slang that can feel more immediate than the literal translations often found in subtitles. Some users have noted that the dubbing for certain characters, like Malammore or Conte, maintains a consistent quality as the series progresses.
Accessibility: For viewers with dyslexia or visual impairments that make reading rapid-fire subtitles difficult, the English dub is the essential entry point to the series. The Argument for Subtitles
Despite the convenience of the dub, the consensus among the core fanbase remains that the original Neapolitan audio is the "masterpiece" experience.
The general consensus among critics and viewers is that dubbed in English is significantly worse
than watching it in its original Neapolitan dialect with subtitles
. While the show itself is hailed as one of Italy's greatest television exports, the English dub is widely criticized for the following reasons: Why the English Dub is Criticized Loss of Immersion: Reviewers on
argue that the dubbing sounds "cringe" and "ridiculous," stripping away the gritty, realistic atmosphere of Naples. Mismatched Voice Acting:
Many find the choice of voice actors jarring, noting that they often sound like "California chads" rather than the hardened Italian criminals they portray. Nuance and Dialect: A major part of the show's identity is the specific Neapolitan dialect
, which carries cultural and status-related meanings (such as the
dialect) that simply cannot be translated or replicated in English. Technical Issues:
Viewers have noted that even the background ambient sounds can feel "wrong" or poorly mixed in the dubbed versions. Comparisons & Recommendations Subtitles vs. Dubbing:
The vast majority of fans recommend the subtitled version because it preserves the actors' original, highly-regarded performances—like Ciro’s intense physical acting, which relies heavily on vocal inflection. The "Voiceover" Alternative:
Some international versions (like those in Poland) use a "lektor" (a single voice reading the script over the original audio), which some prefer over full dubbing because it allows you to still hear the original Italian performances. Availability:
primarily hosts foreign series with original audio and English subtitles, some seasons have previously appeared as English-only dubs on certain platforms, much to the frustration of fans.
In short, if you want the "spell-binding" and "unflinching" experience that critics at Rotten Tomatoes rave about, stick to the subtitles Rotten Tomatoes streaming platforms currently offer the subtitled version in your region?
Dubbing the show was the dumbest possible decision… : r/Gomorrah
Marco had a problem. It wasn’t money, women, or the kind of trouble that left you sleeping with the fishes. His problem was far more niche, and in his own mind, far more critical.
He was an American super-fan of Gomorrah, the Italian crime epic.
He had watched the series five times. The first two viewings were with subtitles, the way the purists demanded. He had dutifully read every line about the Camorra, the Secondigliano war, and the tragic arc of Ciro Di Marzio. He understood the grit, the gray skies of Naples, the raw, documentary-like violence. gomorrah dubbed in english better
But on his third viewing, curiosity got the better of him. He switched to the English dub.
It was, in a word, terrible. The voice actors sounded like they were reading lines for a Saturday morning cartoon villain. Pietro Savastano’s gravelly menace was replaced by a man who sounded like he was trying to sell used cars. Genny’s transformation from naive rich boy to ruthless boss was undercut by a whiny, misplaced American accent. Marco lasted ten minutes.
That was two years ago. Now, he was a moderator on the subreddit r/Gomorrah. And the holy war raged daily: Sub vs. Dub.
The puritans—the Subbers—ruled the roost. Their argument was simple: You lose the soul. The Neapolitan dialect, the raw cadence, the spit and fury. Dubbing is for cartoons and spaghetti westerns from the 60s.
The other side—the Dubbists—was small, scattered, and frankly, embarrassed. They were people who multitasked while watching, or had poor eyesight, or simply couldn’t read fast enough to catch every twitch of a killer’s eye. They were the untouchables of the fandom. They would post a timid question—”Does anyone know where to find a better English dub?”—and be torn apart with GIFs of Ciro shaking his head in disgust.
Marco had always been a Subber. A proud one. He had personally written the subreddit’s pinned post: “Subtitles are non-negotiable.”
But then his father got sick.
He moved back to his childhood home in Jersey to help his mom care for the old man. His father, Tony, had been a tough guy in his own way—a retired longshoreman, built like a fire hydrant, who hadn’t watched a foreign film in his life. He liked John Wayne and old Sinatra flicks. During the long, quiet evenings of chemo and morphine drips, Tony couldn’t sleep. The pain was a constant, low thrum.
“Put on one of your shows,” Tony grunted one night, his eyes half-closed.
Marco queued up Gomorrah. Season 1, Episode 1. Subtitles on.
After thirty seconds, Tony said, “What is this, a book? I can’t read that fast. My eyes are shot. And turn off that gibberish.”
Marco sighed. He went into the audio settings. He scrolled past Italian (Original), past Italian (Descriptive), and landed on English (Dubbed). He braced himself for the cheese.
He pressed play.
The familiar opening shot of the tanning salon massacre began. The English voice of the assassin said, “Get down on the ground.” Marco cringed. It was flat. Lifeless. But his father didn’t cringe. His father watched.
For the next three hours, they sat in silence. Tony didn’t complain about the voices. He didn’t ask who anyone was. He just watched. When Ciro betrayed his mentor, Tony let out a low whistle. When Genny got his hands dirty for the first time, Tony muttered, “That’s how you do it.”
When the episode ended, Tony looked at his son. His face was pale, exhausted, but there was a spark Marco hadn’t seen in months.
“That’s better than The Sopranos,” Tony said. “Those guys are animals. Real animals. Put on the next one.”
Marco was stunned. He had spent years arguing about authenticity, about dialect, about the director’s intent. And none of it mattered. Because his father wasn’t analyzing art. He was connecting with it. The flat dub, the mismatched lip-flaps, the cartoonish voices—they were a bridge, not a barrier.
Over the next two weeks, they watched all four seasons. Tony never learned to pronounce “Ciro” correctly (he called him “Sigh-ro”), and he was convinced that Patrizia was secretly an undercover cop despite all evidence to the contrary. But he asked questions. He cheered for the betrayals. He wept silently when Enzo’s sister was killed.
The night they finished the final episode, Tony took Marco’s hand. His grip was still strong.
“Don’t let your mother sell the house to that cousin of hers,” he said. “He’s a fuckin’ snake. You saw what happened to Genny.”
Marco laughed. “I saw, Dad.”
Tony died three days later. Peacefully, in his sleep.
At the funeral, Marco’s phone buzzed. It was a notification from r/Gomorrah: “Hot take: The English dub isn’t THAT bad if you’re doing chores.”
A year later, Marco logged back into his moderator account. He unpinned the old “Subtitles are non-negotiable” post. He wrote a new one. It was short.
It read: “The best version of Gomorrah is the one that lets you watch it with someone you love. If that’s the dub, then the dub is better.”
The comments exploded. Purists called him a traitor. A few Dubbists, emboldened, posted tearful thanks. One user, with the handle u/FrankieTheFixer, wrote: “My dad has Parkinson’s. His hands shake too much to use a remote for subtitles. Thank you.”
Marco didn’t reply. He just scrolled to Season 1, Episode 1 of Gomorrah, switched on the English dub, and watched the first ten minutes alone in his apartment. The voices were still flat. The lip-flaps still didn’t match. But for the first time, he didn’t hear bad dubbing.
He heard a story his father understood.
And that was better.
"watchable" for convenience, the overwhelming consensus among critics and long-time fans is that it significantly diminishes the show's quality. The Case for Subtitles (The Majority View)
Cultural Authenticity: Gomorrah is filmed primarily in Neapolitan, a dialect so distinct that even many Italians require subtitles to understand it. The raw, guttural nature of the original performances is central to the show's gritty realism.
Loss of Nuance: Viewers frequently report that the English dub "butchers" the dialogue, using voice actors who sound like "California chads" rather than hardened criminals from the outskirts of Naples.
Performance Integrity: Dubbing often strips away the emotional weight of the original actors' voices, which are integral to the character development of leads like Ciro and Genny. The Case for Dubbing (The Convenience View)
Accessibility: For viewers who find it difficult to watch the screen and read simultaneously, or those who multitask while watching, the dub provides a way to follow the complex plot without constant visual focus.
Action Focus: Proponents of dubbing argue it allows them to better appreciate the cinematography and fast-paced action sequences without being distracted by text at the bottom of the screen. Essay: The Sound of the Underground
I really recommend watching Gomorrah in Italian, with English subtitles
The first time Enzo heard the English dub of Gomorrah, he was lying on a stained mattress in a safe house in Scampia, a bullet still lodged two centimeters from his spine. His cousin, Ciro, had smuggled in a bootleg DVD from a Neapolitan who’d spent six months in Manchester. The cover read: Gomorrah – The Complete Series – English Dub – Superior Sound.
“Superior,” Enzo whispered, wincing as he sat up. “In what world?”
Ciro grinned, revealing a gold tooth. “In this one. Trust me.”
They pressed play. The screen filled with the familiar grey sprawl of the Secondigliano projects. But then—Pietro Savastano opened his mouth. And out came the voice of a middle-aged London gangster from a Guy Ritchie film, all glottal stops and theatrical menace.
“Listen to me, you slags,” the dub said, as Pietro stared down a rival clan. “This ’ere territory? It’s mine. And if anyone fancies a ruck, I’ll put ’em in the fookin’ dirt.”
Enzo blinked. Ciro was already laughing, a silent, shaking thing.
“It’s better,” Ciro said.
“You’re insane.”
But they kept watching. And something strange happened. When Genny, the soft-faced heir to the empire, spoke in the original Italian, he was a confused boy trying to be a wolf. In the English dub, his voice was a gravelly Birmingham thug who sounded like he’d already killed three men before breakfast.
“I’ll cut his eyes out and wear ’em as cufflinks,” Dub-Genny said, while Real-Genny on screen looked like he was about to cry.
Enzo found himself laughing. Not at the violence—he’d seen too much of that—but at the sheer, absurd improvement. The English voice actors had not simply translated the lines. They had reinterpreted them. They had injected a kind of working-class British poetry into the grim calculus of the Camorra.
The shootouts became more thrilling. The betrayals cut deeper. When Patrizia, the ambitious clan accountant, was cornered by the police, her English voice didn’t plead. It hissed:
“You think I’m scared of a cell? I’ve slept next to worse men than you. And I’ve buried the ones I didn’t like.”
Ciro paused the DVD. “You see? In Italian, she’s sad. In English, she’s a lion.”
Enzo touched his bandaged side. The bullet wound throbbed. Outside, a motorcycle engine revved—maybe nothing, maybe a message. But for the first time in weeks, he didn’t feel the weight of the war.
“Put it back on,” he said.
They watched through the night. When Ciro finally fell asleep, Enzo kept going. The English voices turned the horror into something operatic. The grim towers of Le Vele became the backdrop for a modern Macbeth, translated not into courtly verse but into pub-banter profanity.
By dawn, Enzo understood. The Italian Gomorrah was a documentary of his own life—too real, too close. The English dub was a myth. It gave the violence shape, the criminals wit, the betrayals a rhythm. It made him feel, for a few hours, like his world was a story, not a sentence.
The motorcycle outside returned. Three of them now. Enzo stood up slowly, picked up the pistol from under his pillow, and tucked the DVD into his jacket pocket.
He walked to the door, then looked back at Ciro’s sleeping form.
“The dub is better,” he whispered. “Because it lets me pretend I’m not here.”
He stepped outside. The morning light hit the graffiti. And somewhere in his pocket, the disc glinted—a little circle of English magic, waiting for the next safe house, the next bullet, the next night when the truth needed a new voice.
The debate over whether the English-dubbed version of (the series) is "better" is a provocative one, as it challenges the near-universal critical consensus that the original Neapolitan audio is essential to the show's soul. While most viewers and critics argue that dubbing "subverts" the immersion and performance of the actors, a deeper analysis reveals why a viewer might find the dubbed version a compelling, or even "better," alternative for specific reasons. The Case for the English Dub: A Functionalist Perspective
The primary argument for the English dub centers on cognitive load and visual focus. Gomorrah is a visually dense masterpiece, using the crumbling architecture of Scampia and subtle facial cues to tell its story.
Visual Dominance: Reading subtitles requires a constant split in attention. For some, the dub allows for a pure focus on the raw, direct, and violent cinematography without the distraction of text.
Accessibility and Multitasking: Some viewers find the dub more "watchable" because it allows them to follow the complex narrative while performing other tasks—a "functional" superiority that prioritizes story comprehension over linguistic purity. The Philosophical "Better": Universalizing the Myth
From a "glocal" perspective—transforming local realities into global ones—dubbing can be seen as an act of universalization.
Archetypal Crime Drama: By removing the specific, often impenetrable Neapolitan dialect (which even some Italians require subtitles to understand), the English dub strips away the "exotic" layer. This can make the power struggles of the Savastano clan feel more like a universal Shakespearean tragedy or a modern Greek myth.
Performance vs. Tone: While dubbing may lose the "stellar performance" of actors like Marco D'Amore, a high-quality dub can occasionally "save" a performance for an audience that doesn't understand the original nuances, providing a tonal consistency that matches their own cultural expectations of the crime genre. The Critical Counter-Point: The Loss of "Soul" When diving into the dark, gritty underworld of
8. A case for choice, not replacement
Arguing that an English dub is “better” doesn’t mean the Italian original is inferior. The original carries its own authenticity, musicality, and cultural texture. The English dub offers an alternative mode of experiencing the same story—one that may amplify immediacy, clarity, and enjoyment for specific viewers.
The Case AGAINST the English Dub (Why "Better" is Subjective)
2. Quality Analysis of the Dubbing
Unlike many "low-effort" dubs, the English localization for Gomorrah is generally considered high quality, though it faces unique challenges.
- Voice Acting: The voice actors employed are professionals (often distinct from the original Italian cast). They successfully convey the cold, ruthless nature of the Savastano clan and the street-level grit of the show. Ciro Di Marzio’s English voice actor, in particular, has been praised for capturing the character's menacing whisper.
- Script Adaptation: The translation team faced the difficult task of converting Neapolitan dialect and slang into English. They largely opted for a "hard-boiled," gritty style of English that mimics the rhythm of American gangster films (akin to The Wire or The Sopranos). This makes the dialogue feel punchy and aggressive, which enhances the viewing experience for English-speaking audiences.
- Lip-Sync and Timing: As with most dubbing, there are occasional moments of imperfect lip-syncing. However, the timing is generally tight enough that it does not break immersion for the average viewer.