To think a lot of dramas these days are so visually dark they’re unwatchable?

[FinGizz]

I’ve checked all my settings on tv and they’re as bright as can go.

feeling so old now muttering but honestly is so difficult to see the action on the screen

Depends on your Telly. Def find that on our relatively new fancy Telly.

otoh watching same stuff on the iPad is fine.

Yanbu. I haven't even watched all the later Harry Potters yet as they're so gloomy.
Subtitles always on here too.

Yes! I find that I'm having to turn the brightness up on some dramas because they seem to be going on in complete darkness! When I watched 'The Tudors' I had to have maximum brightness on because everything was conducted by candle light. Also,I have to put the subtitles on EVERYTHING nowadays because so many actors mumble. Maybe it's just my age....

But less compelling, in the case of some shows lately.

Too true!

I am glad it isn’t just me. Numerous things I have sat here saying
I can’t bloody see what is happening!
Why do they do this???

Some of us have one (1) TV in total 😂

DH and I were watching the Witcher last night (s2e2, if anyone's interested), and commenting on how well-lit it was. A fight scene with lots of CGI, in a wintry candlelit gloomy castle hall, characters that are pretty monochrome in appearance, and we could see everything! It was wonderful 😂 You don't need to have blackovision to show the audience that the place is dark.

If you haven’t already I recommend reading the books. Much better! 😀

I might well do that, thanks.

Not RTFT, @FinGizz , but turn down/off your room lights.

It's making me give up on a lot of programmes.
I'm not keen on subtitles, often don't get enough time to read the subs and watch what's happening before the scene changes. Not to mention they're impossible for me to read when they're white against a light background.
I'm sure that about 30 years ago I read an article about a new TV was in production that you could set the sound to a limit and the music couldn't go above it.
Maybe I dreamt it, but I'd buy one if they came out!

YANBU. The trend for dark/overly graded TV shows is beyond tedious. I've got to the point where if I see a show has had all the colour wiped and a green/blue wash put on it, I'm immediately out (looking at you Ozark and Black Rabbit).
I particularly dislike it when its obvious they've shot on a bright sunny day but then grade it to the hilt to make it look moody. It's like they no longer trust the audience to get the tone of the show. I blame Scandi noir

Mumblecore drives me mad too but then I'm also hearing impaired so its an obvious bugbear and subtitles are always on. However, I am finding it harder to follow cinematic releases these days and I can't figure out if my hearing is getting worse or if there are more movies with mumbled dialogue. The loud music stings are awful and sometimes painful to experience.

Post prod people need to spend less time in dark rooms themselves and more time experiencing their mixes through regular TVs.

The loud music/quiet speech thing does my head in too. My kids have complained about gunfire when they're trying to sleep - normally I am pretty hot on turning the volume down ahead of an action scene, but sometimes I get taken by surprise.

Subtitles are invaluable here, not least because they often mention things I had no idea of. "Ominous creaking" or "approaching footsteps" - for this sort of thing I have usually not heard the sound at all, and the subs are a good clue. My hearing is by no means perfect, but good enough that when the volume is set so that I can hear speech, I ought to be able to hear this sort of background sound too. Why do they make it inaudible?

This issue is less of a problem when we watch films at my parents' house, but they have a fancy sound bar speaker that they can adjust to give more weight to speech, music, whatever. It's maddening that TV/film producers assume that everyone has that sort of technology as a minimum. We don't!

I was reading something the other day and they talked about changes in cameras. I can't remember the details, but it sounded like tech had gone backwards. I can believe too that a better TV would help, but it makes no sense that I can't see things on a 32" or 40" ten year old TV - they are still vastly superior to the old tiny CRTs! And we could see on them. Why assume everyone has a massive TV? It's as illogical as assuming all people accessing your website are using a laptop and we don't do that.

Same with sound; I don't like lots of bass and surround sound. It's distracting. TV speakers should be fine.

I know exactly where you are coming from re dialogue and music but I don’t have a fleeing cat.
I too am fed up of it.
Why are tv executives not listening to their audiences ?

Maybe they can't hear us over the soundtrack