Subreddit for Maxton Hall: The World Between Us on Amazon Prime Video. When Ruby unwillingly witnesses an explosive secret at Maxton Hall Private School, arrogant millionaire heir James Beaufort is forced to confront the quick-witted scholarship student, much to his chagrin: He is determined to silence Ruby. Their passionate exchange of blows surprisingly ignites a spark.
Question
Just watched the first episode, then read about the show on IMDB. It says it’s a German language show, it appears to be set in Germany, and all the actors appear to be German language actors, so why do all the characters have English names?
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I just realized that didn't really answer your question though. The book, while written in German, takes place in England. Thus the English names.
That is odd, like an English author writing a novel about German people in Germany. You would think that author would make a lot of cultural mistakes and the story wouldn’t feel culturally authentic to German people.
Anyway, I knew they were trying to get to Oxford but I assumed that Maxton Hall was in Germany, I guess because it was a German-language show. If Maxton Hall is in England, I suppose it would make sense that so many of the characters would have English names.
It's pretty common with German books. I believe that for German readers, books are more attractive and exciting if the book plays in England or the USA. Maybe because sometimes Germany feels pretty boring.
I find this so interesting.
I guess it feels more international and fancy? :D
Yes, I believe that for Germans, every country that isn't Germany is exciting :D especially England and the USA are pretty romanticised by children and teens.
I read a saying, "Maturing is realising that you don't want to live in the USA," and there's a lot of truth in it. Because as you get older you realise the amount of problems they have.
Indeed 😅
Same, I was confused as hell in episode 3 when he said they would drive her to the dresses thing in London. Like driving from Germany to London??? It's gonna take days. But a lot of Hispanic authors have their book written in Spanish and the characters with English names living in like New York or UK so I've seen it before
me too. for some reason i thought that maybe they took the underwater train thats between france and uk.
So you’re saying unless the author is a native of the country they are writing about, they shouldn’t be writing about it? Research exists, otherwise history books shouldn’t be written by anybody who didn’t have first experience of the events/people they are writing about
Not at all, the author is free to write about whatever she wishes, but the more distant the culture from the author’s own, the harder it is to write in a way that feels authentic. I could write a book set in Peru, even though I’ve never been to Peru (or any South American country) and have no Peruvian friends or relatives, and don’t speak Spanish. But, no matter how much research I did, native Peruvians would likely be able to spot things about the book that don’t feel authentic to a Peruvian. Fortunately, this book is a romance, not a novel about society in general, and German culture isn’t all that different from English culture about this sort of thing, so it’s not a big deal, it’s just noticeable.
I don't think it's like that. It's just that, if all the characters are speaking German to each other, it's only natural to think they're all in Germany. It's a bit of a mind whack when you figure out they're actually all in England.
I wondered if perhaps this was an alternate history story where the Germans beat the British in WW2 and everyone in Britain switched to speaking German.
It’s literally standard in Germany to dub everything into German, so having characters in whatever location outside of Germany ‘speaking’ German is not unusual whatsoever. So actually it isn’t out of whack at all
Believe me I thought the same as you did and I was like how can they go to London so easily by car lol
English speaking authors do that all the time though. Maybe not with German specifically, but it's not uncommon to set a novel in a non-English speaking country and/or to have non-English speaking characters.
Not attacking, but Americans do this in the reverse all the time.
Memoirs of a Geisha for example is an American film about a story in Japan that is in English.
Moana, a story set in Polynesian culture in English.
Anna Karenina a Russian story, set in Russia, produced with Keira knightly in English.
There’s nothing different from Germans making a film about the English in German.
I was wondering why they had such British names in the first place
Amazon Prime dubbed the show in English. They're actually speaking German but prime for whatever reason, at this time, is only making it available dubbed. I wanted to watch in the original language but it's giving no options except English for language selection.
It has now been updated. You can watch in German 😀
I’m watching it in German. I don’t speak German but I like to watch shows in their original language. They had it set to English by default but I changed it to German with English subtitles.
I 100% prefer to watch any movie or TV show in the original language with subtitles!! Imo the acting and emotions are better portrayed when listening in the original language of the film or show!
I agree with this. I watched a Polish show on Netflix recently. The English voice-over actor had a very different voice to the on-screen actor and came across as very whiny. When I switched to the original soundtrack, with English subtitles, my impression of the character changed a lot.
I do this as well as the original voices of the characters are often so much better than any dub version. I am German and I am very happy that this time I can listen to their original voices in my native language. I tried and switched to English and it was hard to listen. This didn’t feel authentic anymore
How can you watch it in German? I'm not seeing g tjat as an option
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Thanks!
Oh my god thank you…. I was going insane trying to find the word German.
I also don’t see German as an option. Were you able to find it?
it doesn’t necessarily say “german” but it actually says “Deutsch”! hope that helps!
i can’t find it in german still? maybe it’s for certain countries who have prime, usa seems to not 😔
which is weird because i loved amazons series of “we children from bahnhof zoo” (Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) and they had original german audio with English sub (as well as English dub)
I just got it to work here in the US. You hit “Deutsch” for audio and languages and then English for subtitles😇
Thank you! I prefer to not watch a dub, but it doesn’t say which language it’s being performed in! so I didn’t even know what to change it to like 😭😭
I watched it in German, too with the subtitles. I preferred the original performances. The dubbed voices are a bit unemotional compared to the intensity of the real actors
I like to watch with subtitles in the og language but German doesn’t show for me
I agree with you on this one. I just cannot watch films in dubbing I feel like it's just lacks something. Hopefully the original audio is available then I'll be watching it. Till then to the next one. 🥲
Anyone else noticed that even though everyone is technically speaking German, all the items they show (books, signs, calendars, etc.) are written in English?
Yes! But the texts are in German. It's a mess!
I find it so odd that the only thing German about the show is the language all characters (even the ones at Oxford) speak. Everything else is in English/is British. Why not just film the show in English with English actors?
I remember reading several years ago about how, after the success of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Scandinavian crime fiction writers wondered whether they, too, might find success in the English-speaking world. I think one of them said that their characters still had Swedish names, but the sort of Swedish names that would be more easily pronounced by English speakers. I can see taking a few steps like that, especially because the Scandinavian countries aren't that populous. But the German-speaking world is much larger (though not so large as the English-speaking world of course), so writing a German series, set in England, where everyone has English names, but speaks German, looks both unnecessary and odd. It sort of reminds me of that American movie about Nazi Germany that came out years ago and got a lot of flack because all the Germans spoke English with American accents.
I don't mind the show being in German, and I still watch the series in German, with English subtitles, because I like to hear the original language even if I don't speak it. But I wonder if German writers (or maybe this genre of writer, or maybe this specific writer) is selling Germany a bit short in assuming that people will be less interested if it's set in Germany instead of England. I'd still have watched the show if it were set in Germany and all the characters had German names.
Yes, you’re totally right. I would’ve watched it regardless. But the way it is now seems very… surreal? Like, we’re supposed to believe that everyone just speaks German in Britain? At a world renowned British school? I wish it had taken place in Germany. It would have made a lot more sense and wouldn’t have left me with so many questions.
I know, that feels so odd.
But it is really common within Germany. I think it is kind of a cultural thing with us German guys. A story set in our neighbor city doesn’t feel very sexy, unless it is maybe Berlin… but as we all know our German cities and this is kind of „daily“ things, we want to experience something extra-ordinary… often another country feels like this… I would have watched it anyway, indeed, but the setting makes it even more special to a German audience (at least this is my personal impression)
I don’t necessarily think it’s because England is more exciting, it‘s rather that the trope wouldn’t work the same if this was set in Germany (source: I’m German). We have barely any private schools that are considered “elite” with only rich kids going there. We also don’t have that one singular elite university like Oxford.
Most of the richest families in Germany live very under the radar - things like press and scandals etc don’t really play a role here, not in the same way they do in the UK with the Sun and the Mirror. So Mortimer’s worry about image wouldn’t be a factor here (pressure for James to follow in his father’s footsteps, maybe, but even then, many of the family owned businesses have hired CEOs).
Also, in Germany the upper class doesn’t control the country like in the UK: most of UK politicians went from boarding schools to Oxbridge and studied PPE, which is what Ruby wants to do. In Germany, politicians have all sorts of different backgrounds and aren’t from the financial and educational elite.
Is there any free link where I can watch maxton hall without prime?
you can sign into prime for free for a month? But I dont think its avaible anywhere else yet
Ohhhh I see,thank you very much
You can use the flixer ! Completely free
Thanks!
I know it’s German but set in England, but why are the notifications rubys bullet journal and such in English? Is it not intended to be just for a German audience?
Why would it be in German if it's set in England? That's weird.
Anyone know what happens in the other 2 books , I’d quite like a synopsis and a happy ending to keep me going until prime decide whether or not to commission series 2&3?
i'm confused whether to watch it with german audio/esubs or english audio/esubs?
which is better?
Personally, I watch it in German with English subtitles but that's just my preference. German is pretty close to English, so dubbing doesn't generate a weird misalignment between the dialogue and the way the speaker's mouth is moving, like the dubbing in those old martial arts movies from the 1970s. But you can still notice a little of that if you look closely and I don't like seeing that.
English is dubbed. Watch in German to get the original experience. Just use English subs
I wouldn’t use English subs. Somehow the translation from German to English has been done in American English for the subs. But the characters speak very posh British. It’s so confusing watching the dubbed version with subtitles
The subtitles in English are missing and all over the place. Is this only available on prime?
Man it’s really bugging me that they’re German speaking kids traipsing all over London 😂