Karamo Brown wants to talk about this issue that makes Queer Eye hard to watch for deaf fans
Queer Eye star Karamo Brown has backed deaf fans of the show who have complaining about poor subtitling on Netflix.
Deaf and hard-of-hearing Queer Eye fans have been noticing something strange about Netflix’s subtitling: they’re often censored, or changed from what’s actually being said.
After complaints on social media, the Fab Five’s Karamo pledged to get the streaming service to improve its access to the show.
He tweeted on Thursday: “Reading everyone’s comments breaks my heart. I don’t know how much power I have but know, the next time I’m at Netflix I’m going to bring up this issue internally & won’t stop until something changes.
“Deaf & HOH people should have the same experience as everyone else!”
One fan complained: “I really wish Netflix captions for Queer Eye 2 weren’t bleeping profanity AND changing the profanity used in the captions. It’s really not awesome.”
While another added: “It’s censorship and it’s patronizing, it should read exactly as what anyone is hearing, that’s it, end of story. It’s wrong for so many reasons.
“This is true for any close-captioning on any channel or program. Get it together Netflix.”
Netflix has since said that it will seek to improve subtitling on the show, a move that the Queer Eye star – the show’s culture expert – welcomed.
It told viewers: “We’ve heard about the caption issues on the service, specifically for Queer Eye. After looking into it, there’s lots of dialogue missing from the Fab 5 that shouldn’t be.
We’re fixing it. In some cases, we do bleep incidental profanity from our unscripted series.
The streaming service added: “Delivering a great experience to our deaf and hard of hearing members is very important to us.
“We’ve also heard from fans about a similar concern in Marvel’s Luke Cage season 2 — we’re looking into this now.”
The hugely popular makeover show features five gay men giving lifestyle advice for people who want to make a change.
The show’s other stars are Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Bobby Berk and Johnathan Van Ness.
The second season premiered on Netflix this month and includes makeovers of a trans man, a woman who survived cancer and a young college student.