Linguistic variation in Netflix’s English dubs: memetic translation of Galician-Spanish series Fariña (Cocaine Coast)

In 2017, the mainstream English dubbing industry took off, pioneered by Netflix, the subscription video-on-demand service giant, via dubbing studios in Los Angeles and London which were outsourced to create English-language dubs of foreign —and often Netflix— originals. After successfully introducing a new mode of mainstream audiovisual translation into the Anglosphere, whose population had traditionally been accustomed to subtitles, by 2018 experimental dubbing strategies emerged in the US dubs of Spanish, Danish, and German series. In the English dub of Fariña, Cocaine Coast, a Spanish series set in Galicia, a cast of Spanish, Latin American, and Hispanic American voice actors and actresses render a medley of Hispanic accents in the English dubbed version. This chapter analyses the foreignising dubbing strategy employed in Cocaine Coast as a means of memetic translation: a translation process, which inherently requires change, that uses linguistic variation to convey connotations of cultural identity. Special attention is paid to the nuances between Galician and Galician Spanish and the translation strategies applied to both. Industry insights are provided by voice talents of the series, which shed more light on strategy shots and accent renditions behind the scenes. This dubbing strategy is further considered in relation to the psychology of consuming dubbed texts, as concerns, diegesis, ‘the dubbing effect’ (Romero-Fresco 2020: 31) and the ‘suspension of linguistic disbelief’ (Romero-Fresco 2009: 49).