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Television Q&A: Why do dogs get barking mad at 'The Traitors'?

Rich Heldenfels, Tribune News Service on

Published in Entertainment News

You have questions. I have some answers.

Q: My wife and I started watching “The Traitors” but had to stop after two episodes. There is a whistle during the show that drives our two dogs crazy. They run around the house barking and howling. Sounds like a dog whistle. I wish they would eliminate it. Have any other dog owners complained? We loved watching the show.

A: You are not alone. Many dog owners have lamented sounds from the reality game, which is derived from a Dutch series. Complaints on Reddit go back years. For example: “Every time this high-pitched screeching sound came on, (our dog’s) eyes would get HUGE and she would start pawing at me furiously like she was in a panic. I had to turn it off and will have to watch the rest with headphones or something.” Pleas for the removal of the sound or modifying its tone have gone unheeded.

Q: Will there be a fifth season of “The Diplomat”?

A: No official word as I write this in mid October. But the What’s on Netflix site (whats-on-netflix.com) says renewal is likely. While it is expensive and ratings declined over the first three seasons, it is also the rare Netflix show that gets awards attention, reviews for the fourth season are “some of the best the show has ever received,” and “it would be a real shame for Netflix to leave things” after a huge Season-4-ending cliffhanger.

Q: I have a question about the dialogue on “MobLand.” How do the writers come up with the names/insults the characters use with each other? Do mobsters in England/Ireland really talk like that to each other?

 

A: Many of the expressions used in the show come from slang overseas, although at least one of those terms is used with such frequency (11 times in one episode) that it surprises even overseas viewers. Helen Coffey, writing in the Independent, tried to justify that: “These are professional criminals, I reasoned; a little potty-mouthed dialogue is par for the course when you’ve got a load of hardmen trying to out-hard each other while strutting around and flashing weaponry. Yet the repetition quickly became so frequent it began to feel a little… farcical." Ultimately, Coffey said, the show “has taken this most special of curses, in all its jagged, ugly elegance, and flogged it to death, diluting it through overexposure and robbing it of its muscle.”

Q: I must have been the only one who enjoyed the “Kath & Kim" series on NBC in 2008-2009. The American series was based on the Australian version but written and released in America with Molly Shannon as Kath and Selma Blair as Kim. All the actors were exceptional. I found the U.S. version to be more in line with American humor, and not as gross as the Australian series. I waited for years to find the U.S. show on TV or streaming. Is it true they may never release it?

A: Well, you weren’t the only viewer, since the mother-and-daughter comedy reportedly drew between 5 and 7 million viewers each week during its NBC run. But reviews were not good; Rotten Tomatoes has the show with just a 20% positive rating. Still, there is a DVD set; you can find it for sale on Amazon. Or maybe you can get your local library to spring for the 15 bucks and then borrow it.

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©2026 Tribune News Service. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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