Transnational audiovisual remakes: Suits in Arabic as a case study

Abstract

This study compares and contrasts the English and adapted (remade) Arabic versions of the American series Suits 2011 in terms of cultural, religious, and ideological aspects. The researchers compiled a parallel comparable corpus extracted from both versions. Data analysis shows that there are several similarities and differences between the source and the target versions of Suits in terms of the cast, setting, opening and credits, daily life habits, morality, and social customs. The findings show that the Arabic version highly attends to the Muslim Arab cultural norms. Nevertheless, the Arabic version frequently contains unfamiliar and unacceptable behaviour to the Muslim Arab culture, such as smoking weed and trading drugs. In other words, there are some unexplained paradoxical changes made by the makers of the Arabic version, such as adding scenes to a few episodes similar to those that were deleted in previous episodes for cultural considerations. Due to the lack of consensus on what is and what is not suitable for the target Muslim Arab audience, this study recommends that media decision-makers in the Arab World compile a list of codes that can regulate the adaptations (remakes) of famous foreign shows into the Muslim Arab culture.