I get very irritated with movies and TV shows over the issue of volume of the background music versus the volume of the dialogue. In Medici the dialogue is over powered by the background music at times. What's worse is the way the volume goes up in between periods of dialogue. Why do producers think they need loud music? I am continually adjusting the volume of the set upward in order to hear the dialogue and then down again when the music begins blaring. If I leave the volume up high enough that I can hear what the various characters are saying to each other, then the music which follows sometimes hurts my ears. Of course it is even worse when the commercials come on; the volume of commercials is significantly louder than the show. (The late adman Billy Mays was awful this way. He always began his commercials by shouting "Billy Mays Here for (name of product he was hawking)". If you had been watching a movie with soft dialogue with the volume up so you could hear it clearly, Billy's shouting could actually damage your hearing. He had a heart attack while on an airplane flight and died soon afterward. I was actually very glad to hear of his death.)

Do producers really think there is some benefit in changing the volume so much? If so they are badly mistaken.