I use the captions. What's funny is that if I miss something, oftentimes the caption people miss it too. My hearing isn't all that bad even after years of rock n roll, but I do have trouble sometimes for which I use captions.
Then again, sometimes the dialogue is so garbled nobody gets it.
If captions aren't your style, a good-quality set of headphones (not earplugs) would be a suggestion. What I love about my Bose is the ambient noise cancellation feature.. really amazing. Not sure if those come in a wireless version.