Fauda

1 episode in, we were bored.

It's not a show that would appeal to many DLers, but it gets top scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

It's a thriller with lots of violence and tension and since the dialog is in Hebrew and Arabic, it's all subtitled.

I like grim foreign shows and I've liked Israeli movies in the past. Fauda shill, can you tell us more about it?

I read good reviews and decided to give it a shot and ended up getting hooked on it. It is rather even handed, given that it portrays the conflict from he side of the members of a special antiterrorist unit of IDF. On the shallow side, the men are really hot (I'd love to do dirty things to Lior Raz.)

bump

I am checking it out. The premise and story are interesting but it suffers from the formulaic characterization that you get in all Netflix series: a flawed hero with a troubled marriage who is driven to do blah blah. I like watching foreign shows and films because they are less likely to hew to that American formula... except the ones Netflix picks up. Sacred Games also had this problem.

Sacred Games was pretty honest to the book. Fauda, too, is well written and mounted. The guys are HOT and swarthy! Very masculine. The show at least attempts to view the conflict from both sides - Israeli and Palestinian. I don't expect most of DL to like it, let alone view it. Its not a Rom-Com from a US based studio that churns out formulaic shit in every episode a la Big Bang! Or derails in one season like Homeland did. (btw, that too was based on an Israeli series).

OK I am now almost finished with Season 3. The story arc of Walid and Shirin was very interesting. But as the series goes on, all you see are men behaving heroically and women crying and deceiving said heroic men. Also the series frames the conflict in personal terms and ignores the bigger issues and the realities of life in Palestine. Season 3 is very silly.

But overall, I am glad I've watched it and I will watch more Israeli series.

I thought Sacred Games would have been a lot better if they had cut out most of the mystical story. It did not interest me at all. That said, I might read the book.

I agree with everything you said R7, especially about the tastes of the average DLer

R8 - two Israeli series on Netflix/Amazon you might like are Shtisel and Srugim.

The show that became Homeland, Hatufim (It may be called "Prisoners of War" is on Hulu and Amazon.

Thanks r9. I will try those shows.

I know a ton of people who are obsessed with this show.

I will give them a try.

Those guys in Fauda, so HOT!!!!