This series wasn't well liked by critics. It had a lot of characters-- little teams of characters, each with its own vibe and its own subplot relating it to the others. Some provided a sense of danger and suspense, some had sentimental appeal, one involved low humor. It was a huge amount of stuff to tie together, I salute the writer or writers responsible, but sometimes it was too much for me to keep track of. And while you can combine suspense and low humor, or sentimentality and low humor, or suspense and sentimentality, combining all three didn't work here. Maybe partly because the low humor was too extreme. The actor responsible for projecting that comedy, Neveh Tzur, is one of the finest that Israel has. But there wasn't much he could do with the role of a sex-obsessed dolt that seemed to be written in crayon.
Among the many other characters is a shady businessman from France who arrives in Israel with his wife. At one point, the script briefly has her wearing nothing but a towel. Here, the character seems to have originally been written as sort of a second-generation cliche-- the woman who, although at first you take her for a bimbo, turns out to be more formidable than you realize. But at some time during the production, someone had the even more politically correct idea of casting an actress who doesn't look like she's just out of high school and isn't built like a fashion model. The casting gives us a sense of a more mature relationship between the couple and adds to the story's appeal.
The series seems to have two anchors. One is the above-mentioned Neveh Tzur and his straight man Dolev Mesika, playing an immigrant from Moldova wants to make money in order to bring his mother over and serving as Abbott to Tzur's Costello; and Oz Zehavi as a dad who needs a particular strain of cannabis in order to control his daughter's epilepsy. That cannabis is the McGuffin-- the thing that everyone is chasing, and that draws police, gangsters, capitalists, and even religious scholars into the plot. Far be it from me to reveal how it all works out, but I must say that the ending isn't just some hasty lots-of-coffee-after-midnight job; it rewards attention to the entire story.
Among the many other characters is a shady businessman from France who arrives in Israel with his wife. At one point, the script briefly has her wearing nothing but a towel. Here, the character seems to have originally been written as sort of a second-generation cliche-- the woman who, although at first you take her for a bimbo, turns out to be more formidable than you realize. But at some time during the production, someone had the even more politically correct idea of casting an actress who doesn't look like she's just out of high school and isn't built like a fashion model. The casting gives us a sense of a more mature relationship between the couple and adds to the story's appeal.
The series seems to have two anchors. One is the above-mentioned Neveh Tzur and his straight man Dolev Mesika, playing an immigrant from Moldova wants to make money in order to bring his mother over and serving as Abbott to Tzur's Costello; and Oz Zehavi as a dad who needs a particular strain of cannabis in order to control his daughter's epilepsy. That cannabis is the McGuffin-- the thing that everyone is chasing, and that draws police, gangsters, capitalists, and even religious scholars into the plot. Far be it from me to reveal how it all works out, but I must say that the ending isn't just some hasty lots-of-coffee-after-midnight job; it rewards attention to the entire story.
