TV
Fauda is back and I’m going to be up all night
The Israeli thriller is back for a second series, and Stephen Pollard's going to be up all night feeding his addiction
May 31, 2018 17:08
By, Stephen Pollard
1 min read
The Israeli thriller is back for a second series, and Stephen Pollard's going to be up all night feeding his addiction
May 31, 2018 17:08ByStephen Pollard, Stephen Pollard
There was a time when I thought Homeland was the most addictive programme on TV. And when I say addictive, I don’t just mean good, or that you’re hooked on the series.
I mean addictive.
In the way (so I’m told) that smack pushers give you the first hit for free, because they know that once you’ve had a taste you will simply do anything for the next one, so it was impossible once you’d seen the opening episode of the first series of Homeland not to be desperate for the rest.
But here’s the thing.
Homeland is like a piece of genteel sponge cake compared with Fauda. If you’re talking addictive TV, Fauda is in a league of its own.
You’re not just hooked after the first episode. You’re hooked after the first minute. And because it’s on Netflix, you can feed the addiction instantly.
When the first series of Fauda dropped on Netflix, back in 2016, I was told by friends to drop everything and watch it. I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to my JC colleagues, because I know that when I came into the office the next morning, I was spent. I think I watched the first five episodes back to back, deep, deep into the night — and only stopped when my eyes could physically not remain open any longer (I would have tried the Clockwork Orange technique with them if I could). And now, this will repeat itself again because Fauda’s second series is out, also on Netflix.
So: what is it? Crudely put, it’s the story of an Israeli special ops team working on the West Bank. And purely as a thriller, it’s simply brilliant. Nail-bitingly tense and with the sort of gritty realism that makes any plot seem so much more plausible – from the very first episode of the first series in which the (sort of) hero, Doron, is posting as a caterer at a West Bank wedding and attacks a Hamas gunman.
It’s also the first mention of Fauda — which means “chaos” in Arabic, which is indeed the watchword as well as the title of the series.
But it’s not just the tension and cliff hangers that make Fauda so wonderful. It’s the characters, all of whom are rounded and real. The Israelis are far from morally pure and the terrorists worry about their kids.
That authenticity is doubtless because its co-writers, Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz (who plays Doron) are, respectively, a renowned journalist specialising in Palestinian affairs and a former special forces soldier.
I must stop writing this now, because the knowledge that the second series is waiting to be watched means I can’t stay here a moment longer.
