TV review: Unchained

Yet rather than dwell on the misery of agunot, the creators of this absorbing show focus on one Rabbi Yosef Morad (Aviv Alush), a fixer who cajoles, persuades and, as happens in one episode, breaks the bones of stubborn men who refuse to release the woman in their lives. It is pretty clear where the sympathies of writer Joseph Madmony lie.

Morad is a kosher detective who puts the private i into rabbi. Yet it is his own marriage that becomes the intriguing centre of this show’s intricately woven plot.

Morad and his wife Hana have been trying for a first baby for four years. Their devotion is eroded by the pressure of the situation and especially by Hana’s father, who offers advice that invokes talmudic obligation when it comes to conception. Possibly not the most helpful form of foreplay.

Meanwhile Morad uses his spying skill on Hana as much out of curiosity as suspicion. It reveals that Hana does indeed have a hidden life, or at least a life that is richer than is considered seemly for a dutiful Orthodox wife.

The thrill of Unchained is not the conflict between spouses or the fiery confrontations between Morad and men who abuse their power, but unexpectedly from the slow-burn depiction of Morad and Hana’s marriage; the mystery of their secret lives and their own bid for freedom.