TV TIME: FUN ON THE SMALL SCREEN

While there are many films and television series still available marking the second anniversary of the outbreak of the war, if you want some escapism, that can be found as well.

Netflix has recently added a new Israeli film, Moshe Rosenthal’s Karaoke, a 2022 dramedy that features wonderful performances from a trio of Israel’s best actors. Sasson Gabay and Rita Shukrun won Ophir Awards for playing Meir and Tova, respectively, a couple who are a little lost in the fancy high-rise in a Tel Aviv suburb they live in, after their much less fashionable home was redone in an urban renewal program.

Meir is a teacher nearing retirement, while Tova has a store at a mall she doesn’t seem to spend much time in, and they are as bored with each other as they are with the rest of their lives. When a new neighbor, Itzik (Lior Ashkenazi), moves in, both are instantly drawn to him. He seems to have money, but more than that, he is seductive and charming, moving in a circle of what seems to them like demi-celebrities whom they long to join. Ashkenazi was born to play this sexy outsider who brings color to their lives but may threaten their relationship.

IF YOU like Gabay, one of Israel’s most celebrated actors, you can also watch one of his best performances, in The Band’s Visit by Eran Kolirin, which is also available on Netflix, and it’s one of the most purely enjoyable films in the history of Israeli cinema. The movie, which won 46 awards all around the world, including eight Ophirs, tells the story of an Egyptian police orchestra that gets lost on the way to a concert and has to spend the night in a small town in the Negev, where the conductor (Gabay), connects with the woman (Ronit Elkabetz, who was never better, which is saying something) who is hosting him.

It’s romantic and also has a small-town comedy vibe reminiscent of many British movies. Watching it, you won’t be surprised that it was made into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, and, like Karaoke, it has subtitles in English as well as Hebrew on Netflix.

Yes Iconic

YES IS creating a new channel, Yes Iconic, on its VOD platform, which will feature many of the best series of the past 25 years, both comedies and dramas. These include The Good Wife, which has a great premise: It’s a look at what it’s like to be that wife standing by her philandering husband at his press conference after he’s been caught. Julianna Margulies was compelling in the role of a woman getting her life back on track by going back to work as a lawyer.

Chris Noth of Law & Order co-starred as her husband, and the series also featured Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Alan Cumming, Jerry Adler, and Archie Panjabi as the mysterious detective, Kalinda. One supporting character, the quirky attorney, Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), eventually got a spinoff, but her appearances on The Good Wife are better written than anything on her series, Elsbeth, which is also on Yes.

If you’re looking for comedy, there’s nothing better than 30 Rock, Tina Fey’s irreverent look at the staff of a late-night television show, starring Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, and Jane Krakowski. Among the series most iconic lines are these gems: “I want to go to there,” which was something Fey’s toddler actually said; “If reality TV has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t keep people with no shame down”; “Rich 50 is middle-class 38”; and “Never follow a hippie to a second location.” Guest stars on the show have included Carrie Fisher, Jerry Seinfeld, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Martin, Julianne Moore, and Jon Hamm as a very dumb doctor.

Other series available on Yes Iconic include Mad Men, Dexter, and Weeds.

THE NEW SEASON of Only Murders in the Building on Disney+ is also good if you just want to watch something fun and not terribly realistic. The fifth season sticks pretty much to the show’s formula – at the end of the last season, Lester (Teddy Coluca) the beloved doorman, was found murdered in the building’s fountain, just as Oliver (Martin Short) was about to marry Loretta (Meryl Streep), and now Oliver and his co-podcasters, Charles (Steve Martin) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) set about solving the crime.

This season starts out being about a mob family led by Bobby Canavale, and while the trio of sleuths starts out being sure that he and his sons had something to do with Lester’s death, it turns out that the younger generation of wise guys are more interested in their podcast on mafia history than in the family business. More suspicious are a trio of billionaires who become involved with the building, played by Christoph Waltz of Inglourious Basterds fame, Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones), and Logan Lerman (We Were the Lucky Ones).

Most of all, the series is about New York life, and it can still be described as Seinfeld with murder. It’s best in the scenes that focus on the delicate ecosystem of a New York apartment building, the home of eccentric, constantly feuding tenants, ruled over in some ways by its doormen.

IF YOU’RE in the mood for a suspenseful drama on an offbeat subject, try Wayward on Netflix, which is about a Vermont town with a school for difficult teens that has become a kind of abusive cult. It’s based on the true stories of many such facilities that operated in the US over the past 30 or so years with impunity until the abuse was brought to light.

Created by Mae Martin, who stars as Alex, a young police officer just joining the force in Tall Pines, the fictional town, and starts investigating some strange events connected to the school there. It plays like a combination of The Handmaid’s Tale and Schitt’s Creek, but as strange as that might sound, it works. Toni Collette is both charismatic and creepy as the head of the school.

2025-10-11T22:31:35Z