Israel-Hamas war: Comedy to enjoy for wartime gallows humor

Although creating comedy these days might seem like mission impossible, Jews have a rich tradition of gallows humor, and Israeli comedians have stepped up to do what they can to raise morale.

Eretz Nehederet, which has been called the Israeli Saturday Night Live, has aired a number of shows since the war began, and these have yielded some surprisingly funny sketches, several of which have gone viral: one that spoofed the BBC coverage of the war, and another that poked fun at Hamas’s useful idiots on US college campuses.

KAN 11 is featuring a new show, Stand-up Squad, which airs on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. (or later, depending on the news) and features a number of Israeli stand-ups performing at Home Front Command bases for soldiers, staff, and rescue workers.

The participating comedians are Uri Gottlieb, Hen Mizrahi, Guy Adler, Hadar Levi, Assaf Mor Yosef, and Eli Habib.

Most of the jokes are specifically focused on life on Israel during the war. For example, Gottlieb, who lives in Pardess Hanna, claims he goes to his bomb shelter every time he hears the jackals howling, and stays inside until 10 minutes after he hears the boom of the garbage can lid closing on them – you have to live here to get it.

But the series is about more than just getting laughs. It’s also about showing appreciation to those who are fighting and working to help civilian life continue, and about finding a way to move forward in the face of great sorrow. If you can’t see it when it airs, it is available afterward on kan.org.il

Israeli movies, series, documentaries made accessible for people with disabilities

To mark International Day for People with Disabilities earlier this week, Yes launched a new content library for people with special needs that will be available throughout December. It includes hundreds of hours of movies, series, and documentaries that will be accessible to the visually impaired through a special soundtrack that describes the action, and to the hearing impaired through sign language.

Besides making all kinds of content from Israel and around the world accessible, this library will focus on movies and television about people with disabilities. Some of the highlights include the acclaimed Yes comedy-drama series On the Spectrum, about a group home for young adults on the autism spectrum (which was remade in the US under the title As They See Us); Autism: The Musical, a documentary about five children on the spectrum participating in a musical production; and Not a Hero, a documentary about a young man confined to a wheelchair who fights to realize his dream of enlisting in the IDF. Details are available via the Yes website.

If there were a prize for twists per episode, the new series Rabbit Hole, with Kiefer Sutherland, currently airing on Hot and Yes, would win. About every two scenes, the rug is yanked out from under the audience, and we suddenly realize we did not understand who was working for whom and who can be trusted.

Sutherland channels a tamer Jack Bauer from his 24 days, although now his character is named John Weir. Weir is a private security consultant in New York involved in schemes and deals that would make a Christopher Nolan movie look straightforward.

While at times it’s fun watching him double-cross bad guys – or guys we think at first are bad – it was hard to care about him or his crew. Die-hard Sutherland fans will enjoy this the most, although some will probably choose to watch 24 again instead.

SEASON THREE of Slow Horses is back on Apple TV+ and not a moment too soon. This is the series that stars Gary Oldman and is based on Mick Herron’s best-selling novels about MI5 rejects who are sent to a unit where they are meant to keep out of the way, but who keep finding themselves at the center of espionage schemes.

The good news is that the third season is at least as engaging as the previous ones, and in many ways is the best yet. Apple is releasing the season two episodes a week, but the full season was given to press and I binged all six as quickly as possible, the best and most sincere compliment I can give to any series.

If you haven’t seen the earlier seasons, don’t jump in at the third season, but go back to the beginning, so you get a sense of the full history and backstory of each character.

Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, the leader of the Slough House unit, whom he enjoys calling his “slow horses,” and he is selfish, lazy, disgusting, mean, drunken, and gluttonous, as well as wickedly funny and brilliant, making him the most watchable hero currently on television.

Saskia Reeves plays his long-suffering secretary, Catherine Standish, and her role is expanded this season, which is very welcome.

The rest of the crew is back from previous seasons, with the exception of perhaps the most likable one of all, who didn’t make it through the last season. River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) get the most screen time this season, and Kristen Scott Thomas (The English Patient) also returns as the relentlessly careerist top MI5 official who is Lamb’s frenemy. Jonathan Pryce of Game of Thrones and Brazil is back as Cartwright’s grandfather, formerly the head of MI5.

The whole thing is Le Carré lite, and it turns out that’s an idea that works well. There is a lot of wit in the series, but what it has that is most important is genuine suspense, the key element in all espionage drama, but one that has been sorely lacking in the cookie-cutter spy dramas released this year on various platforms, including Liaison and The Recruit. If you start Slow Horses, I predict you will stick with it to the end.

THE WHITNEY HOUSTON biopic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, has just become available for streaming on Netflix and it’s also on Yes VOD. It was directed by Kasi Lemmons, who made the very underrated 1997 drama Eve’s Bayou, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Jurnee Smollet.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody stars Naomi Ackie in the title role. Ackie is quite good in the role, and her speaking voice sounds much like Houston’s.

Stanley Tucci plays Clive Davis, the record executive who discovered Houston as a teenager and made her a star, but couldn’t help her shake her drug addiction in time. Clarke Peters, who was Lester on The Wire, plays her father.

It’s a standard biopic and tries hard to be upbeat, but Houston had such a tragic life that you may want to watch it till about the middle and then just turn it off.

Most rom-coms are told from the female point of view, but (500) Days of Summer, which is available on Disney+ (available on its own or through Yes), is a rare and worthwhile exception.

Directed by Marc Webb, this inventive 2009 film is about Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who has put his dreams of being an architect on hold and taken a job at a greeting-card company, where he meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel). He falls head over heels for her and she reciprocates, but things don’t go so smoothly.

Without being at all preachy, this movie shows what sensitive men go through when they fall in love, and how women can be unaware of all their turmoil. The movie manages to be both engaging and funny as it tells Tom’s story.