Israel-Hamas War: Israeli sitcom pays tribute to staffer killed in Gaza

Since the war began, comedy writers and actors have been struggling to figure out how to make us laugh. The cast and crew of the popular sitcom Checkout came up with a special episode called “Iron Checkout” – a reference to the official name for the war, Swords of Iron – which aired after the news on Monday and is currently available on the KAN website at kan.org.il

This episode features the characters and customers of the Yavne branch of the Shefa Issachar supermarket chain, in its usual mockumentary format, only now, it’s wartime. Shira (Noa Kohler), the bossy, relentlessly positive assistant manager, drives them all – but especially cashier Kochava (Keren Mor) – crazy with her special relaxation exercises and supposedly cute puppet when they are forced to flee to the bomb shelter. The normally lazy Kochava gets motivated to make a run to a shelter at a nearby hi-tech company where she is told they all have on headphones and no one asks them about their feelings or sings.

The normally exemplary Shira acquires a huge quantity of tomatoes at a good price from Turkey, but then gets in trouble with Avichai (Yigal Adika), the manager. It turns out that, due to a “Buy Israeli” campaign spearheaded by the imperious Shuni (Dorit Lev Ari), Avichai insists on selling only locally grown produce, and Shira is forced to make the Turkish tomatoes look like Israeli ones.

The two elderly gentlemen on the show, a customer (Dov Navon) and a guard (Yaakov Bodo), both get involved in local security in unexpected ways. But the comic highlight and the show’s most outrageous joke come when Ramzi (Amir Shurush) takes it upon himself to go underground to get rid of rats plaguing the supermarket. This causes havoc when a customer hears him underground, singing to the rats in Arabic like a Middle Eastern pied piper, and thinks terrorists are tunneling under Shefa Issachar.

Fans of the show will love seeing the Shefa family as it copes with the war, but while you’re still laughing from the hijinks, a sobering title comes up at the end: The episode is dedicated to the memory of Shay Termin. Termin, 26, a production assistant on the series, was killed fighting in Gaza (sadly, in a friendly fire incident) in December. The series creators released a statement paying tribute to Termin, saying, “Our Shay is gone. Such a beloved production assistant, always hardworking, always with a humble smile, never complaining, the first to arrive and the last to leave, and of course the gorgeous guy of the production crew. You will always be a part of the Checkout family, a great soul like you.”

Comedy, drama, and documentary: What's new to watch on TV in Israel?

IF YOU’RE looking for more comedy, and I know that many people are these days, you can rent or buy the classic Marx Brothers’ movie Duck Soup on Apple TV+. Directed by Leo McCarey, who also made The Awful Truth, it’s the only Marx Brothers movie that isn’t weighed down by some creaky, dated romantic subplot. Instead, it goes full lunacy with Groucho as Rufus T. Firefly, a lazy, wisecracking guy who becomes the president of Freedonia, which goes to war with its neighbor. Harpo and Chico are his two spies.

The movie features many jokes about corrupt and inept governments, so there’s that, and, like all Marx Brothers movies, it features a level of clever, sophisticated rapid-fire dialogue that is unknown in movies today, filled with puns and clever asides. There is also a wealth of visual comedy, mostly courtesy of Harpo, and there is the elaborate mirror sequence that is a high point of their on-screen work. If you can get your kids to sit down and watch this with you, you may be amazed by how much they enjoy this 91-year-old movie.

IT’S CALLED Berlin, but the new Netflix series, a prequel to Money Heist, is set in Paris. There, a kinder, gentler Andrés, aka Berlin (Pedro Alonso), now a debonair James Bond-type who doesn’t much resemble the nearly heartless semi-psychopath of the bank-caper series, is leading his own band of thieves in what is basically a garden-variety jewel heist, with a few twists.

There is a vault where the $40-plus million-dollar jewels will be stashed soon, and this means that they have to do 24/7 surveillance on a gorgeous couple. The husband (Julien Paschal) owns an auction house that will be selling the jewels, while the wife (Samantha Siqueiros) is a free-spirited beauty. Berlin, recovering from the breakup of his third marriage, falls head over heels in love with her, naturally.

It’s really all about eye candy and daredevil car chases and stunts, with Alonso rocking a tuxedo at one point. The crew, unlike the bank robbers in Money Heist, is pretty generic, and its members don’t take the names of cities, which was a nice gimmick. There is a nerdy female computer whiz, a hunky guy who falls for her, a vaguely troubled young man, and a wild, mentally unstable girl who is supposedly learning the game but really seems to have what it takes more than anyone – except that she’s reckless. Damien (Tristan Ulloa) is the older guy who’s a bit like the Professor in Money Heist.

Everything and everyone look so great that it might take a few episodes for you to notice that not much of interest is actually taking place, and there are only a couple of really suspenseful scenes toward the end.

Police investigators Raquel (Itziar Ituno) and Alicia (Najwa Nimri) from Money Heist are back for a couple of episodes. But what Berlin lacks is the raison d’etre of Money Heist – the righteous anger over the state controlling so much wealth, and the truly clever if outlandish plan, which is replaced here by a simply outlandish one. Everyone Berlin and his crew meet in Paris just happens to speak Spanish, and it occurred to me, watching the movie, that one of the advantages of the international offerings on streaming services is that inane dialogue sounds better if it’s spoken in a language you don’t understand.

IF YOU want something more down to earth, try the documentary The Samaritans: A Biblical People, which will be showing on January 7 on Hot 8 at 9:15 p.m.

There are only 850 souls in the Samaritan community in Israel, who are fiercely loyal to their interpretation of the Torah. The movie looks at their religious beliefs and rituals, but also at other aspects of their daily lives, like the role of women in the community, how the young people choose a mate out of such a small pool, and how the leaders choose their successors.

The filmmakers spent years documenting their lives, and the movie is a fascinating glimpse into their world.