'One Day in October,' real stories told: 'Rivals' and 'Disclaimer' twisted dramas

Sorry for Asking, the Kan 11 TV series where people ask the questions everyone wants to know the answers to, but few have the courage to ask, recently released an episode featuring released hostages answering questions, and it was sad and moving. It can still be seen on Kan.org.il.

These former hostages, many of whom still have family members held captive in Gaza, range from very young, like Erez Munder Zichri (the now 10-year-old who is excellent at Rubik’s cube and has recently become an official cube tester) and Ophir Engel, to much older, such as Louis Har, who was rescued by the IDF in February, to those in the middle, like Shani Goren, and Danielle Aloni, who was held with her young daughter.

Through their answers, they tell their stories little by little. The devil really is in the details here as they describe what their lives in captivity were like moment by moment. Many say they feel they are still there and will continue to feel that way until the rest of the hostages are released.

That’s a feeling shared by Sabine Tassa, a woman from Netiv Ha’Asara, whose husband, Gil, and older son, Or, were murdered on Oct. 7. Her story is the fourth and final episode of the series One Day in October, airing on Yes VOD and Sting+, which was just released.

This episode, called “Lumiere,” the French translation of her son’s name, is highly cinematic, which is a bit of a surprise considering how quickly this series was put together. Yael Abecassis plays Sabine, a woman who hides with one son in a house with heavy security features that likely saved their lives, not knowing what is happening to the rest of the family. Actual video clips of her dazed, wounded sons after their father threw himself on a grenade to protect them are interspersed with dramatized scenes from the family’s story, but there is no graphic violence shown.

The episode moves back and forth in time, between the day of the attack and a trip Sabine takes with her surviving children to Paris, where she is from, to tell her story to audiences and the media. Abecassis is a low-key but compelling actress, and this is the best performance of hers I’ve seen since her ditzy starlet turn in Tel Aviv Stories over 30 years ago.

She doesn’t have big scenes where she yells or screams, but you can sense her tension as she keeps herself together for the sake of her children. She projects Sabine’s courage and dignity, and the most moving moment comes when she tells the family’s story to a taxi driver of Arab descent.

American politics 

As we’re all well aware, the United States presidential election took place last week, and Hot 8 is offering some documentaries. There are several about the candidates, as well as one about porn star Stormy Daniels, whom President-elect Donald Trump paid to keep quiet about their affair.

If you really want to see something enlightening about US politics, you can watch Veep, the caustic satire on American politics, which will be available all week on Hot VOD. It stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the deliciously venal vice president, surrounded by scheming aides. This series is probably more faithful to the truth behind electoral politics – certainly to the spirit of politicians – than all the documentaries, and at least you can laugh while watching it.

British drama 

“Revenge is a dish best served on television,” says Tony Baddingham (David Tennant of Doctor Who and Broadchurch) on Rivals, currently available to stream on Disney+.

An adaptation of the bestselling novel by Jilly Cooper, it’s a very British and very enjoyable eight-part series. It plays like a wittier and sexier version of one of those night-time soaps that used to be so popular, such as Dynasty, mixed with a bit of Broadcast News and a little Bridget Jones and Brideshead Revisited thrown in (major stately home real-estate porn and some hunting scenes). If you read and loved the book, this series is for you. And even if you didn’t, this could be your next escapist binge.

It’s set in a fictional village in the mid-1980s. Baddingham is the insecure but very wealthy and ambitious owner of an up-and-coming television franchise that manages to hire the angry Irish-born BBC interviewer Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner). But they end up locking horns with each other and another rival, alpha male Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), a blue-blooded former show jumper who is now a member of parliament and a womanizer, whom Margaret Thatcher makes minister of sport. The three have shifting alliances and conflicts.

Other characters also play a significant part, including Declan’s wife and daughters; Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson), a romance novelist trapped in a loveless marriage; and an African-American woman producer (Nafessa Williams), who is as tough as any of the men.

There’s a lot of (often R-rated) sex, scheming, stately homes, politics, class-system critique, horses, dogs, gardens, drinking – and more sex. It’s full of the most awful 1980s outfits and hairstyles you’ll see anywhere outside of a 40-year-old MTV video. The soundtrack simmers with vintage pop tunes, such as “Jump for My Love,” “I Want to Know What Love Is,” and “Addicted to Love,” and it’s fun from beginning to end.

Oscar-winning lead

Disclaimer from Apple TV+ is the kind of well-acted, beautifully photographed, and twist-filled drama that is part of the reason why many people go out to the movies less these days. It was created by Alfonso Cuaron, the director best known for the films Roma, Gravity, and Y Tu Mama Tambien, all entertaining and intelligent movies, who has won the Best Director Oscar twice.

It stars another two-time Oscar winner, Cate Blanchett, as Catherine, a refined documentary filmmaker in London who seems to have it all. Her loving, hard-working husband, Robert (surprisingly, he is played by Sacha Baron Cohen, whom I didn’t recognize at first and who plays it as straight as he did in The Spy), runs a charitable foundation. There are indeed problems between her and her underachieving son, Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee, who was in The Power of the Dog), but things seem just about perfect.

Beneath the surface, though, something is not all right with her. At first, I thought this was going to be one of those stories about how people who seem wonderful are actually miserable once you get to know them. I like those as much as the next person, but this turns out to be more complicated and more interesting.

Two other stories are told starting from the first episode. One is about Stephen (Kevin Kline), a teacher who gets fired from an upscale boys’ school and finds he has time to clean up his apartment. He has neglected the place since his wife died nine years earlier of cancer, having spent most of her life broken-hearted after the death of their son. Kline always looks as if a joke amuses him, and he’ll only let us in if we’re nice to him. That expression of cynical amusement serves him well here.

The third story, which takes place about 20 years before the first two, is of a young man, Jonathan (Louis Partridge, who played Sid Vicious in Pistol), traveling through Italy, first with his girlfriend and then alone, when he meets a beautiful young mother and her son.

Their connections become apparent as a self-published novel appears in present-day London, and several key characters read it. It seems to reveal some truths but to confuse and obscure others. Some of the characters share a secret, and just when you think you have it figured out, it turns out that no one can be trusted.

Disclaimer is as beautifully photographed as anything that has ever been on television, so it’s worth watching on as big a screen as you can find.

Each episode opens with a trigger warning rather than the titular disclaimer because the series features a fair amount of nudity and sex, with some violence. It turns out that Apple TV+ has a website you can go to for help if the series upsets you. I don’t think the sex and violence are especially upsetting here compared to the rest of what is on television/streaming, but I guess it’s good to know they worry so much about us.

The real issue with Disclaimer is that it’s so addictive and literary (there is a seemingly omniscient narrator), that you might stay glued to it and miss watching the news or documentaries about the elections – which wouldn’t necessarily be such a bad thing.