38 | JUNE 18 • 2020
CELEB’
S DIY VIDEOS AND A
GOOD NETFLIX FILM
Celebrity Show-Off will start on
TBS on Tuesday, June 23, at 10
p.m. Mayim Bialik, 44, hosts
this 10-episode series, which is
based on a hit Korean show. Each
week, five celebs will compete
via videos they created and were
shot at their homes. The goal is
to entertain the most viewers any
which way. The first episode will
acquaint viewers with the format
and introduce the first five con-
testants. The next day, June 24,
the videos they created will be
posted on TBS’
s YouTube channel.
The videos will be judged on
number of views and view dura-
tion. The next episode will feature
the five celebs viewing the videos
and commenting on them. Then
the celeb with the lowest rated
video will be ousted and replaced
the next week with a new celeb.
About 15 celebs have con-
firmed they’
ll compete, and,
frankly, they aren’
t “A” listers. The
first 15 includes Tori Spelling,
47. Her career has faded since
Beverly Hills, 90210 ended 20
years ago. But I’
m curious what
she’
ll do to entertain us.
Wasp Network, a Cuban politi-
cal thriller starring Penelope Cruz
and Edgar Ramirez, will begin
streaming on June 19. Variety
gave it a good review. Wasp was
directed by Olivier Assayas, 65,
a French director who has made
many good films.
SURPRISES EVERY WHICH WAY
The Vast of Night, an original
Amazon Prime film, started
streaming on May 29. This small
budget film, without any name
actors, has got real buzz. It is
rated 92% positive on Rotten
Tomatoes, and leading critics
have given it the thumbs-up. A
short summary: In the late 1950s,
on one fateful night in New
Mexico, a young, switchboard
operator Fay (Sierra McCormick)
and charismatic radio DJ Everett
(Jake Horowitz, 25) discover
a strange audio frequency that
could change their small town
and the future forever.
Horowitz’
s Jewish father, Peter
Horowitz, 70ish, is an actor and
the founder/artistic director of a
Brooklyn theater company where
Jake got his start. Peter grew up
in Miami, where his father, the
late Arthur Horowitz, founded
and ran a very successful restau-
rant chain called Junior’
s. Arthur
and his wife, Peter’
s mother, were
very involved in the Jewish com-
munity and took a very tough line
on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Jake’
s mother is a practicing
Catholic and a lay organization
leader. Jake’
s two sides are very
different, and I simply don’
t know
how he identifies religiously. But,
wait, there’
s more unusual stuff:
There’
s a Brooklyn restaurant
chain named Junior’
s, famous
for its great cheesecake (It is
great!). There were historical
ties between the Miami chain
and the Brooklyn chain. A claim
was made around 2006 that the
cheesecake recipe originated
with the Miami chain. Brooklyn
said no. The NY Times ran a long
article about the controversy.
Peter Horowitz was interviewed.
The Times said that no conclusion
was possible because so many of
the “players” were deceased.
T
here couldn’
t be a better
setting for Hashoter Hatov
(The Good Cop) than
Petakh Tikva, one of the earliest
Jewish settlements in the center
of Israel, just a short ride from
Tel Aviv.
Petakh Tikva has become a
symbol of peripherality; many
Israelis joke about how insignifi-
cant the city is. If you want to see
what’
s living day-to-day in Israel
is really like beyond the head-
lines, Hashoter Hatov will show
you.
The cop comedy, whose first
season is available to American
viewers on Netflix, follows Israeli
policeman Danny Konfino (Yuval
Semo) and family and his friends
and coworkers in the station.
After Danny’
s fiancée cheats
on him and they break up, he’
s
forced to move back in with his
parents.
Danny’
s journey is one of
learning to control his anger and
open his heart, but also one of
trying to live in a country that
barely gives a damn about him.
Though the show occasionally
crosses the thin line from satire
to offensive humor, its goal is a
novel one: to deconstruct toxic
behaviors and show an unglam-
orized version of Israel.
Some notes before I recom-
mend the show. First, the cast
includes Moshe Ivgy, who was
accused by several women of sex-
ual harassment and indecent acts
in 2016 and indicted in four cases
in 2020 (Hashoter’
s first season
was filmed in 2015). Ivgy’
s pres-
ence on my screen tells another
Israeli story — one of a society
that too often neglects its women.
That isn’
t the only problem. As
waves of protests against police
brutality erupt in the U.S. and all
over the world, I cannot turn a
blind eye to how, as with any cop
comedy, Hashoter Hatov essentially
treats Danny’
s violent behavior
toward suspects and criminals as
a joke.
Violence is a fact within an
organization that forgives and
encourages it, and the show does
acknowledge that. What’
s missing
is a deeper acknowledgment of
how unfunny police brutality
actually is and who suffers from it
the most.
Nevertheless, the ugliness that
often appears in the show and
surrounds parts of it adds to its
authenticity, which is the show’
s
heart. That’
s Israel, for better or
worse.
Arts&Life
TV Review
A Very Israeli
Cop Comedy
Hashoter Hatov is a satirical portrayal
of Israel that looks different against our
global dialogue on police brutality.
MICHAEL ELIAS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
WHERE TO WATCH
The first season of Hashoter
Hatov (and its American remake)
is now available on Netflix. Two
more seasons have already
aired in Israel.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NETFLIX VIA JTA.ORG
The cast of
Hashoter Hatov
Arts&Life
celebrity jews
NATE BLOOM
COLUMNIST
Mayim
Bialik
MARK NEYMAN / GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE/ISRAEL