60 | SEPTEMBER 8 • 2022 

AN INNOCENT GIGOLO, 
THE HERO OF BOHEMIA, 
JEWISH SHRINK MEETS 
KILLER
American Gigolo premieres 
on Showtime on Sept. 11, and 
new episodes are released 
on subsequent Fridays. It’s 
based on the hit 1980 film of 
the same name. In the film, 
Richard Gere played Julian 
Kaye, a Hollywood gigolo 
who fell in love with a client, 
a wealthy married woman. 
Kaye is framed for a murder, 
but at the end of the film the 
wealthy woman gives the 
police alibi information that 
clears Kaye.
The series alters the film’s 
ending. As the series opens, 
Kaye (who is played by Jon 
Bernthal, 45) has just been 
released from jail after serv-
ing 15 years for a murder he 
didn’t commit. The series 
follows him as he makes con-
tact with the wealthy woman 
(played by Gretchen Mol) and 
tries to cope with the present. 
Meanwhile, a police detective 
(played by Rosie O’Donnell), 
decides to take a fresh look 
at the murder and uncovers a 
large conspiracy.
Medieval, which opens in 
theaters on Sept. 11, is the 
most expensive ($25 million) 
Czech film ever made. The 
filmmakers obviously want 

to re-coup this cost. So, they 
made (probably) wise deci-
sions. The whole film is spo-
ken in English, and the inter-
national cast includes many 
well-known actors (stars 
include Ben Foster, Michael 
Caine and Matthew Goode) 
I know very little about pol-
itics and battles in historical 
Bohemia (now the Czech 
Republic) in the 1400s. After 
reading about the film and 
its historical hero, I am still 
far from being an expert. But 
now I can see how this action 
film, with some romance, has 
a good chance of attracting 
international audiences. 
Foster, 41, stars as Jan 
Zizka (1360-1424), now a 
national Czech hero. The 
film covers the early years 
of Zizka’s life before he did 
the things that made him a 
national hero. 
Later in life, the “half-
blind” Zizka famously never 
lost a battle. He led troops 
that defeated the German 
Teutonic Knights. After that, 
he stopped the armed allies 
of the Catholic Church from 
destroying the Hussites, 
a large “proto-Protestant” 
Czech sect the Church 
labeled heretics. (After read-
ing this, you can understand 
why the first Czech anti-Nazi 
guerilla group was named 
after Zizka). 
 The film focuses on Zizka’s 
first battles. His enemy was 
Henry of Rosenberg (no, he 

wasn’t Jewish), the most pow-
erful noble in Bohemia. Henry 
systemically undermined 
the king of Bohemia. Zizka, 
who came from a minor 
noble family, supported the 
king and Henry retaliated by 
killing most of Ziska’s family. 
While seeking revenge, Jan 
happens to meet Katherine, 
Henry’s fiancée. She falls in 
love with him and gives him 
inside info on Henry’s “evil” 
plotting. 
Due to an error in my 
notes, I didn’t let you know 
in advance that The Patient, 
a 10-episode series that 
features a Jewish psychia-
trist character, was about to 
premiere. It began streaming 
on Aug. 29 (exclusively on 
Hulu). The first two episodes 
streamed on the 29th, with 
the remaining episodes 
premiering on subsequent 
Mondays. Episodes are only 
23 minutes long.
The plot of this comedy/
drama is unusual: Alan 
Strauss (Steve Carell) is 
a Jewish psychiatrist who is 
kidnapped by Sam Fortner, a 
serial killer (Domhall Gleason) 
and imprisoned in the killer’s 
home. Fortner wants Strauss 
to cure him of his desire to kill 
people. 
Strauss is taken hostage 
while he’s still mourning 
the recent death of his wife 
(Laura Niemi), a cantor. While 
faith is important to him, he 
is not happy that his son, 

Ezra (Andrew Leeds), has 
embraced Orthodox Judaism. 
His wife and son appear 
now-and-again in flashback 
scenes. 
The benefit of not telling 
you about a series in advance 
is that the reviews are all in 
as I write this. Four out of five 
“top outlet” reviews I read 
were good — ranging from 
a rave to a modest approval. 
Variety, however, just didn’t 
like the series. It’s hard to 
briefly convey what they had 
to say in a few words. Simply 
“Google” The Hollywood 
Reporter and Variety and the 
title and you’ll get two very 
well-written different perspec-
tives. 
There was a little blow-back 
that none of the three Jewish 
characters were played by 
Jewish actors. I trust that the 
series’ creators and writers, 
Joel Fields, 57ish, and Joe 
Weisberg, 57, honestly felt 
that the actors they cast were 
right for the part, and if they 
felt a Jewish actor would 
have been better for the part, 
they would have cast that 
person.
Fields and Weisberg (The 
creators of The Americans) 
are absolutely not “stealth” 
Jews. In a recent NY Times 
interview, they said that their 
writing process began with 
the decision that the psy-
chiatrist would be “openly” 
Jewish, and he would be 
married to a cantor. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

BLANKA BOROVÁ 

Ben Foster

WIKIPEDIA

Joel Fields

GAGE SKIDMORE

Jon Bernthal

WIKIPEDIA

Joe Weisberg

