Critics passionate about ‘The Affair’
Tel Avivian ‘In Treatment’ creator Haggai Levi gets second season for new American drama
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
American critics are in love with Israeli show-runner Hagai Levi’s “The Affair,” even if viewers are less than smitten with the Showtime show.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show “combines excellent writing, nuanced acting and an intriguing structural device to hook viewers.”
Rolling Stone called it this year’s “best new drama.”
The show is about two marriages and the affair that comes between them. It was co-created by Levi, best known for creating, directing and producing the Israeli television drama “BeTipul,” and producing its American counterpart, HBO’s “In Treatment.”
Levi, who lives in Tel Aviv, created “The Affair” with his production partner, Sarah Treem, who worked on the American series “House of Cards” and co-produced “In Treatment” with him.
In October, HBO renewed it for a second season, alongside its companion show, “Homeland,” which also has Israeli roots. Unlike Homeland, which had 1.61 million viewers in its first show of the season, “The Affair” hasn’t topped 700,000 viewers this fall, in its first season.
http://youtu.be/Til6Nt2ps9s
Another family drama, this one in Israel, hits the small screen in Israel Thursday night on Channel 1.
“Good Family,” created by Eytan Fox, the American-born filmmaker who made the award-winning movies “Yossi and Jagger” and “Walk on Water,” is about a Jerusalem family whose parents decide to split just as their grown children are figuring out their own lives.
The show stars “Walk on Water” star Lior Ashkenazi and is Fox’s first television drama since “Florentin,” his 1997 television series about friends living in the Tel Aviv neighborhood.
So far, no affairs in this one — at least, not yet.
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