New Netflix nail biter by ‘Fauda’ creators shifts between NYC, TLV
‘Hit and Run’ premieres August 6, telling the tale of a grieving husband seeking revenge
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
“Hit & Run,” the new Netflix series starring Lior Raz as a man seeking revenge after his wife is killed in a mysterious accident, and created by “Fauda” creators Raz and Avi Issacharoff, takes new directions for an Israel-based show.
The nine-episode series premieres on August 6 on the global streaming platform and was filmed in Tel Aviv and New York, with much of its dialogue in Hebrew-accented English, as spoken by Raz’s character, Segev Azulai as well as Moran Rosenblatt playing police detective Tali Shapira and Lior Ashkenazi as a secretive character.
The pace is slower than political thriller Fauda’s and requires a different range of emotions from Raz, who plays the show’s grieving husband, a tour guide who must return to his experiences as a former special forces soldier in order to solve the mystery of his wife’s death.
Raz wasn’t slated for the role, but Netflix circled back to him after searching for the right actor to cast, said Issacharoff.
Still, Raz is believable as the grieving, angry husband who quickly discovers that his dead wife had many unexplained secrets, conveyed to the audience with a smooth series of flashbacks.
Writing the show was also a completely different experience for Issacharoff and Raz, who executive produced “Hit and Run” with their American partners, Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin, creators of the Amazon comedy “Z: The Beginning of Everything.”
https://youtu.be/AyF-EQVs9mU
Issacharoff said he and Raz initially had the idea for the show about six years ago. When they pitched the idea to Netflix, the platform that turned “Fauda” into an international hit, the streaming company immediately wanted to develop the idea and connected them to Prestwich and Yorkin.
“We’re not that experienced, we’ve had one TV show and ‘Fauda’ was never meant to be on the international screen,” said Issacharoff. “So for us it was a very interesting experience, to write a show with two experienced writers that was heading to an international audience.”
Besides working with a team of writers who turned the script around in a far shorter period than Issacharoff and Raz had experienced with “Fauda,” “Hit and Run” was filmed in New York and Tel Aviv and included American cast members, with actors Sanaa Lathan and Gregg Henry.
“It’s a unique kind of story,” said Issacharoff. “It’s about the relationship between a man and a woman and two countries. It tells a bigger story but it’s very personal, too.”h
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