A new revolution in tv | thearticle

A new Israeli series, _Unorthodox_, just started last week on Netflix. It is a deeply moving story of a young woman (played by Shira Haas, Ruchami from _Shtisel_) from the Hassidic community

in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, who tries to escape from her constricting world. _Unorthodox _is part of a revolution in television. In the last few years, the schedules have offered more

international dramas: Scandi-noir, European detective shows, new Israeli series (_Fouda_, _Shtisel_, _Unorthodox_) and brilliant new German series like _Berlin Babylon_. Anyone over thirty

will remember a time when British television was largely in English. There were, of course, exceptions during the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Remarkable documentaries by Syberberg (_Hitler: A Film

From Germany_), Marcel Ophuls (_The Sorrow and the Pity_) and Claude Lanzmann (_Shoah_), accomplished children’s programmes (_Belle and Sebastian_) and great TV dramas like _Heimat_. These

were largely arthouse TV programmes, many about fascism and the Holocaust, entirely confined to BBC2 and Channel 4. What has happened in the last ten years has been an explosion in

foreign-language drama, especially thrillers and detective programmes. This was initially led by BBC2 and Channel 4, but now the pace has been set by Netflix. Scandi-noir led the way with

detective series like _Wallander_ (2005-13). _The Killing_ (2007-12) and_ The Bridge _(2011-18). Their success led to new imports: detective series from France (BBC4, 2009-) and Italy

(_Montalbano_, BBC4 2012-). What has really changed, however, is the range of formats and the new countries of origin. First, the formats. Instead of cop shows we suddenly have new TV series

on Netflix: French series about casting agents (_Call My Agent!_), German series about Weimar Berlin (_Berlin Babylon)_ and Israeli series about orthodox Jews in Brooklyn or Jerusalem

(_Unorthodox_ and _Shtisel_), mostly in Yiddish, about Mossad (_Fouda_) and double agents (_The Spy _with Sacha Baron Cohen). Not a detective in sight. It’s true that _Berlin Babylon

_involves policemen but it also involves Trotskyists, German military plotters, cabaret singers, prostitutes and politicians. What is also striking is the sudden explosion of Israeli and

German TV dramas. You may not have heard of the Israeli show _Prisoners of War_ (_Hatufim_) but you will have heard of the American spin-off, _Homeland_, a huge TV hit in America and in

Britain, with Damian Lewis, Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, now into its eighth season on Channel 4. It opened doors for shows like _Fauda, _about a team of Israeli soldiers battling with

Palestinian terrorists_, When Heroes Fly_, about a group of Israeli veterans who try and rescue the former girlfriend of one of them from a drug cartel in Colombia, and the super-niche

_Shtisel_, a drama about an Orthodox Jewish family living in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. They have all been on Netflix recently, along with _The Spy_, about Eli Cohen, a real-life Israeli spy

in the Middle East in the 1950s and ‘60s. _Shtisel _was the most unlikely hit of all. A third series is on its way and it was such a success that Amazon Studios have announced that they are

planning to remake it. German TV has also made a big splash, above all, _Berlin Babylon_, co-produced by Sky, which has just screened the third season. You might call it Weimar _noir_ but

what’s fascinating about it is the historical complexity. _Reichswehr _veterans with friends in high places plot to overthrow the republican government, Soviet agents hunt anti-Stalinists in

Berlin, and the German police try and chase both. Suddenly, European and Israeli TV drama seem more sophisticated and interesting than a lot of British or American TV, some of which is

copying imported formats. _Homeland _copied an Israeli series, _Broadwalk _modelled itself on Scandi-noir. These new pioneering series are introducing trans-Atlantic audiences to a new world

and there’s no going back. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle.