The series My Darling Sisters (the literal translation of the Hebrew title is “My Successful Sisters”) is one of the funniest shows ever produced here and its fans have been waiting about five years for its fourth season, which just began running on Yes Comedy and Yes VOD. The series tells the story of three bumbling young adult sisters who find themselves struggling when their parents go away on a long-awaited trip around the world.
For most of the earlier seasons, Mor (Tal Hashiloni), was a very (and understandably) depressed soldier, tormented by her insensitive commander (Gal Toren), who always managed to get under her skin no matter how much she tried to ignore him. Finally deciding to go on a post-army trip to India, she was shocked to find her good-natured but often annoying army pal, Lizo (Adi Havshush, currently starring in Save the Date, a new Keshet series) on the same flight.
Mor is the focus of the four-episode-long fourth season, most of which was filmed in India, with Israeli and local actors. The post-army trip to Asia or Latin America is a rite of passage for many Israelis, and it has been dramatized in series such as Kathmandu with Gal Gadot, now available on Netflix, and When Heroes Fly, but given its centrality in the lives of young Israelis, it certainly hasn’t been exhausted as a subject. My Darling Sisters gives it a welcome comic treatment.
Earnest Mor makes her way to meet up with Lizo at a hotel frequented by Israelis in an Indian city, and runs into an Israeli woman who shrilly extols the virtues of India, although she can’t quite articulate them – and we can see Mor’s poker face twitch as she already begins to doubt her decision.
When she arrives at the Sunshine Hotel, she finds Lizo getting high with a bunch of Israelis who do little more than sleep, smoke and eat, which is not the cure for her “post-traumatic boredom” she had hoped for when leaving the army. “Doesn’t anyone want to see a local temple?” she asks, but no one really does.
Searching for the authentic India, she runs into Shlomi (Ori Rousso, musician Noga Erez’s partner), an old friend of her sister, Natalie (Nelly Tagar). He has been living in India for years and invites her to his house in the southwestern coastal state of Goa. There she meets a well-known but disillusioned Israeli anti-government protester (Kobi Maimon), and, in one of the comic highlights, goes with him to see a famed holy man.
Meanwhile, back in Israel, Natalie is still having trouble with her weird roommates, Meidad (Shlomi Avraham) and Renana (Maya Landsman). Natalie is the flightiest sister of the three, and Tagar plays her to the hilt. Chronically behind on her rent and her bill-paying, she now claims that her roommates have agreed to be backers of her podcast on the events of the 21st century and that she can pay them back when it becomes profitable. Not surprisingly, they don’t share her perception and soon she is on a flight to join Mor, who welcomes her with open arms. But it’s not long until her sister’s self-absorption and tenuous relationship with reality begins to grate.
That’s just what Orit (Danna Semmo), the marginally most level-headed of the three, predicted. Much of the comedy in the first couple of seasons had to do with Orit, a teacher, coming out of the closet. Now that she is happily settled down with her partner and a new baby, she doesn’t get as much screen time, but she still functions as a confidant for her younger sisters.
The adventures of Mor and Natalie in India play out in a parallel universe to ours and bring us back to a pre-October 7 time, when it was easier to laugh about a lot of things, including young Israelis traveling far from home only to recreate Tel Aviv – but with much lower prices. It seems that this will be the end of the series – which ends with a coda that suggests they will all muddle through.
But before the credits role on the fourth episode, a title comes up saying that it is dedicated to the memory of Libby Cohen Meguri, a 22-year-old killed at Nova, who was, according to the title, “A true friend of sea turtles,” creatures Mor searches for on a beach in one of her happier Indian adventures. Pretty much all of the characters in this episode could easily have been killed at Nova. This sad truth. which will likely be on your mind already as you watch this, is brought home gracefully.
Libby was the stepdaughter of Yariv Yogev, the director of a maternity hospital in Tel Aviv and a commentator on Channel 12, and he has suggested that a clinic for women who have survived trauma be dedicated in her memory.
Dismissed – KAN 11
The newest episode of the current season of Dismissed – the KAN 11 television show (also available at kan.org.il) about an earnest army commander, Noa (Alona Sa’ar) – is dedicated to a different Nova victim: Tamar Goldenberg, a 23-year-old actress who was cast in a small part that was set to begin filming in mid-October.
She was replaced in the role, a decision that the series’ creator Atara Frish told Mako was difficult for everyone: “After we received the news of her murder, it was difficult for me to find a replacement for her. It is admittedly a small role, but I felt that I had difficulty letting go, emotionally or realistically. We were looking for a replacement for Tamar for a long time after – almost until the last minute. “
Dismissed, the earlier seasons of which are available in Israel (with Hebrew subtitles) and around the world on Netflix (with subtitles in English and other languages abroad), is a comedy-drama that you might have thought would seem trivial in the wake of October 7. But its creators are so successful at putting you in the heads of Noa and the rest of the soldiers, as they struggle with mundane tasks and rivalries, that it’s consistently entertaining, and she is as endearing as ever.
In Vogue: The 90s – Disney+
If you enjoyed the movie The Devil Wears Prada, which is available on Disney+ and Apple TV+, about a style-challenged college grad (Anne Hathaway) who gets a job as an assistant to an editor (Meryl Streep, in one of her finest performances) based on Vogue’s Anna Wintour, you’ll want to see the new Disney+ series In Vogue: The 90s, which premieres on September 13.
The series focuses on how Wintour – who has been the editor of Vogue since 1988 – reshaped the magazine and Americans’ perceptions of high fashion when she shook up the then-staid publication by turning to the worlds of movies and music and featuring their stars and style.
Among those interviewed in the movie are Wintour herself, as well as such celebrities as Gwyneth Paltrow, Kim Kardashian, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Claire Danes, along with every model whose name you have ever known, several designers (including Tom Ford), and her Vogue staff (some of whom left later under acrimonious circumstances).
For those interested in fashion, it will provide intelligent escapism.
The first episode is marred toward the end by a section about John Galliano, a designer who went on an antisemitic rant in 2011 and never really apologized, but if you find a way to ignore that part, you’ll enjoy the rest of the series.