Exploring the ultra-Orthodox world and outer space

There are a lot of older shows on which to binge, but in terms of new offerings, most of the networks are running out of steam.

By HANNAH BROWN
Apollo 11 (photo credit: YES)
Apollo 11
(photo credit: YES)
We’ll Meet Again (Ode Nipagesh) is a documentary series about five secular Israelis who reconnect to family members who became ultra-Orthodox. One man seeks his twin brother, a father looks for his son, a young woman wants to see her father and so on.
The series begins on KAN 11 on March 24 at 9:15 p.m. and will continue on Sunday nights.
It’s a story that will resonate with many Israelis. In order to have a real reunion with their long-lost relatives, some secular family members must immerse themselves in the ultra-Orthodox way of life. Watching Shtisel and Unorthodox isn’t enough; they must live in apartments in Mea She’arim and gradually be introduced to the life of the community and agree to be silent for the first 36 hours.
Only then can they see their family members.
The first episode is an interesting setup and the premise is intriguing. However, the show has been given a reality-show gloss, with pulsing music and interviews that seem coached and stilted. But it will be interesting to see how it plays out and how the experience of reconnecting changes both the secular and religious people.
Since most of us have barely moved off our couches since March, a movie about walking on the moon may be the perfect change of pace. Apollo 11, the award-winning documentary by Todd Douglas Miller, looks at the first manned Moon landing and Moon walk, using previously unreleased archival footage to tell the story of that triumphant mission. It’s showing on Cellcom TV, HOT Cinema 4 on May 23 at 10 a.m. and on CinemaTime starting on May 24, and on YES Docu on May 24 at 10 p.m. and is already available on YES VOD and Sting TV. 
There are a lot of older shows on which to binge, but in terms of new offerings, most of the networks are running out of steam.
The HBO miniseries I Know This Much is True, based on a novel by Wally Lamb, tells the story of working-class twins, one schizophrenic and one with a hair-trigger temper, both played by Mark Ruffalo, like something out of a dystopian version of The Parent Trap. He is convincingly grim in both roles, but this kind of dark drama that tries to find poetry in misery won’t be what most people need right now.
This story made me think of what I call the Bus Test: If I sat next to these characters on a bus, would I get interested in their conversation, or would I move as far away from them as possible? Since, in the first five minutes of the first episode, the schizophrenic twin hacks off his hand at a public library, you can guess my answer. I Know This Much is True is available on YES VOD and on YES Drama on Mondays at 9 p.m. and on Sting TV, on Cellcom TV and on HOT HBO, HOT VOD and Next TV.
If the writers behind Deputy, the new series about a rebellious Los Angeles lawman who improbably becomes acting sheriff, were paid by the cliche, they’d be billionaires. It stars Stephen Dorff as Sheriff Bill Hollister, who in the opening is being grilled by his mean superiors because he tipped off illegal aliens about an ICE raid, makes a speech about protecting everyone, no matter where they came from, and storms out. Not only does he keep his job, he takes part in a showdown with bad guys and before long, he gets his unlikely promotion.
His wife and daughter trade wisecracks about what an irritable workaholic he is, and the widow of his predecessor implores him to fire her son, a cadet who has just become a deputy, because he’s not the man his father was. The only fresh touch in this tired mix is his chauffeur/bodyguard, a non-binary young person played by Bex Taylor-Klaus, but this feels forced, as if it came in response to a note at a meeting very late in the process. Deputy will start running on Tuesdays on YES Action at 10 p.m. starting on May 26, as well as on YES VOD and Sting TV.