On 2026-09-13 4:30 a.m., Ubiquitous wrote:
What did you watch?
Fauda - Season 5, episodes 7 and 8
I discovered Fauda a couple of years ago and quickly acquired and
watched all of it. It's an Israeli series about a group with Shin Bet,
an important Israeli intelligence organization, that does undercover
work amongst the enemies of Israel. (I bet you thought Mossad was the
only one....) Most of the members are Mizrahi, Jews who grew up in the
Muslim world rather than in Europe, and know Muslim culture and the
Arabic language.
Season 5 was just released on Netflix and I've heard rumours this is
going to be the last season. It is the first season released since the horrific Oct 7 attacks and most of the season is set approximately now
but episodes 7 and 8 are a prolonged flashback to the events of Oct 7.
Based on the documentaries I've seen, it's very faithful to what
actually happened that day and touches on the impacts to some of the
team members, especially Eli, whose wife and kids live in one of the
kibbutzes near Gaza and the site of the Nova Music Festival. The vivid
trigger warnings at the start of both episodes are accurate and
appropriate.
It is well known among Fauda fans that the star of the show, Lior Raz,
was a Shin Bet undercover operative in real life before taking on the
role of Doron and that always enhances the authority of his portrayal.
I've seen him interviewed and he says the shows are painstakingly
accurate in their portrayal of what his organization did with the sole exception that they show some female undercover operatives, which he
says never happens in real life. Presumably the consequences of a female operative being caught by their enemies are just too dire for them to
consider letting women operate in the field.
The show is apparently very popular in both Israel AND in the various Arab/Muslim countries. Various commentators have said it is very fair to
Arabs and does NOT paint them all as terrorists.
It's certainly worth a look if you like an action show, especially one
more closely based on real life than most such shows. Of course nearly
all the dialog is in Hebrew and Arabic so you'll need the subtitles
turned on unless you speak those languages.
IMDB rates it at 8.3 so that's pretty impressive.
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