As more details emerge about the horrors the newly returned hostages endured in Hamas captivity, it’s amazing that they have retained any vestige of sanity. Now would be a good time to celebrate their girl power by tuning into some female-centric TV.
You can start on Thursday night, when KAN 11 will air a new documentary, Hostages, that follows the families of recently returned female border observers Liri Albag, Daniella Gilboa, and Karina Ariev during the nearly 16 months that these young women were held captive. It includes interviews and footage following their return to Israel last Saturday.
The documentary is by Noa Aharoni, and closes a circle because she made the extraordinary 2024 documentary Eyes Wide Open, about how these and other female border observers’ warnings at the Nahal Oz base were ignored by army commanders. It also explores the guilt their families felt over reassuring them they would be safe on the base, despite their fears. But, of course, it wasn’t safe.
On October 7, 2023, 15 border observers were killed at Nahal Oz, and seven were taken hostage. Of the hostages, one was rescued, one was killed in Gaza by Hamas, and four – the three who are the center of the film as well as Naama Levy – were released on January 25. The last one, Agam Berger, is set to be released on Thursday.
The four released hostages were forced by Hamas to take part in a bizarre ceremony in Gaza before they were permitted to enter the Red Cross vehicles. News reports revealed that they were supposed to give a speech on stage, praising their captors, but they refused to do so, even though they were surrounded by hundreds of Hamas gunmen.
Their bravery is awe-inspiring and invites comparisons to the toughest Israeli woman currently appearing on a television series – Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), the heroine of Tehran, the KAN 11 series that just ended its third season. If you missed the finale when it aired, it is still available on the KAN website (kan.org.il). If you’d like to see it, skip the rest of this section, which contains spoilers.
THE SERIES has always featured the overarching goal of Tamar, who sneaks into Iran in the first season, dismantling the Iranian nuclear program. But the best parts of this season have also shown an underground shelter for Iranian women fleeing their husbands, in a society where a woman is required by law to obey her male relatives. Tamar fits right in here. She is soon getting medical supplies for the pregnant women in the shelter in between her day job taking out the Iranian nukes.
In almost every episode this season, she lets her guard down for a moment and various men overpower her in the final moments, only to have her kick their butts in the first scene of the next installment. Tamar can seem vulnerable for a moment or two, but she has morphed into a kind of female Israeli James Bond, who can get out of any trap, especially since her shots and kicks always land precisely, while none of the Iranians can shoot straight.
Many of the scenes showcasing Tamar’s grace under fire are entertaining to watch, especially when you recall being on the receiving end of the two largest ballistic missile attacks in history courtesy of the Iranian regime, in April 2024 and October 2024. But because she is such a super-spy, the show has become less suspenseful than in previous seasons. You know she’ll get out of every trap, the only question is when.
This season has focused especially closely on the nuclear issue with the addition of Hugh Laurie of House to the cast. He plays Eric Peterson, an international nuclear inspector, who is quickly arrested for placing a recording device at the nuclear facility. But later, it turns out that he is working for the Iranian regime.
In the last few episodes, there was an outlandish new twist: He only made the regime think he was working for them but was really trying to overthrow them by creating a nuclear bomb that would detonate in the middle of Tehran, thereby turning its surviving residents against the government. This never makes sense, but you have to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy what is meant to be the nail-biting suspense of the finale.
The series didn’t really make the best use of Laurie, who spent the entire season scowling. Except for the timing of its release, the third season was a comedown from the first two, because the plot turns and pacing just weren’t as interesting, despite Sasson Gabay joining the cast as a Mossad sleeper agent in Tehran. But it will certainly come back for a fourth season, so let’s hope things will pick up then. There is still no word as to when it will be available on Apple TV+ in the US.
Keep your spirits high in the darkest hours
IF YOU’D like to keep up your spirits as you wait for further hostage releases, you might want to watch the work of Israel’s biggest Hollywood superstar, Gal Gadot. The movie that made her famous, Wonder Woman, is available on Apple TV+, along with its less thrilling sequel, Wonder Woman 1984. If you subscribe to Netflix, you can see her as a genius cyber spy and martial arts expert, much like Tamar Rabinyan, in Heart of Stone.
In interviews with the families of the released hostages, the parents have spoken about how close the hostages became during their nearly 16-month ordeal, so it’s the perfect time to watch movies about female bonding.
Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ offer the comedy Bridesmaids, about how a reluctant maid of honor (Kristen Wiig) whose life is falling apart throws a bachelorette getaway for her friend (Maya Rudolph), who is about to get hitched. Her buddies, played by Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Ellie Kemper, come along for the wild ride.
If you’d like your girl power slightly more sedate, Prime Video and Apple TV+ also feature the 2005 adaptation of the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice, with Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet, one of literature’s gutsiest girls. Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, and Carey Mulligan play her sisters.
Another movie that can be streamed on Disney+ and Apple TV+ is 9 to 5, about three women played by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton (who sings the great theme song), who work for a sexist pig boss (Dabney Coleman, in the role that made him famous) and plot together to get workplace justice, which foreshadowed the #MeToo movement. It was the first time that Fonda and Tomlin teamed up, and they went on to star together in the series Grace and Frankie, which is available on Netflix.
I had high hopes for High Potential, a new series on Disney+ about a single mother whose brains get her a job helping police solve crimes, but it was disappointing. It plays like someone fed AI a script for Elsbeth, the spin-off from The Good Wife, which is about an eccentric lawyer whose brains get her a job helping police solve crimes, and asked it to change a few details.
Kaitlin Olson of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia plays the lead in High Potential, and she’s a quirky mom who dresses like Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich. She figures out things that the police can’t – like that they should check witnesses’ alibis – and doesn’t understand other things that the police know, like that you need a warrant to obtain evidence. Olson’s fans may enjoy this, but it’s hard to think of anyone else who will.
The weird and often wonderful series The White Lotus, about strange and sometimes murderous goings-on at resorts in gorgeous destinations, will be back for a third season on Hot, Yes, and Cellcom TV on February 17. This time, it takes place in Thailand, and Natasha Rothwell, who was in the first season, is back as a massage therapist.