The winds are stormy, people take to the streets and rightly so – the spirit of protest must be maintained, against the political establishment that threatens to turn into a dictatorship through laws that centralize all power in government. It is true that most of the time a small glance at the news is enough to get angry and take to the streets, and perhaps it feels that there is a bit of a lack of critical television in the Israeli series that air today, but we do not lack series that criticize the political establishment, society and even the IDF. Yes, yes, there is also a representative on this list Israeli.
Oz (1997)
The series that invented the prison series, the sixty minute long episodes, in short – the modern television drama. The series created by Tom Fontana tells the story of a group of inmates in a maximum security prison, it was revolutionary in its time and still manages to raise questions about the American penal system. Beyond the fact that this is an excellent series, you can also find there familiar faces such as JK Simmons, Al Al Cool J, Eartha Keith and more.
Atlanta (2016)
Since appearing on “Community” Donald Glover has been busy developing his music career under the stage name “Childish Gambino”. In 2016, he brought to the world his comedy drama, “Atlanta”, which shows what it’s like to be a black person in the USA. The series covers everything, whether it’s shooting incidents, the way African-Americans are arrested or trying to succeed in the music industry, which already has a lot Competitors – but more often prefers to go deep into surrealism that makes “Twin Peaks” seem logical. Donald Glover wrote, directed and stars in the series and does a great job alongside a talented cast of actors including Zazie Beets (“Deadpool 2”, “Joker”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Joker”, “Bullet Train”) and Keith Stanfield (“A well-written murder”, “A diamond in the rough”, “Get away”) and many other good and successful actors, with disturbed guest roles such as that of Liam Neeson. The series slaughters American society for all its classes – whites, blacks, everyone, and in season 3 even goes to Europe to do a blessed deed and kill Frenchmen. And the result: a spicy series with a sweet and sour taste that you must see.
Yes, Minister (1980)
Don’t panic, it’s just an old series. Don’t let her release year fool you. It is a witty satirical comedy about the conduct of the government in Great Britain. It follows James Hacker, the Minister of Administrative Affairs (a fictional role) who has to deal with the whims of his subordinates. The various conflicts almost always stem from the selfish motives of all the members of the Knesset (oh sorry, I meant the characters) and of its permanent secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, who always manages to cover up his failings. The series itself became one of the favorite British series and continued with a daughter series called “Yes, Mr. Prime Minister” and even returned for another season in 2013. Despite the distance, you will surely find many things in it that have not become old at all.
Whip (2012)
The satirical comedy created by Armando Iannucci for HBO is one of the must-see political series. Not only because she criticizes American politics, but also because she criticizes the political way of life, the decisions politicians have to make and the fact that these are terrible, self-centered people trying to survive the daily routine in Washington. The series stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus in her best role since You Know What, and features surprise guest appearances from the likes of Hugh Laurie. The series itself garnered 17 Emmy Awards and was a huge success that is hard to miss, but if it came out and you missed it, now is the time to catch up.
Black Mirror (2011)
The series that has been rocking the world for over a decade (unbelievable) deals with the consequences of the development of technology on the future of humanity and its values. This is also one of the complex works on the list. The series was created by Charlie Brooker, but each episode is directed by a different director and a completely new cast, and is a kind of separate film that focuses on different issues. The series opens with a huge boom with the first episode in which a terrorist with artistic motives demands that the Prime Minister sleep with a pig and broadcast the act live, and continues to even more delusional dimensions with an episode of a zombie apocalypse filming everything around them. Although it has lost some of its sting in recent seasons, the criticism of it is still kicking, and although the series is fundamentally futuristic (from the “Five Minutes into the Future” genre), the topics it deals with have been accompanying us for quite a few years.
The Handmaid’s Tale (2017)
Probably the series that most matches the spirit of the protest, and many good ones have already started using images from it (mainly the iconic uniforms of the handmaids) at a relatively early stage in the current wave. The series, which is based on the book “The Slave Act” by Margaret Atwood (who even referred to the Israeli protest on her Twitter recently), tells about a gloomy futuristic world inside the former US territories, when a totalitarian Christian government has caused a coup in the American government and established the Christian-fundamentalist Republic of Gilead. Young Kidnapped (Elizabeth Moss) is forced to become a slave and also serves as a mistress for one of the commanders of the Republic for reproductive purposes. Her goal: to return to her family in the free world. The series was a huge success even before the government decided to take D-9 to court, but today it feels more relevant than ever.
The Boys (2019)
“The Boys” is not only an example of a superhero series, but also a series that harshly criticizes American society, the age of social networks, and American politics itself. The series follows Huey, a young man who works in an electronics store and loses his partner in front of his eyes, when a superhero named A-Train just walks right through her and leaves no trace of her body except the torn hands, which are still holding Huey’s hands. Huey joins an underground organization that aims to fight superheroes and expose their corruption, and how corrupt they are. In the role of the villain, Anthony Starr who plays Homelander, a kind of Superman who has lost control and will do anything to be loved, and under him is a collection of superheroes who will do whatever he asks of them. The series remains relevant and the events of the elections in the USA even influenced the topics covered in the third season. It is not just a superhero series that is excellent in every way, but a series that sends a curb with a sharp and sharp statement, which does not hesitate to shock in order to convey the message.
South Park (1997)
The franchise that has no end started somewhere in the late nineties and was created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who brought Stan, Kenny, Kyle and Cartman, children in the 3rd-4th grade at South Park Elementary School, to the world. We’ve been through a lot with these kids, whether it’s their Game of Thrones saga, or cannibalism, Saddam Hussein, and even the devil himself (who is known to have an intimate relationship with Saddam Hussein). The crazy creative duo never tried to be politically correct, which is also reflected in the character of PC Principal, the new school principal who joined the series a few seasons ago. If you don’t want to complete 26 seasons (including season specials) you don’t have to, but you will miss iconic moments that made South Park what it is today.
Who is America? (2018)
Sacha Baron Cohen is a costume artist who often uses his acting talent to reveal the true face of American society. This is exactly what he does in the series “Who is America” during which he disguised himself as various characters (among them an Italian billionaire, a former Mossad agent and a right-wing journalist who believes in conspiracy theories) to reveal unflattering sides of American society and politics. In the show’s climactic moments, he makes a Republican representative in the Georgia House of Representatives attack a mannequin wearing a hijab with his butt, an Alabama judge identify himself as a pedophile with a “pedophile detection device” and the founder of Genius pretend to feed children in Africa. Similar to the effect caused by “Borat 2” a few years later, also in 2018 Sacha Baron Cohen used activist cinema to shock and shake American society and the direction it is going in the age of Trump.
MK 22 (2004)
The Israeli representative for the spirit of defiance: the animated series MK 22 was created by Yaron Nisky, Doron Tzur, Ohad Elimelech and Assaf Harel, and it tells the story of a pair of afsanaim in a fictional base where the Doomsday weapon is kept. Yaron Nisky and Doron Tzur served in Afsanaot and the events in the series were directly influenced by the nature of the service of the two. The series, which criticizes the IDF in particular and Israeli society in general, was highly praised and to this day everyone knows the eternal question: Permanent or not? And yes, there is a wrong answer.