"Srugim" Review

Thanks to Jameel, I was able to watch the new drama “Srugim,” about life among modern Orthodox singles in Jerusalem. It was fun. In one scene at Friday night dinner, the men argue over who should make kiddush until one of the women takes the becher and says it herself. After one of the men makes a comment, she asks him whether it bothered him. He says that it’s good for women to know how to make kiddush in case the husband is in miluim or something. That felt real to me, as did most of the dialogue.

What I didn’t like is that most scenes show people carping at each other or behaving badly. A guy invited by one roommate asks out a second one, who then lies about it, telling the first one that she is sure he is interested in her. When the third roommate meets her “ex” on the street, they trade insults with each other. I’m not asking for sugarcoating, but it wouldn’t hurt to portray the characters as occasionally helpful or supportive. Maybe the series is meant as a cautionary tale, warning viewers what not to do so as not to remain single all their lives. Or perhaps the characters will spend the rest of the season learning how to get along with each other. Okay, if they want a happy ending I’m sure this will happen. But while the show’s scenes could have happened, and probably did in one way or another, it bothered me that viewers might think that this behavior is typical for our community.

Comments

  1. mother in israel says

    Absolutely, it was just that there was no positive behavior to balance it.

  2. that behavior seems natural to every community. If she is “stealing” her boyfriend, of course she will lie about it so as not to hurt her friend, until she realizes her friend knows anyway and her lie did not help. Fighting with the ex. All that seems natural and not specific to the DL community.

  3. Positive behaviour? I thought there was lots of positive behaviour, just by people being themselves Kiddush, the meal, etc.)
    And the girl who was “stealing” the other girl’s boyfriend, her comment that the boy was looking at her all the time could be viewed as a positive thing (even though it was a white lie).
    The show seems to me like a real reflection of reality.

  4. mother in israel says

    That’s what I like about good drama–you can argue about the motives of the characters! I saw that conversation with “white lie” as completely negative. I was hoping she would try to put her off the boy a little bit, but if she herself was interested that would also have been dishonest.

  5. MoI: Well then, I guess we’ll have to see how her personality evolves. Is she a mean person, or does she have a golden heart đŸ™‚
    (I was trying to be dan l’kaf zechut that it was a white lie)

  6. jameel, i agreed with you take on the “white lie”. If nothing else, she was trying not to make her friend feel bad. And i definitely didn’t see her trying to steal the guy. If anything, she was trying to fend him off. And she was write in her comments to her Yifat- the latter didn’t make any attempt to sit down and talk. She was too busy in the kitchen. Also, I thought he wrapped up that scene nicely with them working together to clean the kitchen and making tea.
    Having been through the “scene” in NYC and in J-m, i’d say his depiction is very true to life. I had many supportive friends, but I also had quite a few horrible interactions with stupid men that really weren’t far off from the show.
    My husband and I agreed that Y reminded us of many hardened single women we know.

  7. Was I the only one who noticed Stacey the American? Is that how we sound to Israeli? Was that stereotyping?

  8. mother in israel says

    Is the fact that she was overweight (unlike the others) supposed to be a comment on Americans or Reformim or lesbians? And why did he assume she was a lesbian? Did I miss something?

  9. It was offensive how she was portrayed, wasn’t it?