The Hottest Israeli Export Is Religion TV

According to an article in this week’s Newsweek, Israeli TV is quickly becoming the hottest commodity to hit Hollywood since Ben Stiller did his Derelicte schtick in Zoolander. Not to nuke the fridge here, but with acts like Yael Naim picking up steam in MacAir commercials and shows like HBO’s In Treatment (B’tipul) managing to muster a modest, but staunchly loyal cult following, it’s not at all surprising that TV and film execs are looking to Israel to provide them with some much needed fresh and original programming. Have you seen NBC’s and ABC’s Summer programming? There’s not one show among the bunch that’s not reality TV.

It’s telling of Israel’s rising popularity and perhaps indicative of its viability as a fixture in the entertainment industry that network TV had followed in the footsteps of HBO and chosen to add and adapt an Israeli show, Mythological X, (about love, nonetheless) to their Fall roster. (To sneak a preview of The Ex-List, click here) Loaded, a FOX-produced show about dot-com millionaires is also slated to air in the Fall.

But aside from the creative, engaging story lines that Israel seems to have the capacity to deliver, why has Hollywood looked to another country to fulfill what seems to be a gaping hole in the U.S. entertainment industry at present? To quote Joshua Alston, “Israeli shows are cheap”:

“In Treatment” premiered new episodes five days a week over nine weeks. “We’re used to doing 12 or 13 episodes per season,” says HBO executive Michael Lombardo. “The cost-effectiveness of the show is what enabled us to take on this huge commitment of 45 episodes.

“The relatively low cost will allow U.S. networks to try out Israeli formats and give them space to find an audience. “In Treatment” premiered to sluggish numbers that would spell trouble for a pricier show. But it built steam by the end of the season, and performed well enough relative to its cost that HBO will launch a second season this fall.

What may be considered “shoestring budgets” by U.S. standards is fueling the passion and stamina of Israel’s entertainment industry and in turn delivering a premium product at a bargain rate. And as long as this translates to the end result being more Gabriel Byrne, then I’m one happy gal.

Wall-E is a 1st Generation Mac that Falls In Love With An iPod - How’s that Possible?

Talk about having to expand your mental schema around inter-species relationships. In the film Wall-E (adorable Pixar-Disney flick, btw), the film’s title character, a robut named Wall-E, falls in love with Eve, who is another robot that inhabits the form of a a sleek, whitish veneered androgynous (suppository-ish) Apple-looking product. Now Wall-E is a junky, vintage object, but even he even reboots himself each morning with the sound of a Mac starting up, so it’s clear the old chap is a bonafide Apple product (maybe an Apple IIe?). All this Apple love is no coincidence as the film’s computer generated voices were the product of Apple. Did you happen to see the trailers too?

WALL-E Is Here

Pixar’s Wall-E is opening in wide release today. We’ve been waiting for a long time to see the lonely robot who is still cleaning Earth, many years after humans have left the planet.

And not a word on Wanted!

P.S.

WALL-E reminds me of E.T. a little bit.

Mama Mia- The Movie

I can’t believe they turned Mama Mia into a movie. And what a cast: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and more. I got a chance to watch the show a few years ago in Vegas, and though the storyline was as stupid as a musical storyline can be, I enjoyed listening to the to the immortal ABBA songs performed by the cast.
But now they turned Mama Mia into a movie. That’s unbelievable!

Little Boxes No More: Is Weeds Going Too Far South?

Last night’s episode of “Weeds” featured a noticeable absence of song (and cheer) at the episode’s opening. So glaring was it that the opening shot simply showed a highway, the Mexican border, and two signs with the words “Weeds” and “Creator: Jenji Kohan” and jumped to Mary Louise Parker attempting to use bubbe’s vibrator as a hair dryer. The latter was more awkward funny than real funny.

Am I excited that Weeds is back for another season? Of course! Do I like the current storyline of Nancy, her brother-in-law, Andy, and her kids on the lam hiding out with Albert Brooks? Damn straight! More opportunity to hear the word “schlimazel” outside the context of 80s sitcoms. Ok, so I stolethat line. But I also miss the entire cast together and want some promise that their current non-Agrestic lives will be colliding in the near future with the people and storylines left behind, and most crucially the Nancy-Celia storyline.

Last night’s “Lady is a Charm” episode gave viewers a twist of hope in this department.

Elizabeth Perkins hinted that Nancy and Celia will be reunited and it only makes sense since Celia is currently taking the fall for Nancy’s booming pot business and it’s only a matter of time before she’s sprung free. To boot, Celia’s loverboy detective visited her at the end of last night’s episode and revealed an incriminating photo of Nancy and her drugpin boss, Guillermo, leaving us with the words, “I’m starting to believe you.”

While this season struggles to find its identity, I’m left with the disturbing thought that Showtime might try to make some sort of web contest to find the next theme song for Weeds. Hell, it might even become the next big reality TV show competition. In the meantime, however, crystal balls aside, it appears that more Yiddish vocabulary is in our immediate future and it’s fairly safe to say, Nancy will be assuming more drug running activities both north and south of the border.

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls, Used Cracked Pavements Instead

Remember your worst nightmare? The one involving you being discarded like yesterday’s trash and easily replaced? The one where you woke and realized that thankfully you weren’t dispensible or at the very least, it was all just a dream, but secretly questioning and doubting your abilities and cringing at your assessment of you self-worth?

Maybe these neurotic tendencies only creep up on me. It’s possible. As I was watching VH1 today, however, and seeing this new 20-year-old chanteuse from North London being hailed as the “new Amy Winehouse,” I had to sneak a listen to her. I also had to ask myself that why in an industry as vast as music, do we need to go around and recycle the same names. Winehouse was able to breathe new life into soul music and put it back on the map. She should be credited as such, in spite of all her drug-laden shenanigans. The girl’s got raw talent. Her predecessors are simply jumping on the over-crowded bandwagon.

And while the singer known as Adele (having your last name dropped from a label eliminates all those ugly pesky ethnic associations) might be more of a promising gamble in the professionalism dept. and she shares some things in common with Amy -notably they graduated from the same performing arts school and share a producer, Mark Ronson, Adele is no Amy, “chasing pavements” and all.

But you be the judge and listen and compare below.

What do Retirees in Florida Do All Day?

Ilana Donna goes to visit the folks in Florida and bites off a little more than even she can chew with the characters she encounters (and no, I’m talking about her family).

With a Goyishe Punim Like That…

Season 4 of Weeds premiered last night and I, for one, couldn’t have been more giddy. As a huge fan of the show, its premise, and in spite of my repressed jealousy for the fair Mary Louise Parker, the show’s start did nothing to sway my belief that this show represents one of the finest half-hour slots in entertainment on TV right now.
Last season ended with Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) torching her house and the entire Agrestic going up in flames. The police go into the basement of Celia’s (Elizabeth Perkin) house and discover Nancy’s booming pot operation and of course come to Celia looking for answers. Without disclosing too much here and potentially spoiling the experience for viewers, Albert Brooks joins the cast as Nancy’s father-in-law and the stereotypical Jewish father who regrets that his son married a goyishe woman. Brooks also doesn’t think much of Nancy’s eldest son, the one with the “goyishe punim” nor the fact that Nancy is eating the German dish, spatzle, and that she smells like gas. References to the Holocaust abound and you start to understand that the Jewish humor jokes are only going to increase exponentially with Brooks’ presence on the show.

The big open-ended question series’ creator Jenji Kohan had us all wondering last night is what’s going to happen with the storyline involving the show’s incredibly talented and witty supporting ensemble (Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, etc) who get left behind in Agrestic now that Nancy, her kids, and her brother-in-law have shacked up with Albert Brooks just north of the border. Kohan leaked to E! that a spin-off show might be in the works that would center around the the rest of the cast. Unfortunately for Nancy-Conrad fans, Kohan sees the split has something irrevocable:

“I love those characters; I just think those relationships wore themselves out, and I wanted to be true to where the characters were. Truthfully, Heylia and Nancy had nothing more to say to each other. Conrad and Nancy weren’t going to be the loves of each other’s lives, so it was time to move on.”

On the flipside, a spin-off might be a welcome relief as it will translate to a whole hour of Weeds entertainment back-to-back and that the Call Girl show will have move to another night. Nothing against the show or anything (’twas better than expected and I’ll admit it has more potential than Sex in the City as it lives up to its sexed-up hype and shows actual sex taking place in the city), but as David Hinckley of the NY Daily News said, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl is sexy enough, but ’tis a pity she’s a bore.”

For a sneak peak of Episode 2 of Weeds click here.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President