Shtisel (2013–2021) User Reviews

Family life and subtle sense of humour

[LucyBonette · 9/10 · 4 January 2019]

This is about a orthodox Jewish family. I am not Jewish and I don't know much about it, so it's interesting to see certain customs.

While it's a very different life from mine, it's so relatable! Family dynamics are just the same everywhere. They are real people that with all the feelings of pride, hurt and sibling rivalry. And there is such great humour in this show as well. I sometimes rewind scenes just to look at facial expressions of all involved, because the actors are great. All of them. The patriarch and youngest son are also played so well. Highly recommend, though it's clearly for a niche audience.

First review

[sufadufa · 10/10 · 31 December 2016]

Shtisel is a par above the best television and most cinema produced in Israel. My copious consumption of TV and film notwithstanding, I have never reviewed, but was compelled to when discovering the stunning absence of commentary for this stunning work of art.

In a hyper digitized culture this show is reactionary to say the least. It returns to the origin of the medium of moving pictures, storytelling. Beautiful, delicate, morally challenging and consistently human stories.

Technically the show is artful and precise, with a seemingly authentic, almost anthropological portrayal of a society that is generally inaccessible. Drama seems to arise slowly, patiently, through competent composition of scenes, performances that posses each character flawlessly, and again, stories that speak to the heart of who we are and how we relate to each other. Perhaps it takes a society that has not been swept by time as much as most, to demonstrate a few timeless truths that we can all relate to.

We live in the golden age of quality television, no doubt. But I can count on one hand the number of shows that humbly rely on the basics: acting and story. No FX, no cynicism, no melodrama. If you enjoy Detectorists, this'll probably be up your alley.

One of the BEST series on Netflix

[rvfrost · 10/10 · 29 January 2019]

I cannot describe how much I enjoyed watching this series. The pace is perfect, the quality and strength of characters is second to none. I have totally fallen love with all of them particularly Shtisel and his Father. Shtisel senior is a fantastic actor, his energy is magical and his mannerisms are amazing. I have learnt so much about the Orthodox Jewish community, it has been so enjoyable and interesting. PLEASE bring out series 3. I not am not sure why this series has appealed to me and touched my heart so much but it has. I am a huge fan of World Cinema and this is a unique and original peice of work.

The best TV I've ever seen. No- the best visual story I have seen in 70 years.

[wallyhawn · 10/10 · 1 May 2019]

There is no 'blowing up and cussing' as the cliche goes. Nothing, absolutely nothing spectacular until you watch it. These seem to be real people in real life situations that relate to life as it is lived. Beautifully presented videography, superbly written scenarios and acting- the acting!

A real gem

[radelman-68819 · 10/10 · 23 January 2017]

Without exception, everyone I know who has been introduced to this series is hooked almost immediately. It is beautifully written and acted and gives us a rare look at an Orthodox Israeli family that nevertheless must deal with universal problems, contradictions and consequences. The English subtitles do not distract from the show's dramatic impact or the actors' nuanced performances. Orthodox Jewish viewers will undoubtedly have a better understanding of the material; there are subtleties that can be appreciated only by those familiar with the lifestyle. But that should not preclude others from giving this show the opportunity it deserves. There appear to be conflicting reports concerning the production of Season 3. Hopefully we have not seen the last of this terrific series.

Deliciously different

[janewarren2 · 9/10 · 12 January 2019]

I started watching this by accident, and was hooked. It is so sweetly different and well worth a binge session. The characters were well written and not like the two dimensional ones in some dramas. I don't know anything about the Haredi community but this web of very human stories made me laugh out loud, brought me close to tears and left me wanting more.

Wonderful story!!

[prd-55578 · 1 January 2019]

Well at last I have found a program that I absolutely love. Grandma makes me laugh out loud, she is a real character. I am learning about this different culture and find it so interesting. So here it is 2019 and I have only just found it!! I think the actors are all superb! I wish it was more than just two series. Well done to all concerned. A really great and intelligent story.

Fantastic, best thing on Netflix at the moment in Australia if you like people dramas

[zippo8 · 10/10 · 16 January 2019]

This show is just so special, beautifully drawn, written & presented, I loved all the characters, the opening credits, the unpretentious un self conscious feel of it and how the many aspects of personality/ behaviour around grief loss deception yearning etc is portrayed. Highly recommended. It's a shame so many people will be binging on exploitative muck like YOU and missing this wonderful heart and soul contribution. Thanks to all involved.

Thank You Netflix

[bshaef · 9/10 · 24 April 2020]

Watched both series in a matter of days. This is the second Orthodox Jew series in a row for me. I'm thinking about buying one of those cool hats to wear.

What absolutely floored me was how each and every episode captured my immediate and full attention from beginning to end. Whoever wrote the script must be a genius. The acting was wonderful but the script was miles above anything I've seen in a long time. I would easily watch a third and fourth series and never once tire of them.

This series is Netflix at its finest. American network tv has a long way to go to catch up with this.

Love this film so much

[mal-86345 · 10/10 · 2 January 2019]

I am totally hooked on this and am sad that there is no 3rd series. It's amazing and the actors are fantastic. I especially love the girl Ruhami she's a brilliant actress. Please bring it back.

maybe the best TV series in the history of TV

[elizabethbrooks-45536 · 10/10 · 3 February 2019]

This came up on the Netflix portal and I avoided it, as being probably all about religion and patriarchy and just ... heavy. Something in the face of the actors Doval'e Glickman - then something in the face of Michael Aloni - (Shtisel father and son, and we never really know who we love more and who is our main character) - jumped out from the publicity images. I'm not Jewish and have always been a bit scared of orthodox anything. The story is really elemental and could take place at any time. It takes its time to explore the impact of seismic struggles between parents and children and husbands and wives, the kinds of struggles - that can forge your character or wreck your life - that many of us are doomed to go through. But these people more so because God can called on by both sides to bolster their arguments. And there is much love in it, even when the characters are treating each other brutally. There is also playfulness and urbanity and some magic. It takes place in Israel but because the ultraorthodox don't approve of the society they live in ('those evil people' they call the Zionists), you can set aside your personal views about the political situation. The cast is incredibly well chosen for their roles, all very distinctive and lovable, even the bad characters; the acting is very fine; the pace is perfectly judged and the writing never intrudes; the locations are authentic-seeming; and the whole structure has the weight and momentum of myth, more truth than a true story and more treasurable and satisfying than anything else I can think of in any artform over the past decade or so. Thank you to all who collaborated and created this series - if you never did anything again in your life, you can be content you have reached a level of beauty that may not have previously been achieved in television.

Israeli family saga studies tension between authority and compassion

[maurice_yacowar · 10/10 · 11 April 2019]

As this TV drama was the most compelling and detailed since The Sopranos, I gave it the same kind of episode by episode analysis that I gave The Sopranos about 20 years ago (The Sopranos on the Couch, published by Continuum). My new study is Reading Shtisel.

Certainly different.

[linda-plant2 · 6/10 · 24 March 2021]

Being a Gentile, I found this a wonderful insight into the lives of the Ultra Orthodox Jewish religion. I agree with everything said in other reviews, and clearly some of the customs and practices were obvious. Eating, is very big if this drama is to be believed, and yes some of the older rabbis are not well versed in table manners. I also had to look up how this community survive financially with the men spending most of their time in study. Even when getting married with no visible means of an income, this doesn't seem to be a problem. It was nevertheless a compelling watch.

Awesome costumes but seriously unrealistic plot

[israel2822 · 5/10 · 14 November 2017]

I understand the rave reviews others have posted, I assume that if I was required (I wouldn't volunteer) to write a review for a series about the Amish this would have happened to me since I don't know enough about them (except how they dress). there's one things that binds them all they are not orthodox. I am. There's one thing they got perfect and for that I gotta give credit: The costumes. they are so spot on that they would pass even a close inspection and fool anyone in the street. as for the rest, well: The actors are decent (by Israeli standards not Hollywood's) their interactions would have been real anywhere outside of where they purport to portray. and here is the big problem: NONE; NOT EVEN A SINGLE ONE of the story lines and story arcs would actually cut it in the real world in the real religious community this couldn't possibly happen, none of it. they basically took a story from the secular world and inserted Ultra orthodox characters I was severely disappointed I expected them to have done better research being in Israel and in close proximity to the actual community.

so for all the people hoping to get a glimpse or an insight into the lives of a religious family you are sadly misled, just because they are dressed so does not make it so and the costume definitely does not make the clown in this case.

I only gave five stars because of the costumes, they're just phenomenal.

Stunning

[edhewetson · 7 March 2019]

I've just watched series 1 and 2. Shtisel is outstanding. I've rarely watched anything so gripping and moving. This is as good as TV gets.

A liberal American Jew is totally smitten!

[jfpastor · 10/10 · 14 January 2019]

I've just finished watching the entire two seasons of Shtisel. I was totally engaged from the beginning and wanted to know all about the characters and their stories. I confess to having been a binge watcher. As a liberal but committed American Jew, I really liked the opportunity to become more familiar with the ultra orthodox community and can better understand how they live their lives. I can't wait to see what's next with Libbe and Kive and Ruchami and her husband. The acting is also superb.

Soundtrack

[mahler-19840 · 10/10 · 14 August 2020]

I do not need to add to the reviews already posted. I do however have to say that Avi Belleli's soundtrack is a absolutely marvelous piece of work. Check it out folks....

Superb in every respect

[PeterHerrmann · 10/10 · 15 August 2019]

... acting, writing, directing, casting, cinematography, etc. It starts slow ... first time I tried watching I gave up before the end of Episode 1. But user reviews persuaded me to give it another go. Glad I did. One could write a doctoral dissertation on the many themes of this series: family relationships, orthodoxy vs the individual, how some characters who are like-able (extremely so) do cruel, unthinking things to their kin - for what they think are the best intentions. How intelligent people can do stupid things, etc. I just finished the episode in Season 2 in which - for a truly magical -and sad - few seconds - Kive, on a bus in Jerusalem, looks out the window and sees the snow falling in Antwerp. (The context is clear if you've watched the series, otherwise not). The series is just full of such brilliant little touches. I'm a secular American jew who has never understood the orthodox world; perhaps this series helps me understand better. Perhaps the opposite, if it distorts that world - I have no framework of reference. Or, perhaps like all cultures, it's too big and varied to encapsulate with just one extended family (the Shtisels). It's a refreshing change from many series: no violence, warm, entertaining, sometimes infuriating, sometimes LOL funny. Just great.

Well worth to watch

[manugw · 9/10 · 31 December 2018]

Totally addictive, great character developments. Intense dramas with an omnipresent fine touch. Welcome to an approach to the life of an ultraorthodox Jewish family of Jerusalem.

Haredi life at its best

[true-vips · 10/10 · 29 December 2018]

It is unbelievably good how the director could put life and emotion together to show the haredi's life.

Passion, love, intrigues and some thrilling emotion make this TV Show iconic.

Don't miss it.

A breath of fresh air from an unknown territory

[dierregi · 8/10 · 4 May 2020]

Knowing absolutely nothing about orthodox Jews I had no expectations about this series, which I started watching after the mini-series Unorthodox.

I only had the vague idea that a community of people who spend their lives studying holy books should have higher moral standards than the rest of us. Turns out, it was definitely not the case.

If on one hand I was disappointed to see that the alleged "saint men" are as prone to misbehaving as anybody else, it was also refreshing to see how intensely human their stories are and how easy it is to relate to most of them (not quite all).

We witness the pain of unrequited love; the fear of starting a new relationship after a certain age (and two deceased husbands); the burden of keeping a family after having married way too young; the grief for the loss of a devoted spouse but also the petty intrigues and the endless meddling into each other's affairs.

The characters are complex human beings, with defects and all: Akiva is a idealistic young man who doesn't quite fit in; Shulem the meddlesome father who would like to let the past behind but cannot quite move forward; Giti is the imprisoned wife and mother who must deny at all costs all her frustration and unhappiness; Lipe is also not quite fitting in but with no more wiggle room, etc...

Most interesting and very recommended.

-Outstanding TV drama Shtisel-

[humbrey_vilas · 10/10 · 13 July 2019]

This is the first time I am watching a Israeli TV show on Netflix. Wonderful ! after a long time you get hooked to a TV serial like this.As if you never wanted it to end. But all good things come to a end. Nukhem & Ruchami stood out as my - the two most endearing performances.- Esp Nukhem he was a such a natural. The vast exposure to the culture, food,religion ,relationships transports you into their world.

All others too, played their part so well that you cannot forget them.

This serial has made me realise that countries are different but the people in them are the same.Those conflicts, those doubts & most of all struggles in relationships. The act of forgiveness in the serial says a lot.

Shtisel has made me feel that I must visit Israel.Just have to go there! Brilliant story telling.

Beautiful. Very well done.

[morris-82284 · 10/10 · 7 February 2019]

Funny and sad. Real. Excellent acting and directing.

Yeah, but...

[SirenSongWoman · 7/10 · 16 July 2019]

... What happened to the dog?! A fun story if you don't look to close because there are a lot of holes throughout.

An Absurd Israeli Soap Opera

[sdavid-41660 · 2/10 · 2 June 2020]

Shtisel is an Israeli soap opera incongruously set among the Haredim (strictly religious ultra-Orthodox Jews).

I've sat next to enough Haredim on long El Al flights and observed their insular and cloistered lifestyle over the decades to know that, unlike Kiva and his family, they don't act out of lust; they don't watch The Bold and the Beautiful on TV (or watch any TV, for that matter); they consider portrait painting idolatry, not art; and they don't hang out together in cafes shooting the breeze.

The secular Israelis who wrote and produced Shtisel do all of these things, of course, but they are as distant from the Haredim as Earth is to Tatooine. The behavior of the Haredim in Shtisel is as foreign and as absurd as them staging a production of Shakespeare in Elizabethan English. Simply put, the Haredim don't act this way.