Has anyone watched Unorthodox on Netflix?

[ihatethecold]

I loved it. Really fascinating and interesting to see inside the traditions and customs of Hasidic Jews.
It sent me down a rabbit hole googling questions afterwards.
The men’s hats are incredible.

lotusbell also that the very first bloke (person) she meets in a cafe she fancies and has the beginning of a fling with and all his friends absorb her into their group no questions asked.

There's only really Yael who questions her. None if them ask about her life really, why she is there, where she is stopping, how she is paying for things etc yet they all welcome her to the group and seem excited to see her every time she shows up. She says she really needs the scholarship yet she has nothing to practice on. The bit where she is googling how to get a job is odd too as nothing happens after her searching the streets on lampposts.
What is the timeframe of the parts in Berlin, a couple of days or longer? She goes in search of her mum but after that initial visit to the flat when her mum isn't there, she doesn't hang around to find her,only going back later when she's desperate yet isn't she the reason she goes to Berlin? I have so many questions! I hope there is another season.

@lotusbell I think she is waiting for her mum nearby and then sees her kissing her partner. Esty looks shocked at this and I think that is why she is reluctant to go back.

That's true, I'd forgotten about that. Plus, she does get distracted by her new friends.

I assumed the time in Berlin was a few weeks? There was time for her to meet the friends, apply for the scholarship, and then get an audition. I’m sure that wouldn’t happen within days. She also managed to get an appointment with the doctor and confirm pregnancy, have scan etc. Not sure how quickly that would happen in Germany for someone who had just moved and wasn’t on all the necessary registers yet etc.

Here is another film called "Unorthodox" it is a documentary made by an MIT student who was raised in a Modern Orthodox family and by High School was an atheist. The film follows three Modern Orthodox High School graduates who spend a year in Israel, which is a rite of passage for many North American Jews. She wants to understand why so many young people, many of whom, like her are cynical or uncommitted to their faith, become religious after that year. It follows them all (and her own trajectory) over four years and beyond.

Chandler the health system in Germany is very efficient. She is a Germany citizen and so could quickly arrange health insurance and be seen by a doctor within days. When I lived in Germany I never had to wait longer than a week to see any doctor, even specialists. The GP and pediatrician you could usually the same day. Unless of course it was well-child check-ups and the like which you might put on your calender for 3 months in the future.

Also if the doctor thought you were stressed/depressed/burnt out they could sign you off work and send you to a spa for a month (or longer) many on the North Sea coast. You could take your kids who would be looked after and receive schooling while you were there! All covered by German insurance.

Wow!! That’s a pretty amazing set up! Thanks womanlywiles.

I’m guessing the audition may have been a speedy process too then?

Agree that was all too fairy tale with a ready made friendship group. I thought it was made more realistic when they told her her piano playing was not remotely at the right level.

Such an impressively articulate woman.

I've been looking for this thread to finally add my two cents. I read the book and didn't want to watch the series until I'd finished.
Devorah Feldman's story is so compelling, so richly and beautifully told. While I understand Unorthodox the TV series is hers and others' stories of leaving that community mingled together, it's really worth reading the book for a better insight, a better story to be honest, than what the TV series offered. The TV series just didn't go deep enough for me. It was too much of a 'cat and mouse' game. The characters deserved way more depth. Read the book! It is WONDERFUL. Sadly, the show seemed so lightweight by comparison. I so wanted to love the series.

Just finished the last episode of Shtisel.

Now this is a great show! I'm watching this currently and the characters and their stories unfold slowly but deeply. It's compelling. Michael Aloni is wonderful!

I'm onto Feldmans book, it arrived today.
I'm up to episode 8 of Shtisel, didn't realise each series was 12 episodes long!
Really enjoying it but am limited to when I can watch it as the Netflix is on DS13's PS4 so can only get on when he goes to his dad's! Probably a good thing as I'd idle away a full day! So good!

I loved it too!

Bloody brilliant!

I thought the music academy friendship group was a good way to advance the story. International students tend to be open and inclusive, especially in that dorm-style setup they had. When I studied abroad, I found a great openness amongst other foreign students, and the sense that this was your new temporary family, but the native students were generally not that interested.

I found the head shaving scene very upsetting.

I thought you might all be interested in this legend/story about one of the great Jewish sages. The story is about his wife Rachel, and how she sacrificed everything and worked to support herself so that her husband, a poor shepherd, might study the Torah. This is the kind of heroic, self-sacrificing wife I imagine many of the most Orthodox traditions offer as models. When Gitti (from Shtisel) tries to persuade her husband to keep studying you understand she sees it as the highest calling in life, even though he doesn't seem to have a vocation for Torah study that intense.That is the norm in her family where her father and brothers are Rabbis/scholars. www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111936/jewish/Rachel-Rabbi-Akibas-Wife.htm

p.s. remember when she goes all "Jewish Mother" on the Rabbi of the yeshiva that rejects her eldest son!

Im so glad so many people have enjoyed watching Unorthadox.

I will check the link out Womanlywiles, Thanks

Womanywiles - that series of Strictly Kosher is brilliant. Thanks for the link.

Strictly Kosher was brilliant! I was surprised though that the stricter ones agreed to go on camera, I thought orthodox Jews weren't allowed to?

Just finished watching this today and thought it ended rather abruptly with no actual ending to it have they just left it on a cliff hanger ? She just walks out of the hotel after knocking down moishe and thats it ?

Just finished watching it. Here are my views.

The portrayal of Berlin and the musician friends all hanging out together like in the series Friends e.g. clubbing at the gay club was annoyingly stereotypical.

Most of the scenes with the group of Berlin friends were shot like a beer ad, high gloss, super styled and as if the group was completely cohesive (in its diversity) which was silly and unconvincing. Berlin out of all places is not like that. I felt that the 'Group of Friends' was used like a prop, so many characters but none were explore in any further depth. They were the backdrop against which Esti's character was presented, to me this felt exploitative.

My favourite character out of the group was the Israeli woman especially when she said that most of them had been practicing their instrument daily since their were kids. I also liked the reference to her having played her instrument in the army orchestra, I found this interesting. She was the only one who was suitably suspicious about how Esti had just waltzed into their lives.

The scene at the gay club DJ music was great though made me cringe so much. Loaded with cliches, (the red lipstick, her getting off with the guy etc) such a shame. It was too sterile and glossy. Berlin is really quite grubby and the people there are mostly not stylish or sleek, they are a bit scruffy and say it as it is so they can come across as a bit rude and loud mouthed but also fiercely non corporate. None of this lovely spirit was captured in the series.

I watched Deutschland 83 and loved it though I don't know how realistic it was as I don't now much about Eastern Germany but the filmography and story were outstanding.

Back to Unorthodox, what really grated on my is that the community was presented in such a black and white way. I would have liked to see more shades of grey and find it sad and a missed opportunity not to show the inner inevitable conflicts of some of the other characters in the community. I would have been interested to find out more about the community and felt it was presented in a very negative light e.g. Good Esty who loves music and her freedom wants to leave the 'bdad' stifling community. We all rooted for her of course but all the elements in the story, the piano teacher, her learning the piano secretly and being an accomplished vocal soloist were contrived imo.

All in all i found the series sadly 'othering' and expected more. I felt frustrated at the men doing their macho men thing and the programme did little to evoke any understanding or empathy towards this presumably rather strange community.

RainySaturday I found it on YouTube a couple of years ago. I will watch it every so often because it cheers me up (except for poor Jack's story as a Holocaust survivor, although it was so good to see his happy life in England and his grandkids). I love Bernie and her family and the camp guy with the clothing store. It definitely conveys a very strong sense of community which I really enjoy.

paoninthepoinsetta I am not Jewish but when Modern Orthodox Bernie goes to visit her daughter in Israel I believe her dd lives in a more orthodox community than the one she was raised in and we don't see her or her children on camera. My impression is something like whether a community will be willing to be filmed can be down to the interpretation of their Rabbis and that particular group's traditions. Some traditions all observant Jewish people will practice, such as the boys having a bris, observing the sabbath, eating Kosher but then many other things are much more open to cultural interpretation. Bernie is very observant but doesn't cover her hair because she was raised in Ireland and she said her community didn't cover.