Autonomies

Six episodes long, the series doesn't take time to explain how, in this alternative or future reality, first a civil war split Israel into a secular state and a religious state and then a controversial proposal to re-unite the states became an option. But since the premise is so fundamentally imaginary, the integrity and credibility of the environment is vital to the series. And although a more thorough exposition would have been welcome, the presentation is believable. The first couple of episodes set us up and introduce some interesting and well-acted characters, the middle episodes crank up the tension with a well-scripted surprise or two, and the ending holds a surprise of its own in which a relatively minor character assumes importance. But too much else in the final episode seems to be, as we say in Hebrew, "patches upon patches," as if everyone at the conference table got to have a different idea stitched onto the script. I was disappointed, because some of Israel's favorite actors are involved and, up to that point, the series had done a good job of selling the characters and their story.