"The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem" has now completed two seasons. It follows, thus far, three generations of a middle-class Sephardic Jewish family living through British rule and thus far extended into World War II. The individual members of the Armoza family have distinct personalities which allows a variety of storylines. Grandma Mercada (Irit Kaplan) is strong-willed and traditional. Her son, Gabriel (Michael Aloni), is weak-willed and deceptive. He's forced to marry Rosa (Hila Saada), a woman he doesn't love. Rosa has a younger brother, Ephraim (Tom Hagi) who is part of the resistance to British rule. Gabriel's first love is an Ashkenazi Jewish woman, Rochel (Yuval Scharf). Gabriel and Rosa have three daughters--Luna (Swell Ariel Or) is the beauty queen and Gabriel's favorite. Rochelita (Eli Steen) is the brainy one in the family. The Franco family is the near neighbors to the Armozas.
The series begins in the 1920s and ends with 1941. The second season continues the war years, ending around 1944. "The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem" is entertaining soap opera. It relies greatly on family members keeping secrets from another, especially Gabriel. Breakthroughs come only in unavoidable crises. Even the storyline is somewhat predictable, it does weave historical threads together in an interesting fashion. And the writing is good enough so that the characters develop clear personalities even though they don't seem to learn any life lessons along way.
