Add Decider on Google Where to Stream: Fauda Powered by Reelgood More On: lior raz Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Off Road’ On Netflix, A Reality Series Where Two Popular Israeli Actors Travel Together Through Kyrgyzstan And Kazakhstan Netflix Israeli Drama ‘Fauda’ Crew Member Reported Dead In Gaza ‘The Crowded Room’ Episode 7 Is Cathartic for All the Wrong Reasons Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Crowded Room’ On Apple TV+, Where Tom Holland Is A Teen Who Unpacks His Complex Life After He’s Accused Of A Shooting The last time the Israeli series Fauda dropped a new season was in early 2023, a few months before the horrific October 7 attacks. Close to three years after those attacks, the show’s creators have come up with a story related to that day that’s the series’ most personal story to date.
Opening Shot: We see the definition of Tha’r, which is Arabic for “blood revenge.” Then we see a man praying over his son’s grave.
The Gist: Salem (Bian Anteer), a Bedouin, lost his son during the October 7 attacks, when a Nukhba (i.e. Hamas) terrorist found and killed the teenager in the safe room of the house of his friend Eli (Yaakov Zada-Daniel). Salem goes to the settlement where Eli lives and tells his Israeli friend that he found out that the terrorist has settled in Marseille, France; he thinks the two of them should travel there and get “blood revenge,” considering that Eli also lost people in the attacks.
Eli comes to his old IDF colleague Doron Kavillio (Lior Raz), who is having PTSD-related memory problems after October 7, to tell him about Salem’s revenge plot. After finding that both Eli and Salem have left for Marseille, with help from Gabi (Itzik Cohen), another old IDF colleague, Doron travels to the French city to see if he can prevent Salem and Eli from executing such a dangerous plot.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Fauda certainly takes its cues from Hatufim (aka Prisoners of War), the series that Homeland was based on.
Our Take: Fauda, created by Raz and Avi Issacharoff, has always been about the people working on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sometimes in opposition but sometimes together. With its previous season bowing a few months before the October 7, 2023 attacks, we’re actually surprised its taken this long for Raz and Issacharoff to come up with a good story in response. We’re glad they and their writers took the time, though, because they’ve come up with their most personal story yet.
Doron and Eli were affected by October 7 in different ways, and as much as Doron — or his wife Gali (Netta Garti) — doesn’t want to get involved in a deep cover operation, especially after the October 7 trauma, he also needs to protect his friend Eli. So, while there will be a fair amount of espionage, shootouts, and everything this show is known for, the specter of one of Israel’s worst days will be present throughout the season. Just don’t expect much in the way of nuance when it comes to the massively costly Gaza war that followed the Hamas attacks.
Performance Worth Watching: Lior Raz has a heck of a presence on Fauda, whether he’s trying to retrieve his memories of October 7, or as he helps Eli find the group of Nukhbas who killed his loved ones.
Parting Shot: After going to the restaurant owned by the former Nukhba terrorist, Doron finds the bloody aftermath of Salem and Eli’s visit, including an injured Eli in an alley around the corner.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The fifth season of Fauda goes in a bit of a different direction than the first four, but it’s also a fascinating look at how characters we’ve known for years respond to the horrors and aftermath of October 7.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
