Fauda finally announced its Netflix international release date is September 8, when you will be able to stream its fifth season with English subtitles.
But that’s almost a month away, and what will you watch till then? One option, obviously, is to re-watch the previous season, which introduced new characters and spanned several continents. But I would recommend going back even further and starting with the first season, so you can see how the characters and themes develop.
Another suggestion is to watch a different thriller series in the meantime. Legends, the new Netflix series about British customs agents cracking an international drug ring, is one of the best recent ones and shows how drug cartels operate around the world, as does Narcos, which is also on Netflix.
On Apple TV+, Slow Horses is a good option, even though it’s far more comic than Fauda, but it really does build suspense. It was recently announced that the sixth season of Slow Horses will be released on September 16.
If you are looking for something a little lighter, a series that fits that sweet spot between too dark and too dumb, then check out Parenthood, which has just become available on Hot VOD and Next TV, and will be shown on Hot 3 starting at the end of August. The series is also available on Netflix.
I have recommended this series in the past because it helped me get through the pandemic and the early days of the war.
Parenthood brings three generations of a complicated family to life
Unlike other essentially feel-good series that were a bit more grandiose or contrived, like This Is Us, Parenthood tells the story of a loving but complicated three-generation family in Berkeley, California. It was based on a darker, more cynical movie of the same name starring Steve Martin, but other than a few plotlines, it has little relation to the movie.
Usually, in a series like this, you tend to like one generation, but here, they are all equally engaging. The oldsters are Zeke (Craig T Nelson), a demanding Vietnam veteran with an unpredictable side, and Camille (Bonnie Bedelia, who has never been more charming), an aspiring painter who gave it all up to be a supermom to her four children.
The adult children are the main protagonists, and the series gets going when prodigal daughter Sarah (Lauren Graham of The Gilmore Girls) moves home, years after running off with a musician, bringing along her two teenagers, Amber (Mae Whitman of Good Girls) and Drew (Miles Heizer from People We Meet on Vacation).
The rebellious Sarah learned far too late that her parents were right about her ex and is trying to build a new life for herself, which is a struggle since bartending is her only marketable skill.
Her brother, Adam (Peter Krause of Six Feet Under), encouraged her to make the move back to the family home. An executive at a shoe company, he is the good son, and he is the one everyone comes to with their problems.
But he is dealing with a big problem of his own when his son Max (Max Burkholder, one of the standouts in a great cast) is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome.
Julia (Erika Christenson), a control-freak lawyer, and Crosby (Dax Shepard), an unreliable sound engineer who has to grow up in a hurry when a former flame returns, round out the Braverman second generation.
The supporting cast includes Michael B Jordan, who just won the Best Actor Oscar for Sinners; comic Ray Romano of the series Everybody Loves Raymond; and Xolo Mariduena, who starred in the Cobra Kai series.
Besides the likability of the entire cast, the series, created by Jason Katims, has several unusual aspects. One is that the writing is so much less predictable than on most television shows. Another is that the Asperger storyline, based on Katims’ own family, is just one story among many; it’s just part of life.
A third is the soundtrack, which features great indie and offbeat music, including a gospel version of Bob Dylan’s “To Make You Feel My Love” and dozens of other songs that may well end up on your playlist.
Two of the characters eventually team up to open a recording studio, and many real musicians drift through the show, including CeeLo Green recording a Janis Joplin song and Glen Hansard, the Irish musician who passed away recently.
Monster explores the origins of evil in post-Cold War Germany
I’ve watched quite a few anime series, and the only one I’ve ever been moved to re-watch is Monster, available with English subtitles on Netflix. I was introduced to it by one of my sons, and it’s really unlike anything out there, both in the anime world and in general.
Based on a famous manga series by Naoki Urasawa, the series brings Urasawa’s drawings to life, and they are beautiful.
This isn’t the kind of anime where everyone has exaggerated round eyes, but rather a far more realistic style.
Monster opens with a quote about the beast from the Book of Revelation, and it tells an ambitious story that grapples with no less a topic than the origin of evil. Set in Germany mainly during the decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, its hero is a brilliant young Japanese neurosurgeon named Kenzo Tenma, who has come to Europe to finish his training.
Tenma is ambitious but has a strong moral compass. When Johan, a child whose life he saved, turns up years later, Tenma learns to his horror that the young man is a psychopathic murderer. Even worse, Johan frames the surgeon for his crimes, and Tenma must go on the run, determined to save the world from this monstrous killer.
The series provides a kind of snapshot of Germany in that era. The path to Johan leads to an East German eugenics project in an orphanage, whose creators tried to twist children’s minds using a frightening fairy tale.
There are a little over 70 episodes of Monster, and each runs about 20 minutes, so it will keep you busy for a while – and it’s hard to stop at just one. If you can watch the English version, you will get to hear Liam O’Brien as Tenma, which is considered to be one of the greatest performances in anime.
The bottom line is that Monster plays as if Alfred Hitchcock had come back to life and decided to direct an anime.
Shark Week may be over, but there’s still plenty to watch
Maybe you didn’t get your fill of shark content when Shark Week ran on the Discovery Channel, and Sharkfest was shown on National Geographic Wild. The good news is that there is still a lot of shark content out there, perfect to watch on mind-numbingly hot days.
Obviously, the great shark movie will always be Jaws, which is available to rent or buy on Apple TV+. People may not remember that there were multiple Jaws sequels that Steven Spielberg had nothing to do with. They are all beyond terrible, but the most unintentionally funny one is Jaws: The Revenge.
It is set mostly in the Bahamas and stars acclaimed actor Michael Caine, who has admitted he was having financial problems when he signed on to the role. Most of the Jaws sequels are available on Apple TV+, although Jaws fans will probably have more fun with the documentary, Jaws@50: The Definitive Inside Story, available on Disney+.
Disney+ is truly the king of shark content among the streamers, featuring over 20 shark documentaries, so there may be one you haven’t seen yet. You might enjoy the two newest documentaries, the Up Close series with the genial British researcher and filmmaker Bertie Gregory, Hammerhead Sharks: Up Close and Sharks: Up Close.
There’s also Sharkcano, a documentary that reveals that wherever there are active volcanoes, the nearby waters are filled with sharks. Could there be a connection, or was this documentary created mainly because the title sounds like Sharknado?
You’ll have to watch it to find out.
