This week on TV: Temperatures rise in ‘Tehran,' Shtisel spin-off, and 'The Jihadist'

Keep up-to-date with all the latest and best shows on TV and streaming this week.

By HANNAH BROWN DECEMBER 21, 2024 04:57

A SCENE from ‘Tehran.’ (photo credit: Kan 11/Apple TV)

The second episode of Tehran’s third season, which aired Monday on KAN 11 and is available on kan.org.il, really turns up the heat, with the kind of action and suspense fans of the series have come to expect.

Toward the end of the first episode, Yulia, Tamar’s Mossad boss, is angry at her for being disobedient, and says that she is sending in a mysterious agent called the Owl, to take care of the renegade agent. In the second episode, this ruthless agent manages where so many have failed, and abducts and tortures Tamar. 

One of the biggest surprises so far is that he is played by the likable and soft-spoken Sasson Gabay. I would have thought that Gabay was too sweet to be credible as a character like this, but his low-key demeanor on Tehran has a real undercurrent of menace. 

It wasn’t long of course before Tamar had convinced him, and he convinced Yulia, to let her go off on another adventure that could lead the Mossad to blocking the delivery of whatever part it is that the Iranians need to complete the development of their nuclear weapon.

Just as it was clear from the opening episode that this season’s overarching theme would be how ordinary Iranians cope with the regime’s repressive laws, this episode moves on from women’s issues to showing how smugglers control the flow of goods into the country, with the regime doing business with them. 

‘THE JIHADIST’ (credit: Yes Docu)

Tamar needs to get close to a master smuggler, who meets with people in the back room of a restaurant. As he offered her lunch, I realized that it had been several episodes since anyone had fallen in love with her, so it was about time.

Hugh Laurie continues to be cantankerous as Eric Peterson, head of the UN nuclear inspection squad. He has an Iranian girlfriend and a troubled relationship with his daughter, who keeps ducking his calls. He seems to be engaged in some kind of surveillance to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Iranians are creating nuclear weapons.

At the end of the episode, Tamar impulsively but foolishly rushes in to defend a woman on the street being threatened by the morality police for wearing her hijab improperly, and finds herself taken into Iranian police custody, much to the dismay of the Owl.

IT’S WORTH noting that this Emmy-winning series, popular all over the world, was created by and is shown on the same government broadcasting service that the coalition currently seeks to close down. KAN has created many other acclaimed series that can now be streamed worldwide, including Checkout, Dismissed, and Valley of Tears. 

And, unlike most of the other television options available here, KAN’s programming is available in Israel for free, which makes it all the more mystifying why anyone would want to shut it down. I can’t speak to any details of the way the company is run, but as a consumer I know how much I enjoy its programs.

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KAN also has a very strong documentary division, and if you’re interested in secrets and nuclear programs, you might want to check out the documentary series The Atom and Me, which is also available on its website. It’s a fascinating look at how the never officially confirmed Israeli nuclear program came into being. Israel acquired the necessary materials through a circuitous route, which eventually involved a factory in Pennsylvania. 

The series features interviews with the late Benjamin Bloomberg, who had a key role in this story, which involved many famous figures in the US and Israeli intelligence communities, including James Jesus Angleton and even Arnon Milchan, the movie mogul who is caught up in one of the prime minister’s trials.

Kugel – IZZY

Kugel, the Shtisel spinoff starring Sasson Gabay as Nukhem Shtisel and Hadas Yaron as his daughter Libby, which recently launched on Yes in Israel, will become available on IZZY, the global streaming service for Israeli content, in early 2025. The platform can be streamed in 60 countries. That’s good news for Shtisel fans around the world who want to watch Kugel, a prequel which is in Hebrew and Yiddish and is set in Antwerp.

The Jihadist –Yes VOD and Sting+

If you’re curious about our new neighbor to the north, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, you can check out The Jihadist, the documentary about him on Yes VOD and Sting+ that is an episode of the Frontline newsmagazine series. It originally aired in 2021 and is billed as the first interview Jolani ever gave to Western media. Frontline host Martin Smith visited him at his base in the Idlib province. 

The best news about this whole interview is that Smith and his crew weren’t kidnapped, so that’s something. Other than that, there isn’t much that will reassure you here. Jolani and his followers believe in strict adherence to Sharia Law and imprisoned many of their opponents, torturing them and treating them with exactly the same kind of brutality seen in the recently opened prisons operated by the Assad regime.

American journalist Theo Padnos, who was kidnapped and abused by Jolani’s forces, is interviewed and makes some interesting comments about the centrality of money to the Jihadis’ struggle. “Money is the mother’s milk of the Jihad,” he says, noting that without cash, the fighters don’t stay loyal to their leaders. The Jihadist brings to mind the French saying, Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Parenthood – Netflix

SOME MAY be excited about the second season of Squid Game, which is coming to Netflix on December 26, but if you’re looking for something less violent, you might want to try Parenthood. Originally shown here on Yes and moved to Prime Video for a couple of years, it has just become available on Netflix. 

It’s a reworking of the Ron Howard movie of the same name starring Steve Martin, but the series is a bit lighter and more endearing. Parenthood is the story of three generations of the Bravermans, a close-knit family in Berkeley, California, one of the most likable TV families in history. This show was never as much of a hit as some similar series, such as This Is Us, which is a shame – but now you have the chance to discover or rediscover it.

Because the characters range from young children to 70-year-olds, it’s likely that everyone will find someone to identify with. The series gets going when Sarah (Lauren Graham of The Gilmore Girls) moves back to her parents’ home with her two teenage children, after having run away nearly 20 years earlier. 

Another major storyline is when Max (Max Burkholder), the son of Adam (Peter Krause of Six Feet Under and 9-1-1) and Kristina (Monica Potter), is diagnosed with autism. The series creator, Jason Katims, has a son on the autism spectrum, and this is a heartfelt and realistic look at what families go through after an autism diagnosis. Among the outstanding actors who played roles on the show are Michael B. Jordan, who went on to star in the Creed movies, Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond, and Xolo Mariduena of Cobra Kai.