Let's chat: What are you watching (and how Jewish is it?)
It may be hard to believe since we call ourselves the Jewish TV Club, but we do still find ourselves watching TV that isn’t Jewish (gasp). And we still want to talk about it! So today we want to know: what are you watching right now, and how Jewish is it on a scale of 1-10?
I’ll start: I constantly have laundry to fold, but I find it nearly impossible to do unless Chip and Joanna Gaines are on my TV screen. So I was thrilled to see an ad for “Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse” pop up on Max after I finished watching “Hacks.” (If you haven’t been following along, since their HGTV show “Fixer Upper” ended, Chip and Joanna Gaines have become media moguls, turned Waco, Texas into a tourist destination, and renovated a castle1, a hotel and now this lakehouse.) I was going to rate “Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse” a 0 on a scale of Jewishness, but then I remembered that Tim Tebow showed up in the final episode so I’m going to knock it down to a negative 25.
Your turn! Comment below: What are you watching, and how Jewish would you rate it on a scale of 1-10?
It’s not a castle! It’s a slightly old building in Waco! I seriously object to this terminology.
I recently finished the third season of "Hacks" which has consistently been so, so good from the first season on. I would definitely not call it a Jewish show, but let me do some math to figure out its Jewish ranking: 1 point for Deborah Vance being sort of modeled after Joan Rivers + 1 point for Jewish actor Hannah Einbinder even though her character Ava isn't Jewish + 1 point for the third season having a joke about Kayla throwing herself a bat mitzvah even though she's not Jewish - 1 point for having a Christmas episode + 1 point for just being very funny = 3 on the Jewishness scale
I just finished Kafka and Fire Dance on Chai Flicks and both were excellent. "Fire Dance" is a Jewish show as it is focused on an Orthodox sect in Israel. What saddens me is that non-Jews will turn away from a show like this which has universal themes of family, loss of innocence, and non-conformity. "Kafka" is a show that transcends its network as it is an interesting, and intriguing view into an author that we associate with dark literature.