Toy criminals: "4:20" is a well-worn imitation of Israeli crime series that is a decade and a half old | Israel Hayom

Recently the crime has raised its head and stopped being ashamed. Criminal organizations have intensified, guns roam freely on the streets, enforcement is selective, laws are flexible, and the general economic situation is in shambles. I want to say: We are in 2023, crime is rampant uncontrollably, but Israeli television is still unable to produce quality and original crime series.

This is a long-standing trend. Since "The Arbitrator" and "Asfur," quite a few scripted works have been broadcast here about a criminal environment that operates in an Israeli reality, and almost always the result is embarrassing, strange, boring or shallow. "Queens", "Dumb", "The Cops", "Naps" and other forgotten series, did not raise the bar for anyone else. In fact, with the exception of "The Informer" and "Sons of Light," I couldn't recall any local productions of the genre worth taking seriously.

And here, even "4:20," HOT's new crime series, doesn't provide any standards and operates on the basis of — come on, let's do something with guns, drugs and snakes, cops, scientists and childish fart humor. In "4:20," Oz Zahavi plays the father of a girl with epilepsy who needs medical cannabis, and when the rare strain is no longer within his reach, he is sucked into the underworld along with two toy criminals who need immediate money, but because of their stupidity only get more and more complicated.

Although it explores an important subject – the deadly combination of medical cannabis and the world of crime – "4:20" remains a light and goofy series that passes without a cohesive statement, without tension, depth or meaning. Just flirting between normativity and the dark world through a leading mastermind and some monotonous unsophisticated characters. Therefore, when you shoot one of the supporting characters in the head - it does not trigger emotions and does not bring anyone down.

Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that an entire generation grew up with "The Arbitrator" and "Asfur" as models for good television, rather than being inspired by "The Undercover" and "The Sopranos," hence crime series like them tend to be unfounded, stigmatized, predictable and banal.

The series "4:20", photo: Ohad Romano and courtesy of HOT and NEXT TV

In many ways, "4:20" feels like a sequel to "Asfur" (Oz Zahavi and Hanan Savion also play here) or a lame sister of "The Arbitrator" (even Shlomi Koriat completes a transformation from the father of the spleen to the role of a policeman with no personality). And that wasn't a compliment, because we don't need any more imitations of series that were successful and relevant a decade and a half ago.

Israeli series dream of conquering the world, striking a blow, getting on the table and shouting: I, Sami Ben Tovim, screwed up the jackpot. They end up on a minimum budget, with a worn-out, smeared plot and a slew of plank jokes.

"4:20" - Episode 5, HOT3, 22:00

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