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TV review
This remembrance can not be stopped: the second season of "Michael" laughs at the death inside
The second season of the cult comedy aired in parallel with Passover, and not by chance.
"Michael" makes us laugh for the same reason we enjoy celebrating Seder.
There are our relatives there, who are so embarrassed to us, and we love them so much.
Add to all this one yield biton and you get another season for the Pantheon
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Michael
Avi Dangor
yes
Yaniv Bitton
Living Room Fellow
Monday, 29 March 2021, 00:01 Updated: 09:56
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Everything is awkward, everything is exciting.
"Michael" stars together with the new acquisition, Yaniv Bitton (Photo: yes, ErezBit Photography)
A group of pilgrims from North Korea traveled to Israel between February 8 and 15, 2020. They seem to have visited almost every point in the Holy Land.
Only a few days later it was discovered that nine members of the group had been diagnosed with the corona virus.
Their itinerary was published in all the media and everyone who was exposed to them was asked to put themselves in isolation.
The country was still functioning as usual, the world of culture existed as usual and it seems that maintaining simple rules of hygiene, combined with the geographical advantage of Israel as an island country, will help us survive the global epidemic without loss of life.
How naive we were.
It happened a year ago, but feels like an eternity.
On February 14, 2020, Avi Dangor came for an interview with Sagi Ben-Nun at Walla!
culture.
While the Korean pilgrims spent Christian Valentine’s Day in contact with thousands of Jerusalemites, Dangor recounted the fruitful period in his life following the renewed success of “Michael,” the masterpiece he wrote as a student and became a cross-genre cult comedy.
After hundreds of performances on the theater stage, "Michael" became a TV series and her characters even starred in an advertisement for an insurance company.
"The show started as a thesis in the visual theater, and there was no expectation to get to a commercial venue. We said, we'll do some fringe shows in places like Tmuna. The hall will be full. So we moved to the team. There it became more commercial. "We were also on tour in the United States. We had two amazing shows there, and two more shows where people didn't understand the show and got up in the middle," Dangor said of the series' next landmarks: "Michael's" Millennium Show, which was to be celebrated with a big event. The second season of the TV series.
Then the corona came and shuffled the cards.
More on Walla!
Between laughter and distress: "Michael" will not make your life easy
To the full article
The big star is undergoing a surprising change.
Hila Goldenberg as Rivka Brosh (Photo: screenshot from the series)
Michael's Millennium Event, along with the entire entertainment industry, went into the freezer for a year.
This past weekend, just before the events of Passover, all the episodes of the second season of "Michael" aired on Yes.
The proximity to the holiday is not surprising.
"Michael" makes us laugh for the same reason we enjoy celebrating Seder.
These we are there, on stage or on screen.
There are our embarrassing relatives, who say the wrong things at the wrong time, who are offended by stupid things, understand a little too much about really unimportant things, laugh at painful events and always repeat the same distorted sentence because no one is comfortable correcting them already at this point .
And we love them.
When we are young we make imitations of the embarrassing uncles and aunts, when we grow up we become these uncles to a new generation.
This is a universal phenomenon, this is how it is in the best families, but it seems that in Israel, for its prominent bereavement motif, and its unique grouping of postcards, this family humor becomes more creative, more abundant, more embarrassing - and yes, even funnier.
The universe of "Michael" managed to distill all of this into a semi-improvised show that you can't help but fall in love with, and most of all you can't help but burst into laughter.
In the same interview, Dangor told of a man who lost consciousness due to laughter at one of the shows.
"They took him out, took him to the hospital. And the doctor told him he fainted with laughter, he had hyperventilation. You know, until someone really dies from laughter it won't really be a compliment for us," said Dangor, who at this point was already accepted in the industry as a creator of several comedies. Cult, but as a quality dramatic actor, with a brilliant role in "On the Spectrum."
More on Walla!
The actor's father
To the full article
Bereavement makes this family humor become more creative, more abundant, more embarrassing - and more Israeli.
Celebrating Michael's birthday in the cemetery (Photo: screenshot from the series)
With this baggage comes the second season of "Michael" at a time when humor is such a precious commodity.
The cast and writers had to deal not only with the success (and longing) for the stage show, but also with the genius of the first season of the series, which turned into a surprising TV candy.
It seems that within the complex reality of 2021, Dangor and his friends have successfully passed the "second album test" in actually creating the season.
But even without such assumptions, "Michael"'s second season stands on its own as a successful binge viewing, with the balance between embarrassing humor and its big heart maintained throughout most of the season.
The big star of the series is still the wonderful Hila Goldenberg, who pours into the role of Rebecca all the mothers, aunts, grandmothers, teachers, kindergarteners, sisters and girlfriends of us all.
How much we love the revelry of life, how much beauty and nobility there is in this character alongside the intense embarrassment it evokes in us.
This season finds Rebecca out of her comfort zones, and despite the general sense of embarrassment, she manages to evoke a lot of compassion.
The team also includes Natalia Faust, who with a little make-up becomes Romania's Aunt Tota who provides light-hearted comedic breaks, Nadav Hollander who contributes a little dialogue but a lot of music and plot motives, and of course Meital Raz, Peter Pan of the Israeli Theater, who can still celebrate Bat Mitzvah Of Jasmine without it at all looking surprising.
That is, except that a 16-year-old girl is celebrating a bat mitzvah.
Still passing 16, even one celebrating a bat mitzvah.
Meital Raz as Jasmine (Photo: yes, ErezBit Photography)
But with all due respect to the talented ensemble, the main character of "Michael" is still Michael Brosh himself, the same 14-year-old boy who passed away for no apparent reason.
The play put the memorial service for Michael at the center, with a celebration of the banality of life around the memory of death.
Arguments about seating order, disposable lunch boxes, plastic crown chairs and many (many) passive-aggressive Jewish exiles.
The second season takes the same celebration of life in a more topical direction, and places the exile of the Brosh family in front of the more liberal and advanced Israel (all relatively of course).
The character of Dubi (Avi Dangor) finds herself in the dating scene, with amusing "romantic" scenes starring Orna Banai and Alma Zack.
Peleg and Jasmine's young relationship reaches the stage of sexuality, in the face of the extreme conservatism of mother Rebecca, who refuses to even see her jasmine in a tummy tuck.
For the climactic moment, Dangor placed himself in a double and surprising role, in an attempt to make an external makeover in Bisminish.
A double and surprising role.
Avi Dangor as Dubi Brosh (Photo: yes, ErezBit Photography)
And yet, the real changes are made in the shadow of Michael, and these do not come easily.
Dealing with a recruiting order that comes by mistake, throwing the child's personal belongings a decade late, renovating a home that includes breaking the wall on which Michael marked his height, and above all - canceling the annual memorial service.
Will the people living in the family manage to survive the centrality of death in their lives?
Amazing how the answer to this question is not self-evident.
Amazing how easy it is to identify with it.
Almost as amazing as it is funny.
Along with the excellent synergy of the regular cast, whose marvelous chemistry is based on almost 15 years together on stage, this time Yaniv Bitton (Meital Raz's cousin) joins as the main character - both in terms of the series' plot and family.
Bitton manages, as usual, to bring the perfect package of dramatic abilities alongside extraordinary comedic talent.
It glides lightly into the character of Remy, the father of Michael Wisminisch, who has been so enigmatic so far in the history of the series' plot universe - and actually takes the second season out of the heavy shadow of the first season.
Breathe new life into the second half of the season.
Yaniv Bitton as Remy (Photo: yes, ErezBit Photography)
Yaniv Bitton's presence in the series is refreshing, and even challenges the veteran characters.
A surprising entrepreneurial spirit lands on the eternal unemployed Bear, while Aunt Rebecca connects to her sexuality.
His late joining the season breathes new life into it, which actually makes it clear how weak the first half of the season is compared to the second.
It culminates in the season finale, which once again finds the Cypress family part of an ultra-awkward family event.
Just like in the cult show and the final episode of the first season, the ceremony is reminiscent of why we fell in love with this family in the first place.
Now all that remains is to wait for the miraculous ensemble to return to the stages, and decide who is responsible for the refreshments, who brings a table, who takes care of the glasses for soft drinks and for a change we will also take care of some thermos for hot drinks?
See you at the community center, depending on the limitations of the green sign of course.
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