Favors to battle, Pam and Tommy, Closed Circuit Crime: Series Parade 2022 - Places 30-21 - Voila! culture

Trailer "Fighting Favors" - Season 6 (Paramount Plus)

Additional raters:

Ofri Atrechi, Ben Biron, Nadav Menuhin, Amit Salonim and Naama Rak.

Rating of the 2022 series of Walla!

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A perfect romance.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McCallany, "Welcome to Wrexham" (Photo: Hulu/Disney Plus)

30. Welcome to Wrexham

Original name:

Welcome to Wrexham

Hulu (in Israel on Disney Plus)

Behind-the-scenes stories from the world of sports have become one of the biggest hits of recent years.

"Formula 1: The Race to Victory", which itself brought countless new fans to motor sports, is just one example, but there are many more, chief among which has already become a headline cliché in itself: "The Last Dance".

What all these works have in common is that the sports story is at their center.

"Welcome to Wrexham" manages to slightly change this equation.

It still tells the story of a fifth division football team in England, but because it is the only Welsh team playing in England, it becomes the story of a nation, of a community.

The second and fascinating part of Wrexham is of course its purchase by a pair of Hollywood stars: Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

If ever there was a perfect romance, it's the connection between the two.

He paints the series with a lot of humor and self-awareness, thereby reducing quite a bit of the pathos that usually surrounds such works.

But seven and in one season, he also gives the series an air of heart and soul.

The honesty and humanity of Reynolds and McElhaney to do something for those for whom a dilapidated football team with a stadium over a century old is their whole life - makes Wrexham's journey to redemption exciting and addictive.

As if by the very fact that we follow him, we too have a small part in trying to make this impossible Cinderella story a reality.

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"It's going to hurt" (Photo: BBC)

29. This is going to hurt

Original name:

This is Going to Hurt

BBC (in Israel Bis and Hot)

This series is meant to happen.

Its creator, Adam Kay, left his job as a doctor in the British Medical Services for a career as a television comedy writer.

The book of the same name that Kay wrote about his experiences as an intern (and was also published in Israel by Modan, as was the sequel) became a huge hit.

Besides the fact that he was entertaining, funny and witty, he also provided an inside look at some basic and serious failures in the national medical services, and the mental burden that doctors often have to deal with without receiving adequate support.

This combination between a career on television and a literary bestseller obviously paved the way for the series that would be created based on it.

Such an adaptation had to be completely different from the book.

The source consists of short stories about short and funny cases, interwoven with the difficult reality that interns face.

The adaptation had to become a more cohesive series that would preserve what worked so well in the book - a funny layer covering a bitter, sober, sometimes tragic layer.

to sweeten the pill, the so-called;

Even if it is a department like the one the hero chooses to work in, gynecology and obstetrics, where a significant part of the work is bringing babies and happiness into the world.

Kay devours his story and rebuilds it, most of the time successfully.

The always-wonderful Ben Whishaw (the last James Bond films, "A Fairly English Scandal"), excellent again this time in the role of the hero, Kay's character - wears the English restraint and subtle humor that often hides abysses of darkness.

The series creates other successful characters that surround Adam, led by the young and open-minded intern Shruti (Ambika Maud), who is responsible for a large part of the soul of the series, the cynical and wonderful boss Mr. Lockhart (Alex Jennings, "The Crown") and the hero's cold mother (Harriet Walter) .

"It's going to hurt" perfectly blends the funny and the heartbreaking, and the glimpse it gives into the depths of the health service is eye-opening.

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The most important series of 2022. "Five days at Memorial" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)

28. Five days at the memorial

Original name:

Five Days at Memorial

Apple TV Plus

The book on which this miniseries is based was originally supposed to house a season of "American Crime Story" from Ryan Murphy (who argued that the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina was a crime against American society, a statement that "Five Days at the Memorial" certainly backs up), but ended up in the hands of Carlton Cuse ("Lost," "Bates Motel") and John Ridley ("12 Years a Slave," "American Crime"), and it's hard to imagine handling Better and more dedicated in creation.

Without underestimating the entertainment element of television, which is of course important and fun and the reason we all love it, its ability to reflect the ugliest aspects of reality, as a kind of incriminating testimony in a trial against humanity in order to make it learn from itself, sometimes seems more significant.

The place of the mighty "Sin" as the most important series last year was taken in 2022 by "Five Days at the Memorial".

It deals with the real-life horrors endured by the patients and staff of two nearby New Orleans hospitals, who were stranded for five days without electricity, regular supplies or the ability to evacuate during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Dealing with the damage of the traumatic storm, the unbearable heat, the rising water level, the smell of needs in the corridors and above all the inability to help people who need help, paint a depressing portrait of suffering and despair in such a realistic and sad way.

In addition, the impossible decision to euthanize 45 patients (and pets) penetrates into the depths of the darkest and most terrifying human corners.

Vera Farmiga ("Bates Motel") and Cheri Jones ("24") are as exciting and amazing as ever as female hospital staff who grapple with the most difficult existential questions.

Ridley's work always flirts with the documentary genre, and this series also combines dozens of real news reports and shocking, apocalyptic video clips of unimaginable distress that seem to have been filmed in another third world.

The only thing that prevents "Five Days at the Memorial" from reaching the top of the ranking is the choice to continue the story beyond the five days of the disaster, into three tense and somewhat tedious investigation episodes.

And yet, a huge thanks to Ryan Murphy for choosing not to touch it.

A roller coaster that doesn't stop.

"WeCrashed" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)

27. WeCrashed

Broadcaster:

Apple TV Plus

In a year that included plenty of series about high-tech eye-catchers, such as "The Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes" and "The Battle for Uber", "WeCrashed" - which tells the story of the rise and fall of WeWork - was the most successful of them, and Only because of the Israeli angle.

Jared Leto, who has adopted a reliable and extremely entertaining Israeli accent, injects the character of Adam Neumann with amounts of charisma, Israeli bravado and just funny words in Hebrew that he throws around ("Baba Ganoush", "Honey", "Hamuda").

And it works, his Neumann is a great character that's fun to get carried away with.

His combination with Anne Hathaway, who here plays his partner Rebecca Paltrow Newman, is the layer that gives the series an intriguing and different human touch beyond the purely business matter.

"WeCrashed" also manages to take aim at predatory corporations without being didactic or predictable.

Life at WeWork under Neumann's shadow is a roller coaster that never stops: another party, more drinks, and another location opening.

Record after record after record, which is all about the people at the top, but squeezes all the little screws below them to the limit - just to fulfill another ambitious dream.

Although "WeCrashed" is not an exceptional or unique work, it does what it does well: it is entertaining, efficient, well acted and manages to move the parts.

All of this still doesn't justify eight hour-long episodes each, but it is the symbol of the current times.

Even in less fascinating moments throughout, it remains colorful, entertaining and confident in the way it paves for itself.

Considering her competitors for the current genre, that's a lot.

Charming female companionship and dizzying rate of jokes.

"Girls Forever" (Photo: Universal)

26. Girls forever

Original name:

Girls5Eva

Peacock (in Israel Bis and Hot) in the

9th place

One of the promising news of the year was the news that Netflix acquired the series "Girls Forever" at the same time as its cancellation on the streaming service which-can't-get-up Peacock.

The third season will already be released there, and with it the first two will also arrive, which will give this great series exposure it has not had until now, and maybe finally the success it deserves, just like the heroines at the center of the series.

The first season of "Girls Forever" tended to perfection.

The story about 40-something women trying to renew their careers as a girl band was a fertile and creative breeding ground for both excellent comedy and a smart examination of the then and now.

In the second season, we found the heroines preparing to record their own new album, with all the challenges involved.

It's a good story in itself, but much less sharp than in the first season, and the result accordingly.

However, what "Forever Girls" lost in bite, it makes up for with a lot of heart.

The second season includes two of its best episodes: the one in which Gloria (Paula Fell) gets upset about the identity of a singer in a mask, because she is sure it is her late friend Ashley (Ashley Park, "Emily in Paris"), and the last of the season, which brings to a climax the story of the relationship forged Between Vicky (Renee Ellis Goldsberry, "Hamilton") and a commoner who serves as a cook in the high school cafeteria (Chad Coleman, "The Undercover", "The Walking Dead").

The idol Goldsberry ("Hamilton") continues to be the crazy driving force of "Girls Forever" - an amazing voice, a wonderful comedian and even looks about two decades younger than her real age (52 in a moment).

Above all, in a climate filled with "sad comedies" or dark or whatever, "Girls Forever" is a real, funny sitcom, with charming female friendship at the center and a dizzying amount of jokes per minute.

Its second season may be less cohesive and complete than its predecessor, but like the heroines at its center,

Let life happen.

"Good things" (Photo: FX)

25. Good things

Original name:

Better Things

FX (in Israel Bis) in the

29th place

Pamela Adlon's choice to end her series with a montage of characters that have appeared throughout the last season, both main and side, looking into the camera and singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" seemed a little puzzling at first.

"Good Things" indeed conveys optimism by its very name, but the series has always refrained from judging its happenings positively or negatively, preferring to present them as small, unfolding pieces of life that are not necessarily related to each other but simply...happen.

In fact, the last season only burdened the heroine Sam with more and more difficulties, who had to adapt to unexpected criticism on the professional level, feelings of irrelevance on the social level and geographical changes on the family level.

The biggest blow of all - the fact that her eldest daughter Max had an abortion and chose not to tell her - could have developed into a tear-jerking American melodrama, but it was also treated in the right context that so characterizes the series from the beginning: family and friends.

These are probably

"Good Things" was not always a coherent and continuous plot product, and many times asked us to ignore our instincts as viewers to try and arrange the events in familiar patterns of beginning, middle and end.

Adlon's writing and directing style never bothered to align with familiar conventions of a script or camera angles, and her charm stemmed from an attempt to create sensations.

Scenes that are stitched together in a logical way, or an attempt to create a uniform and general theme for each episode, never interested her as much as the great emphasis she gave to the design of the house, for example, or to the dozens of cooking scenes in the kitchen.

These did not necessarily contribute to the plot as much as they contributed to creating a mood of family or warmth.

This different creative point of view, which stems from maturity, maturity and life experience, is the one that will be missing in the television landscape with the ending of "Good Things", but we can perhaps take solace in its messages: let life happen and surprise you, pay attention to the people around you and be free.

No matter what age.

become a legend.

"Star Trek: Lower Decks" (Photo: Paramount Plus)

24. Star Trek: Lower Decks

Original name:

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Paramount Plus (in Israel on Amazon Prime Video) in the

28th place

In the third episode of the third season of "Star Trek: Lower Decks", the heroes are forced to cooperate with a parallel team from the spacecraft "Carlsbad" and discover which created a legendary name for them among their colleagues.

This is a moment that distills "Lower Decks" at this stage.

It's true, the "Cerritos" is truly legendary, or at least on its way there.

With this moment, the series seems to recognize the value of itself and its protagonists, and it is this awareness and maturity that allows "Lower Decks" to be much more exposed, sensitive and self-confident this time, and to be perfected in the way it connects the sweeping plots with the development of the characters.

In general, one of the great and stable things about this animated comedy is its ability to balance everything that makes it itself.

The adventures in space, the surprising and believable plot moves, the clever humor, the nods to the old fans (including an especially orgasmic one this time for those who want "Deep Space 9") without alienating those who have no connection to the franchise, the evils and brotherhood that know emotion without slipping into kitsch.

And above all this, of course, the fundamentally optimistic world view of Gene Roddenberry, the legendary creator of "Star Trek".

Throughout its third season, the realization that more than anything else, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" is a series about community.

Kind of a scion of comedies like "Free at the Bar" and "Friends", only in this case its people are confined in a spaceship that cruises in the infinite vacuum.

The connection between the four heroes in particular and between them and the rest of the team in general, is often drawn in a humane, believable and funny way.

For the first time, the child is not addressed in the minds of the viewers.

"Andor" (Photo: screenshot, Hulu/Disney Plus)

23. Pam and Tommy

Original name:

Pam & Tommy

Hulu (in Israel on Disney Plus)

On the face of it, the idea of ​​producing a TV series around the stolen sex video of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee seems like a reflection of all the problems of television in 2022: lack of creativity and fondness for yellow and scandal.

Indeed, "Pam and Tommy" has not been without criticism, especially in light of Anderson's insistence that she is rehashing her own trauma.

Even though this is a long and complex discussion, in conclusion the existence of the series at least helps in flooding everything that that affair included.

The frenetic and stormy style of director Craig Gillespie ("I, Tonya") and creator Robert Siegel ("The Wrestler") revealed a funny, bare, wild and uncompromising story about how entire industries were built on the body and soul of a woman who only dreamed of being an actress.

The amazing way in which Sebastian Stan and Lily James stepped into the shoes of their characters, along with the gallery of dubious characters that surrounded them and the clever writing, allows "Pam and Tommy" to be a much bigger story than the theft it describes.

Very few works addressed the thin line that separates celebrities from voyeurism, between public and private, between how we perceive the people in the spotlight and who they really are.

The prices Anderson paid have since been the lot of many, under the auspices of the Internet which has made all of our information far less personal than it ever was.

And above all, it is the attitude of "Pam and Tommy" that makes it successful.

There are no absolute culprits and absolute villains in it, just a long discussion about how the internet has suddenly empowered the ugly sides that have always been there in humanity.

sitting on the edge of the chair.

"Crime in a closed circuit" (Photo: BBC)

22. Crime in a closed circuit

Original name:

The Capture

BBC (in Israel Biss)

There were quite a few works that tried to turn the dark parts of technology into a villain, but with all due respect to "Black Mirror" and its ilk, no one made it as creepy and realistic as the BBC's thriller .

In a world where realism is already completely a question of resources, and when AI technologies can write, think and create works in minutes, the vision of "closed circuit crime" about a world where video footage is used by the world's largest intelligence organizations to incriminate those against whom there is no evidence by fabricating videos in time Truth - is the definition of sitting on the edge of the chair.

After a first season during which we already began to doubt the truth of the things seen on the screen, the second came and increased this feeling about tenfold.

This insight that everything is equally true and false, allows the series to lead viewers through a dizzying array of twists, which fit into the conflicting interests of the variety of characters - small and large, dominant and quiet.

Above all of them still stands the detective Rachel Curry (the wonderful Holliday Granger), who serves as the voice of morality in the heavy shades of fog that the series paints, but also the team around her and the efficient and rhythmic writing, allow "closed circuit crime" to be tense without feeling cold.

The characters in it are complex enough to make us want to bicker (or waist), and in some cases even manage to move between these two poles within a few episodes.

And even though it seems at times that she flirts with didacticism (which has been her share of "Black Mirror" in too many cases), it's a touch light enough that it's barely determined.

No small matter for a series that brings together the ideas of "Special Report" and the atmosphere of Jason Bourne.

A direct response to real life.

"The best for battle" (Photo: Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+)

21. The favors for the battle

Original name:

The Good Fight

Paramount Plus (in Israel Bis) in the

19th place

Although the time for "the good fight" has definitely come - and some will say that it should have ended a season or two ago - and even though it did not always manage to complete the fascinating ideas Its in the ultimate form, there is and has never been a series like "The Favors for Battle" on television.

Not even "The Good Wife".

Here and there there are works that respond to the news headlines and react to them in one way or another, but none of them harnessed them into a special force that turned an entire series into an almost reflexive counter-reaction - in the most subtle and crudest vibrations, in the funniest, thought-provoking and sometimes prophetic plots - to what is happening in the countries United States.

It is hard to think of a work that better captured what is happening in Israel, that distilled Trump's legacy with such perfection.

The signature season was no different.

As the credits rolled in the last episode, the caption "All this really happened" appeared.

In a series with so many crazy moments, it was important for the creators to make it clear that as surreal as it was, as far-fetched and sleepy as it seemed at times, "Fighting Favors" was always anchored in what was really happening in America.

In fact, these surreal touches were a direct response to real life.

A kind of coping mechanism.

There really are makeshift courts in neighborhoods in the United States.

There really is a frightening rise in the organization of supporters of white supremacy and racist incidents against blacks and Jews.

The area is really bubbling to the point of fear of another civil war.

Every time it seemed that the "favors of the battle" were exaggerating, a crazy event like the storming of the Capitol or the hammer attack of Nancy Pelosi's husband came along, proving that the series dances a close dance with real life.

And if before the end we also got the wonderful Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) again, for the first time ever in the subsidiary series - ours.

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Tags

• Closed circuit crime

• Girls Forever - Girls5Eva

• good things

• Star Trek: Lower Decks