Keren Pels tells about the pain: "Something spreads all over my nose and back, and knocks me with a hammer" (from the tenth season of "Connected", courtesy of HOT and Koda Communications)
The promotion for the new season of "Connected" (HOT) solemnly heralds that this is the "season of the decade" and although the corona virus disrupted my sense of time as well as many others, it still felt illogical to me that only ten years had passed since Hana Retinov from Holon was debating "Is it better to fall in love?" And get hurt or not fall in love at all?"
and entered our hearts deeply (by the way, Retinov is happily married today plus two if you wanted an answer to the question).
And indeed, a short search on Google reveals that the first season of "Connected" was broadcast in 2009, which means that we are indeed watching the tenth season of the series, but almost a decade and a half has passed since the successful format entered our lives.
Not critical, but still - in a series made up of people who talk themselves into knowledge, it's worth considering the semantics.
The exaggerated "decade" celebrations are perhaps the way of the creators Ram Lands and Doron Tsaviri, together with the director of the current season Tamar Barkai, to remind the audience "Hey, we recognized the potential in people who talk about themselves to the camera long before the story", but the truth is that the discussion about the place of "Connected" in the age of social networks will become a nuisance in itself.
Yes, it's been years since every little guy with a phone was a successful 30-second video away from becoming a network star.
Self-photography is a part of our lives at least as much as social security, so in the end it all comes back to the important question - do you have an interesting story to tell.
And it seems that in its tenth season - "Connected" she tried to avoid this question and first of all put emphasis on the matter of casting.
A complex crisis.
Keren Pels (Photo: screenshot, HOT)
Six celebrities have been cast for the new season.
If we talk about "Guy Pinsit", the number of A-listers in the group is particularly large: Keren Pels, Orna Banai, Yael Shelvia, Miki Boganim, Hadar Marks and Uri Sasson.
Six people who don't need to be introduced but it's still hard to imagine them spending an evening together without a lot of awkward silences.
That is, silence on the assumption that Keren Pels will not speak because, based on the two episodes sent for review, she is able to complete two seasons of "Mahburim" by herself.
This is not far from reality because the fans of the format remember that Pels is actually a recurring character who also appeared in the previous season, when she was used as Michal Ansky's bestie (on the basis of Peles' bestie we will get Miri Mesika this season).
Although on the screen she is famous for her positive attitude, this season's Peles is facing a deep and complex crisis, cerebrospinal fluid has leaked into her spine and she is suffering from intense pain that prevents her from performing, being a partner and a mother but as mentioned does not prevent her from speaking.
Although they don't have much in common, Pless's storyline represents the entire season.
Almost all of the "connected" have one big problem they face and it is presented to us right at the start of the season.
Yael Shelvia, a supermodel and the biggest celebrity of the moment, is debating whether to marry her billionaire partner Brandon Korf and move to live with him in the US or stay in Israel closer to her family in Nahariya. Found herself in a world full of carnality, with luxury apartments, private jets and paparazzi waiting for her at every corner. The problem is that I haven't removed these lines from my memory of Shelbia, she talks her story over and over again, as if she was training for the role she was living.
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hesitating.
Shelvia (photo: screenshot, HOT)
Among us, few of us have been in Shelbia's beautiful shoes (if any), so it's hard to judge her for the behavior that feels a little inauthentic, but the question is whether she will be able to reveal slightly different sides later in the season.
Meanwhile, the plot line in which she is head over heels in love with Brandon in one episode, decides to leave him later in the episode and then moves on to be in a relationship with Omar Adam (until a second ago he was presented as a good friend) and flies to him in Miami, feels like a TV movie directed by a less skilled PR Suitable for a series that is labeled as a documentary. And, Omer Adam, the famous interview refuser, appears here as Shelvia's partner. What can one say about the guy? Kind, a beautiful singer and not a great talker, unless you want to hear the word "Xiao" thrown into space many times in a row.
As someone who has watched "Machobarim" in many incarnations (I was also there in "Machobarim+"), it usually takes me quite a while to find favorites.
Even when it already happens, my opinion about them often changes during the viewing.
For example Michal Ansky who started at the bottom of my list last season and ended up at the top as one of the most rounded, flawed and fascinating characters we've met since the series went from documenting anonymous to documenting celebs.
But this season, right at the beginning there are two characters that entered my heart deeply - Orna Banai and Miki Boganim.
Banai, whose first episode is dedicated to her late father Judge Yitzhak Banai, who passed away since the show was filmed, is at a crossroads with her younger partner, Adi ("My Giraffe").
Orna has come out of the closet in recent years and talks about her sexuality both in media interviews and in her excellent stand-up show, but her relationship with the Banai family still has certain complexities with partners (it's worth waiting for her charming meeting with Avitar, which looks like a future campaign for all Israel brothers).
Alongside this, the fact that Adi wants to move in together and have children together and Nai is not sure she is ready for this step, turns the relationship between the two into something that is intriguing to see where it will develop.
In addition, Banai is a political, opinionated and fierce woman, so it is interesting to see to what extent she will agree to open up further down the road, even at the expense of statements that might harm her career.
intriguing
Orna Banai (photo: screenshot, HOT)
Miki Boganim, who by an unclear editorial decision entered our lives only in the second episode, is the platinum blonde who shines above the entire season.
Bogani has a business empire that includes a successful barber shop, a makeup and hair school, and a product line that sells in quantities (and sorry if I forgot something), but he still struggles with the self-image of that kid from Ramla who is somewhere on the gender continuum and is looking to find belonging.
In the meantime, we haven't been exposed to much of Boganim's life, mainly the dog Jacob ("the cleanest in the world"), a dense conversation with his good friend Ofira Essig and his holiday with himself during the holidays, but in every moment of his time on the screen, Boganim injects what some of his cast members lack - authenticity.
He doesn't seem to come with a list of topics he wants to talk about and storylines he plans to reveal later.
He documents real dilemmas and uses the camera to confront himself and it is beautiful, moving and above all touching.
The radio broadcaster and commentator, Hadar Marks, is also exposed in a big way at the beginning.
Maybe too much by and large.
Whether it's the conversations after the divorce from her husband Elad and the custody arrangements for the children they share, her struggle with weight after losing tens of kilograms or the difficulties of presenting a morning show for years, which prevents her from waking her children for school, Marks puts it all on the screen and she cries.
Much.
There is no doubt that there is courage in this disclosure, but something in the speed with which it happens sometimes feels forced and we will probably have to spend a few more episodes with her to crack her character to the end.
Participants are logged in (Photo: Rafi Delvia)
I saved the judoka and Olympic medalist, Uri Sasson, for last and not by chance.
Sassoon is the first athlete to be cast in the format and there is probably a reason for that.
Beyond being a cute and positive guy, his hesitation regarding his professional future (to retire or not, that's the question), is not much different from countless articles and interviews with him that we have seen in the media.
If there is any added value in motivational talks with coach Oren Samadja, I don't find it, but it's possible that people from the industry will find things here that I might be missing.
Two episodes are really very little time to introduce people to life and even form an opinion about them, but in an hour of filmed material there are something like 30-40 stories, so I will allow myself to judge.
"Connected" 10 tries to deliver the goods quickly on the assumption that its audience no longer has patience, and along the way it loses a lot of the nuances and sensitivity that characterized it in the first seasons.
But thanks to characters like Boganis, Banai and Fless, it seems that this time too it will be worth watching.
culture
TV
TV review
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connected
Keren Ples
Orna Banai