After a week that was anything but funny, “Wonderful Country” returned to the screen yesterday, and it also happened 24 hours late following the death of six soldiers in Lebanon. The episode that aired yesterday (Thursday) was all in this tone – a little happy, a little sad, some very funny moments without forgetting to reflect the cloudiness that is constantly thickening above us all. The clear sign of this was the opening sketch in which “Eretz” used a reference from the legends: the cult series “The Switch”. On the agenda was the Prime Minister’s office, in the midst of the security scandals, and the way in which Netanyahu (in the role of Baruch Assolin) makes sure to shake off, one by one, all his minions in order to save his skin. It wasn’t a sketch without humor, but its punch line – in the end – was pretty grim.
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The head of the mafia. Mariano Idelman as Benjamin Netanyahu, “A Wonderful Country” (screenshot: Keshet 12)
The feeling is forming that “Eretz” got the memo from the last week and from the reactions that the premiere program received – the character of the IDF spokesman in Arabic, Avihai Adrei, appeared at the very beginning of the program (on the weight of Daniel Hagari, in the days after the war), a huge role of Amir Shorush and we will probably see more Of this exaggerated and vulgar imitation, what worked less, at least in my eyes, was the sketch of the wild boar in the shelter in Haifa – there was an insight there Pretty cute, but she was kind of missed and more could have been done with her.
We will come back to him. Amir Shorush as Adriai, “Wonderful Country” (screenshot: Keshet 12)
The main panel consisted of two main sections – Itamar Ben Gabir and the new Commissioner Dani Levy, and the trio of the opposition. In the part that dealt with the Commissioner and Ben Gabir’s conduct, we mainly saw again the one who is emerging as the MVP of “Artez” these days – Yaniv Biton, who already Brought some strong characters and gives the head with ease even in a wonderful and sharp imitation of the police commissioner. Shahar Hasson’s Ben Gvir, on the other hand, Starting to wear down a bit – and not being able to meet the high bar he set for himself at the beginning of the journey. The part of the opposition, in my eyes, worked much better – there was a dynamic that somewhat reminded me, in contrast, of the imitation of the “Galacticos” of Maccabi Tel Aviv in football (Namani, Berkovic and Russo): a trio that is not related to each other, that throws accusations at each other and mostly succeeds To be, each, ridiculous in her own way.
Here too we exhausted Ben Gvir. “Wonderful Land” (screenshot: Keshet 12)
Omer Etzion, the newly acquired player who started the season a little lame with the character of Donald Trump, is much more successful in my eyes in the populist role of Yair Golan; Finish as Yair Lapid “the new and critical” was excellent and Lior Ashkenazi in the role of Benny Gantz also did his part. One joke that is worth considering is another somewhat surprising reference that actually came from “Night Doll”: the joke in which Yair Lapid talks about him with a beard and without a beard is known to lovers of the sporty Light Night as Raz Zahavi who speaks “with glasses or without glasses”. And that too, it must be said, worked great.
The galacticus of the center-left. “Wonderful Land” (screenshot: Keshet 12)
This was a bit of an unstable episode; Eli and Mariano’s sketch as the “Iranian agents” didn’t take off (it’s the Houthis all over again), but two strong points in the foreign sketches covered it – one is the sketch that referred to Amsterdam, including the huge bombshell that is Alma Zeke as Orit Struck who tries Spice Cookies, the character of Gideon Sa’ar that continues to grow on us after we didn’t quite understand her at first; And also the impersonation of Amir Ohana, in a relatively rare performance, was great.
The second point is the brilliant sketch of the episode, “Alien Passport”. This was the best part of last night’s episode mainly because it managed to sit on a real insight: the sense of helplessness of the Israelis, both following the war and following the attack on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam, left most of us facing a broken trough with the belief that it is impossible to be here and it really is not possible Escape. In a humorous way, they managed to dismantle this anxiety through the skit offered by an alien passport and in this case, the insight won everything.
Excuse me, are you not Khut? “Wonderful Land” (screenshot: Keshet 12)
But with all due respect, the reason why you are reading this review and the reason why the episode will be remembered is, of course, the reference to “patriots”. The successful program of Channel 14, after several years of being on the air, has finally been caught on the radar of the satire programs (not only “Wonderful Country” – also “This Is It”, on the very same evening, put on a skit that makes fun of the show, with much less talent). And it was a moment of tremendous victory for the “Patriots”. One only has to wonder: why only now? Perhaps the part where the panel members dance to the tune of “even better, even better”, with the deaths in Lebanon and Gaza in the background, was the straw that broke the camel’s back this week.
So how did it work? On a technical level, it must have been done superbly and superbly. The imitations of Itamar Fleishman and Irit Linor turned out great, and of course Eran Zahrovich with the masterful imitation of Linon Magal did his part. The skit managed to capture the feeling that it’s a conspiratorial freak show, and even more than that, it nicely answered the phrase that is often thrown at the channel’s critics, “Watch a bit of Channel 14, and you’ll feel optimistic.” Yes, it is very easy to be optimistic when you are disconnected from reality and present a rosy picture that is made up of lies, for purely political reasons (just imagine how they would react to a war breaking out under the Bennet-Lapid government).
Great spice cookie. Alma Zeke as Orit Struck, “Wonderful Country” (screenshot: Keshet 12)
Even on a fundamental level, the skit and the song that followed it managed to crack the great anger that there is about the “patriots”, about the feeling of gaslighting, about this constant desire to say how good it actually is here and only we – the leftists, the sour ones, Yo Nim It – don’t see it. “And there is nothing to fix, because nothing is broken”, they sing in this skit and this is definitely a good reason for a sharp and deadly satirical reference as well.
It’s hard to say that the “Patriots” came out of this skit well, but it fed the troll. It is absolutely clear that in all the behavior of the “Patriots”, in all the craziness they spread and the half-satirical, half-poisonous nature of the show, there was a process that eventually led them to the promised land of consensus, which is a skit in “Great Country”. It is likely that the PR they received from yesterday’s show is worth no less than a few rating points to them (certainly considering the fact that on Channel 14, ratings are not equal to advertisers). It is hard to ignore the fact that in the end it was ratings that met ratings – two entities that made huge profits (Keshet and Channel 14), two Programs that came out were rented, and only the citizens of the country did not really benefit.
See you in Hyrtakus. “Wonderful Land” (screenshot: Keshet 12)
“Wonderland” has quite a history with what is known as the “Streisand effect” – creating a situation where the mere engagement with characters or negative phenomena in society only enlarges them and does not return them to their natural size. Uzi Cohen was the deputy mayor of Ra’anana, and after the imitation he became a Purim costume. Avigdor Lieberman went through every possible decline in “Eretz” (including comparisons to every dark regime in history), and only got stronger in the polls until the foreign minister’s office. Will the “Patriots” benefit in the same way? One can hope that, although the result was quite entertaining, this is probably the last time we will see this imitation in “Eretz”.
And after everything was over, we rested in the “Hirtakus” building. The “Relocation” article series is only in its beginning, but you can already see how the successful idea turns it into something that will last much longer than the “Standby Class” of the previous season, for example. The successful ensemble of actors, the opening song and of course the hit “Youthful Embers” – they all do the job and are a fine masterpiece to end a program with. Another proof of what “Eretz” is capable of when it gets out of the stuntz and uses its power in a creative and good way both to say something about society and to make fun. Even better and even better.
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