Make the most of COVID-19 lockdown extension, Fauda Season Three is here

Netflix's Lupin season 2 is coming on June 11

‘Poor guy. Instead of 72 virgins, he gets Dana.’

And I laughed so hard at the unexpectedness of the humour here that I spewed hot tea all over the keyboard. Thankfully, when you’re living in lockdown, no one can see you wipe tea off your keyboard. Everyone is busy with their own little social distancing world: Online meetings, yoga classes, online school and college lessons…

I began watching Fauda Season Three the moment it dropped on Netflix, yesterday, April 16. And I have not slept a wink until I finished 12 episodes (each almost an hour long, and yes I am the kind who does not skip the intro in episode one and the end credits of the last episode).

But, first a confession. I have the patience of a gadfly when it comes to watching season after season of shows. When people were raving about Game Of Thrones, and now even Money Heist, I happily stayed away from the conversations because one would have to admit that one fell asleep when watching endless killing and sex, or watching them steal money and drugs and… Until a bestie insisted I give Fauda a second chance. After all, I had consumed all the episodes of Mossad tales on Netflix (they spoke about the Red Sea Diving Resort way before the movie was made!) and do believe all young people should spend at least two years in the Military to help build character…

The hero is not exactly Bond, could he sustain my interest? When I first watched the trailer of Season one, I was stuck in the conventional action hero mode but if Tom Cruise can play Jack Reacher (if you read the books you know that Jack Reacher is supposed to be six foot five, and weigh 210/250 pounds!) Why can’t Doron Kabillio (or Kavillio) look the way he looks? Bald, round and quick to anger?

But Lior Raz who plays the hero Doron in Fauda is credited for creating the show with Avi Issacharoff based on their service with the Israeli Defence Forces.

Amir Mann knew what he was creating when he wrote Fauda. How I watched the two seasons after the initial reluctance! There is fear and terror and there is hope because there are good guys who will prevent the bad guys from blowing up the world as we know it because of ‘siyasat’ or politics. The show is clearly pro Israel and all the villains have an Islamic/Palestine agenda. The bad guys are not afraid of death because they become ‘shahid’. And the families are ready to accept violence as a way of life in their part of the world.

One character says, ‘They are not looking for aman (peace). They only want our land. And we are not going to stop.’

The peacenik inside me has been shook to the core by this show. The violence has made me lose sleep. After all, I grew up reading Joe Sacco’s Palestine. How do I want the unrepentant Walid dead? Why do I get upset when Um Nidal (mother of the villain Nidal aka Al Makdasi) does not see that her younger son Sameer is going to die because of her blind faith in her older son? My heart goes out to Marwa who loves the Orange flavoured chocolate as I do, but love watching Dana who interrogates the bad guys in custody.

Season one brought home the conflict very well. Doron is called back from his life in the vineyard to kill Abu Hammad or Taufiq again. Like most terrorists Taufiq had escaped death 18 months before and in that initial wedding scene where Doron enters Taufiq’s home with dessert, you know by the madness in Boaz’s eyes that he’s going to do something hasty. Abu Hammad proves to be a good villain, aided by the young Walid whose wild eyes wipe away anything good one has read about the Palestinians. One wants Doron to succeed.

The second season got sharper. The production values are mind blowing. And the story got complicated. Having taught a class of media students about the rise of extremism across the world and in our own country, the pendulum in Fauda made me look at both sides of the story again. Al Makdasi is scarier because he has the madness and the drive to behead people in the name of religion. That is clearly not a character you want to empathise with at all.

In the third season, Eli’s team is facing a new threat that was hinted at in season two. There are people who can infiltrate them because they speak Jewish and mix easily in with the locals. So Doron is in Hebron, training young Bashar in boxing, keeping an eye on Jihad, the father of prisoners. Fauzi had infiltrated Doron and Eli’s world with others who are armed and dangerous. There are bombs that will go off and there are drones watching these activities and finding this new invisible threat becomes a new challenge they have to face.

Captain Ayub has a new corner office (that comes with a secretary) but it looks like the villains they have to fight this time are brazen and have them all cornered. Doron is still not free from the life that throws him curveballs and he has to make Morton’s choices every single time. I am yet to recover from the haunting death of his father and now I see him trying to get Bashar out of trouble. And in episode nine, all my prayers were for Doron and the choice he has to make. I ran down to the kitchen and prayed to Fuk-Luk-Sau, the three Chinese kitchen gods to help him out. Yes, I am a citizen of the world when it comes to such heart-wrenching moments. And in the same breath I prayed that no Bollywood biggie should fall for this show and buy rights to a song and dance version for Indians. Cannot imagine Dr. Shirin and Doron in a dream dance sequence in Switzerland or Nurit in an item number…

The mild-mannered Jihad is anything but, and the team has to use all kinds of strategies in order to prevent the daring escapes and violence. There’s always help coming from old operatives on Doron’s side and money and help coming at the terrorists from unexpected sources.

The second season is better than the first or the third

I have reluctant admiration for the Fauzis of their world who manage to survive and operate despite the drones and the other fancy technology the Israelis use. I hate the fact that innocent kids like Ismail are used by the bad guys to carry phones to and from places and are taught to hate from a very young age. In the third season, even though the stakes seem higher, I have anticipated how every character is going to react to situations. For some reason I wished Walid and his madness were still around. The writers make sure that the team’s cockiness takes a hit again and again, but I want to be mortally afraid for the team.

The show started off in the West Bank, the drone taking us to Ramallah and Nablus, and the third season brings us to Gaza and Hebron. Had the world been a safer place, it would be such an honour to visit these places, experience the culture (I for one want to taste Akkoub stew, which Walid and Naor discuss inside the prison). The music for the show by Ever Bliss, composed by Gilad Benamram is on SoundCloud. He also composed music for Bard Of Blood on Netflix. In my humble opinion, the second season is by far better than either the first or the third, although the action sequences in the third season are something.

I must admit that the violence in Fauda does prey on your mind and yet you will start looking for Arabic and Hebrew language classes online and begin savouring word like ‘maut’, ‘zabardast’, ‘selamat’ automatically, and say, ‘Shukran’ to the food delivery guy who delivers a shawarma home (from a safe distance, of course!).

Manisha Lakhe is a poet, film critic, traveller, founder of Caferati — an online writer’s forum, hosts Mumbai’s oldest open mic, and teaches advertising, films and communication.