Are you watching this?
We just finished five seasons of "The Americans." That's right, sixty five episodes, I can't believe it myself. But we cannot see the sixth, unless we're willing to pay for it, $24.95, that's never gonna happen, the content companies are bleeding us dry, and it's gonna be worse when they all merge and they're the only game in town. We're going through a great consolidation, with a dash of musical chairs thrown in. The five hundred channel universe...KAPUT! Now there are just gonna be a few outlets, and you'll subscribe to some or all of them. As for the vaunted YouTube revolution, did you read that article about YouTubers burning out? (https://bit.ly/2LoO2ft) That's right, it was another canard sold to the youth, a supposedly easy way to make money, a PARADIGM SHIFT, while the big boys, Google and Amazon and Facebook and Apple...took the lion's share of the revenue and the government supported the rich. You work 24/7 on Maggie's Farm and they change the algorithm and you're making less and if you're dependent upon likes, getting subscribers, working the system, you're toast. If your talent isn't strong enough to stand on its own, draw people to it by itself, give up now. And yes, there are those making money unboxing, but that's like telling you Bill Gates and Steve Jobs dropped out of college and you're just a shot away from being a billionaire. Yeah, right.
And "The Americans" is plot-driven. It's got few layers, it ain't that deep, but it does hook you, because of the drama, because Keri Russell BELIEVES!
Do you believe in your mission? Do you have a mission? Are you willing to die for it, like Hamas?
I won't bore you with the Arab/Israeli rhetoric. The story today is you can't convince people to change their opinion, even with facts, they're stuck in their rut and they're sticking to it. And I know that's saying the same thing twice but that's how much they've self-reinforced their ideas, living in an echo chamber, but...
"Fauda" is about the Arab/Israeli conflict. On the West Bank. And...
These are not the Jews you anti-Semites think they are. Hell, you could line them up and most would not pick them as Jews. People have no idea what's going on in the world, especially Americans, because THEY HAVEN'T BEEN ANYWHERE!
Like Israel. Like the desert.
That's right, it's not a lush landscape, they didn't give Jews California's Central Valley, but the Mojave Desert. But the elements make you feel alive. When you see Doron riding a motorcycle in the sand you think...one breakdown and he could die. What are the risks of you dying, other than by O.D.'ing on opiates? I'd say that's how far down your life has fallen, but the truth is Purdue wanted to hook you, by saying Oxycontin was not addictive, and then it became so scarce you got hooked on heroin and...
If your life's in danger, if you're running on adrenaline, you ain't got time for drugs. Because...
Doron is a movie star. Not a superhero, not someone buff like the Rock, not a pretty boy like Tom Cruise, but a male who attracts you through attitude and action. He's doing the right thing, as if nobody is watching, and then he does the wrong thing and everybody is watching and they blame him. He can't win. But he's fighting for more than stripes on his uniform, which none of them wear, he's all about a CAUSE!
People need causes in life. And they need to do something about them. Being anti-Trump is not a cause. Getting out into the field and changing America is. The FBI is a cause, but now it's been denigrated. We've lost our way.
But we're addicted to television.
So, waiting for the next season of "The Americans" to appear on Amazon, we dove into season two of "Fauda." Felice wants to stop, it's too violent, the characters are not likable.
But that's my kind of show. I hate when people say they can't relate. Is entertainment just escapism? How about eye-opening, how about instructive, how about making you THINK!
Everybody's into the formula. Everybody likes a happy ending. But it rarely turns out that way, you get cancer and you die. Or you live long enough to find out you're irrelevant. What is life about? Damned if I know. But the longer I live I understand actions of the past, I can see why people become revolutionaries, lay their lives on the line, die for the cause, because other than the cause, WHAT IS THERE?
We're threatened in the U.S. By the racist right and the corporations. Save me your bile, if you don't agree, why are you reading this? You think your e-mails of denial are gonna convert me to your side? You're just demonstrating your ignorance. I read "The Wall Street Journal," I listen to Fox on the satellite, it all makes me laugh, you're so busy demonizing "The New York Times" you don't even read it, and there's a hell of a lot more news there than anywhere else.
But you're dug into your trough. Like Hamas. Hamas doesn't want peace, doesn't want a solution, unless it means Israel no longer exists. Is Israel perfect? No. Has it made mistakes? Yes. But when someone says you have no right to exist, you fight back, irrelevant of what the naysayers claim.
And "Fauda" is about this tension. You can enjoy it, if that's the word, whether you know anything about the Arab/Israeli conflict or not. Although you're gonna have to read subtitles. That's a threshold in dumbed-down America, if you've got to read, you're out. But the world is based on words, written ones, it's why Trump is such a bozo, he doesn't, read that is. And his grammar is terrible. People judge you on this, you should know, and right now Trump is winning and the liberals are letting him and the whole damn situation, the whole damn country, no longer makes sense.
So we turn to entertainment.
But there are more forms than laughable comedies, superheroes and mindless dreck. There is stuff that wakes you up, that gets you in touch with your humanity, that gets you to question your behavior.
Like "Fauda."
P.S. Shirin tries to resist Doron, but she cannot. If she were American, Laetitia Eido, would get a nose job, but her honker here just makes her more attractive, she's unique, like you, like me. We're all different, but we're all the same, that's the conundrum. We despise each other but we cannot get along without each other. And what stimulates us, keeps us going, is love.
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