When Heroes Fly

In spite of recurring topics and performers as well as apparently one-track approach, this is also a series (in addition to e.g. Fauda, Bnei Aruba, Hit&Run) that caught my attention from the beginning to the end (the inclusion of a distant foreign country, Colombia, just added thrill and dynamism). All the leading performers are also up to their task, with the distress past and present well depicted, without become too effusive.

Well, the ones with far deeper knowledge of Israel may find more oddities, including as regards to the end, but I found Bishvila Giborim Afim to be another solid stone of the Israeli modern television.

It is a good show, not perfect, but good by many standards. It has mystery, thriller and good acting. The pace is also great, not too slow and not too fast. Considering how much bad shows are out there, this is one is literally perfection. Highly recommended.

This Israeli series opens with a group of soldiers in Lebanon; they are on their way home but events lead to the death of their leader. Eleven years later the four survivors; Aviv Danino, Dov 'Dubi' Ashkenazi, Yakir 'Benda' Ben-David and Dotan 'Himmler' Friedman have each gone their own way. Benda, who is now running a restaurant in Bogota sees a familiar face in a photograph in the local paper; Yael 'Yaeli' Ashkenazi. Yaeli is Dubi's sister and Aviv's girlfriend was last seen nine years previously and was presumed dead following a traffic accident in the Colombian jungle. Aviv, Dubi and Himmler fly to Bogota and meet up with Benda. Here they set about trying to find more about the picture; information that will ultimately lead them into the jungle where they will face some dangerous characters.

I really enjoyed this series. It got off to a fine start with the scenes in Lebanon; these were tense and served to introduce the four main characters and explain why they are as they are. Once the main story gets underway there is plenty of tension as the quartet face dangers in Colombia. There is a decent amount of action. The use of flashbacks to show us key moments of characters' lives is effective and doesn't distract from the main story. The cast does a solid job throughout. There are some flaws; for example the characters make a lot of unnecessary noise in the jungle even after they know there are armed individuals nearby who are looking for them; hard to believe of anybody... impossible for characters with military training (apart from the one accidentally drugged). The locations; particularly those in Colombia look fantastic. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody wanting a good drama with solid action.

These comments are based on watching the series in Hebrew/Spanish with English subtitles.

When Heroes Fly has a compelling premise: four soldiers who survived peak combat experience in the 2006 Lebanon War reunite to find a long-lost lover/sister who had been presumed dead for years. The production values, the concept, the ambition are cut from the cloth that Grade A productions are made. The problem lies with its execution, which sometimes is cut from the cloth of Grade C. When Heroes Fly is like dining in an elegant restaurant with crystal stemware, linen tablecloths, but plastic knives, forks, and spoons. The dialogue is clunky, particularly when the characters speak in English (none of the actors is a native English speaker; they hail from Israel or Latin America). The emotional notes and nuance are frequently missed in both words and in plot. And narratively (as in plot), there are several swings and strike-outs that one has to wonder whether these players are professional despite being in a Major League Stadium in prime time. I won't give away any spoilers, but, for example, the emotional miscues could be akin to the Apocalypse's imminent arrival and the response being, "There is a sale on mayonnaise at the supermarket." With respect to the plot failings, I cannot understand why the authors didn't up the ante by making each of the former soldiers gifted with respect to some sort of talent such that their "mission" to save their former lover/sister/friend would be more thought-out. One soldier could have been prodigy with technology; another with survivalist instincts to aid them in their jungle expedition; another with sharp-shooting - the constellation of which would have had them attempt the impossible with a fighting chance, all the while recognizing their underdog status. Instead, narratively, this plays as if the Three Stooges fall ass-backwards into some Deep State cabal and somehow think that they, ill-equipped and clueless, can capture the flag and reign victorious. The narrative, at times, is so sophomoric, I had to question whether I was watching a remake of The Goonies or whether this was some sophisticated production featuring grown men with real-world weighty concerns. To add insult to injury, the cult-component to the story really made little sense, and as it played out, undercut the narrative thrust for the story's denouement. Did the writers even take note? Did they realize that the core of their conflict was hollow?

When Heroes Fly could have been great. It wasn't. It didn't come close. It was fun, because I've been to both Israel and Colombia, and I am intimately acquainted with both cultures. It was the writing that failed. It was the lack of thought into the depth of the characters and what was driving them, as well as the lack of narrative sense to the story that ultimately compromised this production's aspirations.

I don't necessarily recommend or not recommend. I've seen worse and been more bothered by poorer treatment in the past. As I wrote above, this was like going to an elegant restaurant and drinking from paper cups. There was a lot of good. At the same time, it was sloppy, and it wouldn't have taken much to have tightened the story and had it resolve in a meaningful, logical, and emotionally resonant manner. When Heroes Fly had the potential to haunt me after I was finished watching it, thinking about its implications and still shaking from its impact. Instead, my thought was of what to watch next. It could have been a nutritious and delicious meal made from scratch. Instead, it was a frozen TV dinner.

This series starts out with some great action and a compelling story line but by episode 3, it quickly slides into mediocrity. Thank goodness I only have 1 more episode! How a production company allows so many talented actors to waste their time trying to make this yarn credible, is really difficult to comprehend. There are just too many gaffes and faux pauses but probably the 2 biggest was depicting trained Israeli soldiers (even if it's been a few years) stomping around in the jungle, acting more like frat boys looking for a place to drink their case of beer than battled hardened veterans and especially Israeli veterans. And I don't know who did the closed captioning (a necessity with the multiple languages), but they were awful. Oftentimes the captions didn't match up to the screen dialogue and there were large gaps with no captions at all. All kinds of wasted potential here.