Die Geiseln

/refers to Season 1/

The recent decade has seen me moving away from U.S. and partially British crime drama (mini)series and focusing on wider geographical area. Thus, when I was referred to an Israeli one, I was anxious to see what was on offer from a country where security, army and intelligence form a vast part of daily life.

It all started working from the first scene, and the thrill was maintained throughout the season. In spite of some clichés, predictable scenes and questionable "blunders" around the Prime Minister, this series is pleasant to follow: it is thrilling, fast-paced, with good cast (particularly Ayelet Zurer as Dr. Yael Danon and Yoav Rothman as Assaf Danon), and you get an overview of beautiful Jerusalem as well as living in a highly secured country due to lots of hostile people around and within (although no Arabs were visible to me this time).

The final episode had multiple sub-endings, promising a sequel, which I am eager to follow as well (although I heard that the cast is partially different). All in all, Bnei Aruba 1 was a pleasant familiarisation with Isreali series and listening to Hebrew in almost all conversations.

This is the first Israeli native TV serial I've watched and it left me surprised. The characters and acting backed by a very strong storyline was too good.These sort of TV shows are very rare and it's a must watch if you like action, suspense, drama with good storyline. Edge of the seat thriller !

This is one for fans of Homeland or lesser spy dramas. There is nobody who we would recognise as stars and the subtitles and the complicated plot makes it hard to follow at times but it is worth sticking with. There was an American version of this but it did not last long. I find it hard to praise this enough,it has good action scenes but also requires the viewer to engage their brain. Unlike so many American tv shows it actually uses real locations,not 1970s style sets.

Really interested in the first few episodes, but later it transoforms in a bad soap opera-like tv show and the plot is unconvincing and just plainly bad.

Typically any suspense/action thriller coming from Israel will involve a Palestinian sub-plot of someone trying to blow something up. Hostages is a breath of fresh air and a masterpiece of intricate plot twists mixed with suspense and action. There were a few holes and issues with predictability (I guessed the major "twist" in the first episode after the character set-ups), but for the most part it is very well-acted and gives the viewer insight into the lives of various segments of Israeli society. In fact, the underlining theme seemed to be that if you take away the "other" (i.e. the Palestinians...never so much as mentioned once here) in the surreal, dehumanizing and ultra-militarized society that is Israel, the citizens themselves will eventually turn on each other for whatever reason. In the end of season one, you find yourself asking if there really are any heroes or "good guys" to be found at all in this series. That being said, I'd say just watch Season 1, as the 2nd seems to have jumped the shark.