Valley of Tears

This is quite an assault on our senses in all senses. The sheer horror and senselessness of young men going to war over political and religious differences. This series really captures the awful reality of average people thrown into the cauldron of horror brought on by fanatical political and religious leaders.

Such a sad sad indictment on so called humanity.

That said, it is terrifically made, acted, directed. The gritty reality is palpable. The cinematography is superb. The plot is a little ridiculous at times and the coincidental interactions absurd, but that aside.

For lovers of war, hopefully this will make you lose that love. War is awful.

This series is not. Watch it!!

For me as a citizen of Ukraine - a state that is fighting against aggression of Russia right now - it's very impressive story. As well as a good illustration of the words of Golda Meir (who was born in Kyiv): "They say we must be dead. And we say we want to be alive. Between life and death, I don't know of a compromise".

Also a realistic view on the chaos of war where you can see an ordinary peaceful life with music and relaxing people in towns while there are tanks fighting just several kilometers away.

This series is very well done from the point of realism. One certainly gets the feel of being in battle with people fighting for their very right to exist. The war was hard on all sides and resulted in loss of life. The personal stories are very dramatic. Bear in mind however that this is a soap opera so be prepared for very melodramatic and "soapy" dialog! The worst thing one could say about the series would be the toupees used to evoke the 1970s feel really looked a bit silly. However it did not detract from the excellence of the production. It is well worth the watch and it helps if you know the back story to the war and the culture of the region. Do not under any circumstances watch the dubbed version! Watch only the original version in Hebrew and Arabic and read the subtitles!

Do NOT watch the dubbed version, it's terribly done.

Watch it in the original hebrew with english subtitles.

Yes, some characters are initially whiny and crybabies but what people fail to understand is that they are intelligence soldiers who didn't have a minute of combat training and were caught in that situation.

The acting and script were on point.

The only downside for me was the political correctness: No girl was in a combat zone in the north but somehow they stuck that in the script because they just "had to", that was a pity.

Insane emphasis was put on realism when creating the series and the detailing and the realism goes down to the most minute details.

Real masterpiece

Let's get the negatives out of the way first.

Yes, the geek kid is extremely annoying. But his character does experience growth. So there's that. Also, the guy playing Caspi over acts as well.

As to people moaning about bad dubbing, why are you watching a dubbed version? NEVER watch dubbed versions of anything. On Netflix, in particular, every show that is dubbed is awful. Great shows like "Money Heist" and "Babylon Berlin" sound like high school productions if you watch them dubbed. And, yes, there is both a dubbed version and an original language version available of "Valley of Tears" on HBO Max. So, stop complaining if you're not watching with subtitles.

But, all that aside, this is a pretty mesmerizing show. It really sucks you into the moment in time. Many of the details are accurate depictions of the chaos and noise, fear and horror of war. No, not everyone marches into battle like John Wayne or leads troops expertly like George Patton. I appreciate the reality of it all. Together with "1917," these are two of the best anti-war films in a long time. And, yes, pretty much all war films are anti-war films.