HaZvi

This miniseries is a period piece, and the protagonist is a good-looking, independent-minded young woman who's ahead of her time. (When was the last period piece with a different protagonist?) The buzz around it centered largely on the use of Eliezer Ben Yehuda as a character. He's the man who was dedicated to re-introducing the Hebrew language into everyday speech, and his role here is stern King of Siam to the protagonist's also determined but softer-hearted Anna. The script, however, spends a great deal of time on the protagonist's family (entirely fictitious, as far as I know) and on the soap opera of their lives, as well as on a case of abuse by an extreme religious sect against a suspected loose woman.-- to the point where if you came to see a story about the revival of the Hebrew language, you might feel insufficiently rewarded.

There are other departures from expectations as well. A couple of scenes veer into fantasy or surrealism, and someone decided that the anachronism of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" would work well in the soundtrack.

At times it can be a tough mix to swallow, but the production puts it across as smoothly as possible. Playing the protagonist, Suzanna Papian reaffirms her standing as the country's sweetheart. Opposite her is Or Ben-Melech, who has his funny-looking face well covered by beard and can thus tackle the Ben-Yehuda role-- a more serious one than he usually plays. Vladimir Friedman, the Depardieu of Israel, is also on hand and is impressive as always, and a smaller role goes to Gala Kogan, who is very very welcome back on screen after a bout with brain cancer.

A great deal of plot is packed into the last episode of the series, as if at one point more had been planned, but although I was happy to follow each episode, I wasn't terribly sorry to see the story end and free all those talented people to move on to other things.