My Unorthodox Life

I'm not a religious Jewish woman. I'm a liberal one.

But I find Julia extremely authoritarian and disrespectful.

For someone who left the community because they forced her to do things she didn't want or like, she behaves that way.

Apparently never learned that lesson.

Bat and Ben are loveable.

The rest sounds scripted. Fake.

So I have been enjoying this show for quite some time. It is far from perfect but very enjoyable and inspirational. Then I went to see the imdb rating, expecting it to be around a 7.5. However to my shock it has a 4.3 rating, so I started reading the reviews and most of them are un argumented 1 star reviews. Cleary a butcher job from the Orthodox community that felt called out. 1st of all the leading lady Julia is an inspiration to many. She came from a very traditional fundamentalist background, and rose like a phoenix and made herself the successful self made woman head of Elite World Management that she is. Is she controlling and stubborn? Perhaps. But she does know better than most of her children what is good for them, and only wants the best as is clear that many of them are still suffering and under influence of the fundamentalist mentality they grew up in. For example, Aron thinks that he wants to live a life of Religion, but only because he knows nothing else and is not even allowed to explore it or even talk to girls, he is only 14 and has literally been brainwashed since he was a baby. You can literally see Julia breaking down crying realizing he has probably fallen in too deep into the abyss of fundamentalism and religion to be rescued. Its very sad. Batsheva on the other hand is half baked, she is trying to come out of her religious shell but at the same time she has her husband who is guilt-tripping her for wearing jeans and other nonsense of the sort, yes really have to wonder who is in the wrong here! So all in all, not the best reality show on TV but very interesting context and an enjoyable and inspirational watch of an uber successful woman who is trying to save her family from the claws of fundamentalism. I recommend it to anyone who is opening his/her eyes regarding organized religion and the damaging limiting effect it has on human personal life.

This reality show has very little "real". Everything looks planned and staged (the cameraman in the bedroom filming one of Julia's daughters in bed having sex - or make it look like it - with her boyfriend: really?! Not to mention the dialogue). Lots of money but little good taste in both style and behaviour. Julia wants to rule everyone's life; she has a God complex. Silvio, Robert and Ben are the only characters that inspire sympathy.

I admire Julias story but the conflicts are obviously planted and the conversations feel so scripted. I guess that's how tv is even if it's "real life".

The whole show I just bad for Robert because people were constantly violating his boundaries. First Julia not respecting him when he said he didn't want to date at this time. He stood his ground but Julia wouldn't drop it. And then his family gaslighting him for trying to find out more about his birth person. I hope that has changed foe him since.

For those who condemn her for attacking an entire group, watch the documentary One of Us, also on Netflix. You'll have a better understanding of what she left and why she doesn't want her son to be sucked into that way of life. I think she's going about convincing him in the wrong way, but maybe, hopefully, by the end of the series I'll be proven wrong. I agree with her that fundamentalism in any religion is a huge problem. We see it with American right wing Christians, Myanmar Buddhists, Middle Eastern Muslim Al-Qaeda, etc.; they're all putrid peas in the same rotten pod. I fast forwarded through all the fashion world junk. Other than a few brief scenes it was irrelevant.