Rough Diamonds

The story and the acting are really good and convincing. I was especially moved by Marie Vinck, who plays Gila, and her chemistry with the equally talented Kevin Janssens.

Robby Cleiren (playing Eli Wolfson) and Ini Massez (playing Adina Glazer) were amazing. I really appreciated when Adina Glazer declared she is the first major female diamond trader in four generations in their community.

The series' atmosphere managed to describe dutifully the situation of the diamond industry in Antwerp as "not what it used to be", meaning that a large number of Jewish diamond manufacturers and traders have been replaced over the years by others.

My only criticism of Rough Diamonds is that Orthodox Jews in Antwerp usually do not speak with the local Antwerp accent.

The production values are fine, the storyline is interesting, but as usual, Netflix is lax about uploading details of the cast and episodes. Netflix must improve in this area. It seems that they have no one working for them who has any knowledge of actors who are not primarily known for English language based films or TV.

The 8th episode is streaming now and still, the cast is mostly still listed without any photos or details in the episode guide. Several actors are obviously rather accomplished people in the field of European productions, to judge by their performances, but there is nothing about them in the cast listings. Viewers are left in the dark in regard to work histories and images. To say that Netflix is lax in this area is an understatement.

This is obviously not to mention that there are still no synopses for the episodes at all, 8 episodes in. Netflix is becoming well known for this laxness.

Have watched 6 episodes so far. Series has some good parts but many weak ones too. It's often unrealistic and far-fetched.

The actors who play Eli and Adina are quite good. The actor who plays Noah is not great, but he's really great at looking confused.

The series has several different stories taking place and some of them make no sense.

Overall, it's not easy to recommend this series as there are much better series available to watch. Hence, the series is disappointing, but could easily have been better with a better script.

One aspect of the series that is interesting is the glimpse into the workings of the world-famous diamond district in Antwerp.

Rough Diamonds is an exception to many of the recent Netflix originals. It is an excellent series, it is authentic, it has no drugs or explicit sex, and no foul language. Queenmaker was another great series with a clean ending; you don't have to wait for season 2. House of Cards, Money Heist, Delhi Crime, Queen's Gambit, Night Agent, and Marcella are good examples of what Netflix should focus on. In the past Netflix licensed excellent TV series like Revenge so that we could watch them without commercials. That was the biggest value proposition for us. Many of the recent originals are pretty bad, full of explicit sex, drugs, foul language with f and mf words. Many have actors who do not belong in the script but are there to satisfy diversity. We love the Korean, Northern European, some other foreign shows.

It is a rare thing to see hasidic community as shown in show. Culture, religion, traditions, family, business, all were depicted as close to real life as possible. The plot is great, the cast is amazing, the intense is all the way to the end. It is sad the way things kept happening to this family, but it is refreshing to see how intelligent the members of the family are, each trying to carry the burdens to protect the family. The love situation is another great story thoughtout the entire show. Great understand of the religious rituals and ceremonies. Highly recommended to watch and I wish another season is in the thoughts of producers.