Israeli TV

In Israel: Aired on Kan 11 in June
In the UK: Fridays, Apple TV+

‘A Netflix Original’. ‘An Amazon Original’. ‘An Apple TV+ Original’. It’s always fascinating to see just how much TV on the global streaming services isn’t actually original – just some exclusive acquired TV given a new name tag.

Amazon is probably the most transparent service, but even the likes of Good Omens – a co-production with the BBC – get called Amazon Originals. Netflix, for its part, is happy to stamp Original on practically everything it buys from anyone else, whether it put any money into making it or not.

And now here comes Apple TV+’s first non-English language ‘Apple Original’, Tehran. Which is actually just a Kan 11 (Israel) TV show for which Apple has exclusive rights outside Israel. So far, so Netflix.

What’s more interesting than that simple aping of Netflix – and lack of honesty about a show’s origins, despite the global ‘trust us’ Apple brand – is this choice. It’s an Israeli show. Not French, German or anything else, but Israeli. And a spy show to boot, set in Iran, with a mix of Farsi, Hebrew, English and even French dialogue – all with some very high production values, too.

As a way of saying, “Netflix… similar, but classier. More Think Different”, you’d be hard-pushed to pick a clearer opening move.

Tehran – but not

Tehran focuses on Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), a Jewish woman born in Iran but raised in Israel. A Mossad agent and computer hacker, she’s sent to Tehran to neutralise Iran’s air defences, so that Israeli warplanes can bomb a nuclear plant and prevent Iran from obtaining an atomic bomb.

When she arrives in Iran she switches identities with a Muslim employee of the local electricity company. But the mission goes wrong and she has to go into hiding, while being hunted by Shaun Toub (Iron Man) and occasionally helped by local Mossad agent Navid Negahban (Homeland, Legion).

As she does so, she learns more about her roots and Tehran itself.

Continue reading “Fourth-episode verdict: Tehran (Israel: Kan 11; UK: Apple TV+)”