On the whole, you don’t get a lot of Jewish TV. You certainly get Jews on TV. Israel, of course, is currently sending us plenty of fine programmes it’s made itself, too. But there’s not really a lot of Jewish TV – TV’s that’s concerned purely with Jewish concerns, that’s packed almost exclusively with Jewish heroes and that’s self-conscious and explicit about that, without apology. That in and of itself makes Amazon’s Hunters almost unique.
You also don’t get a lot of Quentin Tarantino TV. Sure, he has been known to cross the movie/TV divide to work on the occasional episode of CSI, and there is the occasional imitator. However, there’s not much of both categories that really captures Tarantino’s love of pulp fiction, elaborate dialogue and genre-transformation. And again, that in and of itself makes Amazon’s Hunters almost unique.
Because Hunters is probably the closest you’ll ever get – short of Quentin Tarantino himself developing a TV spin-off ofInglourious Basterds – to a Jewish Quentin Tarantino TV series. Set in 1970s New York, it sees Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson) playing a stupidly bright Jewish boy who lives with his grandmother (or ‘safta’ in Hewbrew). Harvard and MIT have offered him places, but he wants to stay with his safta and look after her.
However, one night, in what seems like an ordinary burglary, his safta – who survived the Holocaust no less – is murdered, setting Lerman on the path of vengeance. But it’s not long until no lesser person than Al Pacino turns up and reveals that his safta was actually killed by Nazis. Because they are among us – and they want to start a Fourth Reich.
So why doesn’t Lerman join his top squad of elite Nazi hunters and stop them before they succeed?
Every Tuesday, TMINE flags up what new TV events BAFTA is holding around the UK
BAFTA events are coming thick and fast for March now, with not just one but two to add to the previously announced preview of Adult Material. For a bit of variety, one’s in London and the other’s in Glasgow.
Preview: Normal People
Monday, 16 March 2020 – 7:00pm
The May Fair Hotel, Stratton St, Mayfair, London W1J 8LT
A preview of the new BBC drama followed by a Q&A with key cast and crew.
Adapted by Sally Rooney alongside writers Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe, from Rooney’s novel of the same name, Normal People tracks the tender but complicated relationship of Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), from the end of their school days in small-town west of Ireland to their undergraduate years at Trinity College.
At school, Connell is well liked and popular, while Marianne is lonely, proud and intimidating. When Connell comes to pick up his mother from her cleaning job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers – one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they’re both studying in Dublin and Marianne has found her feet in a new social world, leaving Connell hanging at the side lines, shy and uncertain.
Seating will be unallocated. If you have any access requirements, please contact [email protected] as far in advance as possible.
Join us for an exclusive preview of the first episode of forthcoming BBC drama The Nest.
A wealthy couple and a teenage girl make a pact that will change all of their lives forever, in a new five-part drama from BAFTA award winning writer Nicole Taylor.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with cast and crew.
Networking drinks will take place in the Everyman bar afterwards.
