Great news for all those who inhaled “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” on Netflix and are waiting for more: We finally know when season two of the show is premiering in Israel, and we also have a spiffy new teaser for the popular Yes Studios historical melodrama.
Season two will be premiering in Israel on January 23 — which is super soon! And all our favorite players are back. Hila Saada can be seen feeding people on the street and also looking mighty suspicious of someone in the teaser as Rosa, the wife of Michael Aloni‘s even grayer but still very handsome Gabriel Ermoza. Yuval Scharf is returning from America as Rochel, Gabriel’s Ashkenazi lover — and we see her in a head wrap dramatically delivering that news in person to whom we can assume is Gabriel (we live for the drama between these two).
Irit Kaplan returns as mercurial and delightful Ermoza family matriarch Merkada, and we see her give her signature roaring laugh in the teaser. Dov Navon is back as fashion boutique owner Mr. Zachs, who arguably has the best chemistry with Luna than anyone else in the show. And the lovely Avraham, played by Itzik Cohen, also returns.
Then of course, there’s the hypnotic beauty queen herself, Luna, played by Swell Ariel Or, and Israel Ogalbo as *spoiler* the beauty queen’s new husband, David Franco. We see him carrying her over the threshold of their home and the two of them dancing together, and as Or has said on a recent Yes TV instagram story, the two will be seem schmoozing with the local British high society. Ooh la la.
We also get a sneak peak of some of the new characters joining the cast. Israeli diva Shiri Maimon joins the cast as the wife of the local butcher, and actor Aki Avni is joining the cast to play a British officer, as is actor Michael Lewis, who will play Captain Stanley Clark. I swear this cast just keeps getting prettier and prettier (and more talented).
The new teaser also seems to promise just as much drama, with explosions, grenades, fistfights and soldiers taking the streets — and yes, also new love interests for some of the show’s other characters. And as always, there are beautiful scenes of 1940s Jerusalem. The previous season ended in 1942, and the new season will likely pick up in the ’40s as well.
Unlike Netflix, which aired the show as 20 hour-long episodes, in Israel Yes Studios opted for a daily drama format, breaking the season into 44 episodes, each under a half hour long.
It looks like Yes is taking a similar route this time — the episodes of the new season (or the first part of the new season, at least?) will air three nights a week, from Monday to Wednesday.
Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to report about when (or if!) the season might be coming to Netflix, and we might have to wait until the show finishes airing in Israel for any such news (sigh). But we’ll be sure to let you know the moment we do.
In the meantime, if you’ve loved the original book (which I still argue is better than the series, because I am basic and have basic takes), you can preorder Sarit Yishai-Levi’s second book, “The Woman Beyond the Sea,” which comes out in March. Yours truly has read it already and can vouch you’ll be in for another excellent Jewish family drama about daughters and mothers.
