October was an amazing month for Jewish TV. Sure, most of us were still only thinking about the September premiere of Netflix’s hot rabbi show, “Nobody Wants This,” but there was a wealth of fascinating Jewish representation on TV.
We had a real bat mitzvah on “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” a fictional one on “Agatha All Along,” and an incredible Rachel Bloom special that feels like a Talmudic contemplation on death. Jewish mom Deb Levy won us over on the final episodes of “The Circle,” where she proudly displayed her Jewish pride. Season four of “Ghosts” premiered on CBS, with it more delightful representation from the best Jewish ghost on TV. Over on Jewish streaming platforms, much of the first season of the excellent “Dismissed,” an army comedy and one of the best shows to have come out of Israel, premiered.
In contrast, November offers a not-so-rich selection of Jewish TV, at least as of yet, though new episodes of Jewish shows like “Dismissed,” “Sayeret Matkal” and “Kathmandu” are still airing on Izzy throughout the month. There’s still some fun TV ahead of us, with exciting Jewish actors, Jewish cakes and the most popular show in Israel making a season debut stateside.
November 1: The entire “Dirty Dancing” franchise premieres on Peacock
We’re still here waiting for the “Dirty Dancing” sequel Jennifer Grey (who is, by the way, amazing in Jesse Eisenberg’s new movie “A Real Pain”) promised us, but in the meantime, you can stream Baby and her dancing adventures in the Borscht Bell all of November exclusively on Peacock.
November 13: “Checkout” season 4 (Chaiflicks)
The most popular Israeli sitcom at the moment is “Checkout,” a mockumentary-style comedy that takes place in a grocery store, Shefa Isaschar, in the city of Yavneh. Shira Steinboch, played by iconic Israeli actress Noa Koller, is the store manager, a naive idealist who is generally in over her head and an ardent fan of Steve Jobs. The sassy store cashier, Cohava, played by comedian Keren Mor, gives her a hard time with her frequent smoking breaks and overall attitude. There’s the store’s impatient butcher, Anatoly, who is not really a fan of customer service, and his colleague Nissim, who is not really a fan of hard work, or any work at all. The only outstanding employee is Arab-Israeli Ramzi, played by actor Amir Shoresh. This fourth season of the show finished airing in Israel in September of 2023, a little under a month before October 7, and while a fifth season still hasn’t premiered there, in January, the cast of the show released special episodes addressing the post-October 7 reality, in an attempt to cheer up a grieving and fraught nation.
November 21: “The Sex Lives of College Girls” season 3 (Max)
As everyone obsesses about Jewish actor Timothée Chalamet, who recently inspired a truly unhinged lookalike contest in NYC, it is our duty to remind you that his sister is also a prolific movie and TV star. Pauline Chalamet will be starring in the third season of “The Sex Life of College Girls” on Max as Kimberly, one of the show’s main protagonists, who comes from a small Arizona town to attend the fictional Essex College in Vermont. There doesn’t appear to be much Jewish representation on campus here, aside from perhaps the nonbinary Vico Ortiz (“Our Flag Means Death”) character Tova, who may or may not be Jewish.
November 22: “Transmitzvah” (Netflix)
In this movie, directed and written by Argentinian creator Daniel Burman (the showrunner of “Yosi, the Regretful Spy” streaming on Prime), a trans woman and celebrated Yiddish singer, Mumy Singer (the last name is not for her vocal skills, but after the sewing machine), played by Penélope Guerrero, tries to reclaim the Jewish rite of passage in adulthood after having cancelled her childhood bar mitzvah by having her own “transmitzvah.”
November 28: “Is It Cake? Holiday” (Netflix)
While it’s quite likely that this special all-star edition of my kids’ favorite reality show, in which contestants have to make deceptively realistic cakes, will feature mostly Christmas fare, I did spy a little Hanukkah imagery in one of the promos from this upcoming season, so hopefully there’ll be some fun Festival of Lights-themed confectionaries as well.
via Netflix
