(May Contain Spoilers)
I found this episode set up the whole premise and considering it went back and forth in time, which can often be disorientating, this wasn’t. I felt that the protagonist Ester (Etsy) (Shira Haas) has been setup well, a Jewish girl who runs away from her marriage and community in New York as she dreams of a fuller life. Etsy moves to Berlin will little to her name, which she stuffs into her waistband. The episode follows Etsy’s decision to leave and her husband, Yanky (Amit Rahav) finding out and trying to track her down with the help of his family and Rabbi.
What We Learnt:
Etsy is a Jewish woman who meets with her piano tutor who helps her leave New York to travel to Berlin
Etsy’s husband Yanky finds out Etsy has left and tells his family
Yanky’s family called the Rabbi who suggests that Yanky and his cousin Moise talk to Etsy’s mother and grandmother to find out where she has gone
Etsy arrives in Berlin and meets Robert (Aaron Altaras) in a coffee que and helps him with coffee back to his orchestra rehearsal
Etsy watches the orchestra rehearsal and afterwards meets up with the musicians/students and they go to a lake
Etsy undresses and takes off her wig floating in the lake
Yanky gets Moishe (Jeff Wilbusch) to listen to Etsy’s voicemails and it reveals she went to have an ultra-scan and that she might be pregnant
Etsy breaks into the orchestra/university and camps there for the night
Yanky finds out that Etsy has gone to Berlin to find her biological mother, Leah (Alex Reid) who is a German Jew
The flash backs show Etsy have an absent mother and drunk father
Etsy gets matchmade with Yanky and they seem to get on It is really great to see another cultural tv show from Netflix and I think that they are putting other subscriptions and UK terrestrial channels to shame. I don’t know much about Jewish culture, so I came into this blind and found myself learning new things about the religion, the people, community and their struggles. I cannot wait to see how the series progresses and what story arch Etsy will go on.
Avaliable to stream now on Netflix.
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