L ifestyle /C ulture
The Best Jewish Shows and Movies of 2021
ARTS JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
FROM THE FAMILIAR
(“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) to
the obscure (“The Club”), from
the educational (“Jerusalem”)
to the absurd (“Big Mouth”),
from the controversial (“My
Unorthodox Life”) to the meh
(“The Shrink Next Door”), it
was an active year of Jewish-
themed entertainment.

Since we fancy ourselves
great critics here at the Jewish
Exponent, we watched, lauded
and excoriated a lot of it.

Here’s our comprehensive
list of the best Jewish-themed
shows and movies of 2021.

third decade (it started in
2000), “Curb” has taken on a
timeless quality.

It doesn’t matter which
cultural moment we’re living
through in American life.

Larry David’s perverse but
incisive questioning of social
conventions and
moral codes is always hilarious and
thought-provoking. Netflix’s “The Club”
Unless you’re an avid
watcher of Jewish shows (my
wife) or Turkish shows (my
grandma), “The Club” won’t
come up on your Netflix
algorithm. But it’s worth trying
to find.

The six-episode season has
several good qualities, starting
with its Jewish protagonists.

Shows HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Plus, who knew the Jews had
In its 11th season and such a long history in Turkey?
Netflix’s “Big Mouth”
Streaming’s endless library
offers wacky creators a lot
of space to be their weirdest
selves. That’s what “Big Mouth,”
an animated coming-of-age
sitcom, is for Jewish comedian
Nick Kroll, its creator, writer
and primary voice actor.

But at its best, “Big Mouth”
also sheds light on the awkward,
painful and utterly hilarious
experience of going through
puberty. And season five this
year offered a new twist: What
happens when teenagers learn
to hate and resent each other?
Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life”
Love Julia Haart as an
embodiment of
female empowerment or hate her
as a denigrator of Orthodox
Judaism. You can’t deny that
she has your attention.

Any nine-episode binge
series that has two Wikipedia
sections devoted to its critical
reception is, at the very least,
starting a conversation.

TV right now.

And once you’re caught up,
you will enjoy this tense season
three episode that features
Brody, the greatest living
Jewish actor, playing a Jewish
investor who holds the balance
of power of a WASP-y corpora-
tion in his hands.

The episode also touches
on antisemitism in a subtle,
nuanced and even multi-gen-
erational fashion. It was one of
the better modern portrayals
of that perpetual illness.

CNN’s “Jerusalem”
Forget your
precon- ceived political notions about
CNN. After all, Fox News
is known for having a good
polling operation. These cable
news channels can do some
things right.

In CNN’s case, “Jerusalem”
is one of them. It’s a great
beginner’s history lesson about Beanie Feldstein’s role on FX’s
the holy city, as told by history “American Crime Story”
I will leave it to the
professors/total nerds.

Exponent’s Sasha Rogelberg
Adrien Brody’s guest appear- to explain how Feldstein,
known previously for playing
ance on HBO’s “Succession”
Maybe you don’t watch comedic roles in “Lady Bird”
“Succession.” Well, you should,
because it’s the best show on
See Screen, Page 20
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