TV review: Shtisel deals with desire, grief and resentment

The characters are flawed and forgiving and unpredictable - they aren’t sure they’re doing the right thing, but they do it anyway

Shtisel: available now on Netflix

We're after falling for Shtisel (Netflix) in our place. A friend recommended it a few months back but I was put off by the photo of ultra-Orthodox Jewish people on the still photo on Netflix. Not that I have anything against ultra-Orthodox Jewish people, just that we watched the excellent Unorthodox mini-series recently and I thought it would cover the same ground.

It doesn’t. Unorthodox is about a young woman escaping an oppressive life among ultra-Orthodox Jewish families in New York city. When we finally tuned into Shtisel we discovered a really relatable human drama, that just happen s to be set in an Orthodox, or Haredi, neighbourhood in Jerusalem. It pivots around Akiva Shtisel, the sensitive, artistic, slightly sly youngest son of a rabbi, Shulem Shtisel.