The trailer for the new season of Homeland is here, and while the Showtime hit might not be the key to achieving Middle East peace, as co-star Mandy Patinkin believes, it’s one of our favorite shows on TV right now.

So what does the trailer reveal? Not much, unsurprisingly, but there are a ton of scenes packed into the three-minute video: Brody shaves his head, Carrie wears a hospital bracelet, Carrie and Saul get called before a hearing, Saul maybe sells her out, Brody wears a hoodie, someone maybe puts a bomb together, police come for Carrie, and angsty teen Dana Brody snaps a topless selfie (really, Howard Gordon?) and possibly takes up Islam. Have a look:

Need another Homeland fix before the September 29 premiere? Check out Dov Friedman’s ode to Saul Berenson, who he argues is the most accurately depicted American Jew on television; and Sarah Breger’s sharp analysis of why the American adaptations of Israeli dramas like Homeland (called Hatufim in Israel) and In Treatment have been (wildly) successful, while Israel comedy transplants like The Ex-List have fallen flat for American audiences. She also points out the glam makeover the casts of both Homeland and In Treatment got when the show was revamped for American audiences.

Or you can always watch this video of Mandy Patinkin completely freaking out after learning his Good Day New York interviewer’s wife just gave birth to the couple’s first child. In the words of the plotzing Patinkin, “Oh my god, how thrilling!”

The post Homeland Season 3: There Will Be Sexting appeared first on Jewcy.

Season 1 of Homeland, the Showtime hit starring Jewcy favorite Mandy Patinkin, premieres this week in Canada. Patinkin went all the way up there to do some press for the show (he’s such a Saul), where he explained in a bizarre interview that Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Nick Brody (Damian Lewis) are actually metaphors for the conflict in the Middle East.

The weirdest thing about the whole interview, though, is that it’s getting increasingly difficult to tell where Patinkin ends and his on-screen alter ego, Saul Berenson, begins. Here’s how he describes his character:

“This Jewish looking fellow is keeping these two non-Jewish looking creatures together because he feels that they’re the answer to the world’s problems. They both care so much; they have so much empathy towards the human race, even though they are both capable of committing horrific acts of violence,” he explains. “I don’t condone violence but sometimes it happens, I’m not naive. But Saul Berenson’s preference is to make the world sit at the peace table. Saul Berenson’s preference is to not lift a single weapon, not hurt a single human being but he’s not naive, he’s had to do some horrific things in his life.”

Patinkin out.

(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Previously: Watch Mandy Patinkin Get Giddy About Someone Else’s Baby Being Born
Network Jews: Saul Berenson from Showtime’s Homeland
Reality Check: The Israeli vs. American Actors of ‘Homeland’ and ‘In Treatment’
Gilad Shalit Visits Cast of Showtime Drama ‘Homeland’ on Set in Tel Aviv

The post Mandy Patinkin Thinks ‘Homeland’ Can Save the Middle East appeared first on Jewcy.

• Barbra Streisand will sing at the Oscars this year, her first performance there since 1977. [NYDN]

• Cholent saves lives. Actually though. [Tablet]

• ‘You Had to Be There’ podcast hosts Nikki Glaser and Sara Schaefer talk about their new MTV show, Nikki and Sara Live, which premiered last night. [Splitsider]

• This just in: cool Shabbat dinners happen in New York City. [Observer]

• We’d probably go see Bloomberg: The Musical. [NYT]

• Meet Animated Saul Berenson [College Humor]

The post Daily Jewce: Babs to Perform at the Oscars, Cholent Saves Lives appeared first on Jewcy.

When asked about his faith, Detective John Munch (Richard Belzer) says, “The only thing Judaism and I have in common is we both don’t like to work on Saturdays.” Quipping aside, Munch—a cynical, sarcastic, four-times-divorced conspiracy nut—actually has a rich and nuanced, though largely secular, relationship to Judaism.

The character of John Munch is the longest-running one on television to be played by the same actor. He began as a lead on Homicide: Life On The Street as a detective in the Baltimore Police Department and then moved to New York as a Sex Crimes cop on Law And Order: SVU (which occupies the same universe), racking up a current total of 19 seasons of television. Belzer has also appeared as Munch on more series than any other television character, including the original Law And Order and its spinoff Trial By Jury, short-lived UPN cop drama The Beat, The Wire, and The X-Files, comedies 30 Rock and Arrested Development (where Munch helps the FBI run the “scrapbooking sting” on Tobias), and Sesame Street.

But for a character with such longevity, Munch’s complicated relationship to his religion has been sparingly explored. Like Jerry Seinfeld, his Judaism is cultural—he’s oversensitive to perceived anti-Semitism but completely fine with joking about Judaism himself. His sensitivity to personal slights, whether against his religion or not, reaches its logical conclusion in paranoia and an obsession with conspiracy theories. This aspect of the character became less prominent as he moved from Homicide to SVU, but a forensic psychologist in the first season of SVU still pegs Munch as able to “smell a conspiracy theory at a five-year-old’s lemonade stand.”

One of his many crossover appearances suggests Munch might not be so off the mark with his theories. The framing device of “Unusual Suspects,” a Season 5 episode of The X-Files, sees Munch interrogating John Fitzgerald Byers (Bruce Harwood), the leader of the Lone Gunmen—a group of conspiracy nuts more paranoid than Fox Mulder (David Duchovney), another Jew. Within The X-Files, “Unusual Suspects” provides the origins of both the Lone Gunmen and Mulder’s overwhelming fear of the government, but it also helps situate Munch’s persecution complex and surprisingly well-justified distrust of authority.

Still, as much as his attitude reflects a Jewish upbringing, Munch isn’t particularly religious. Homicide’s episode “Kaddish,” the most in-depth exploration of Munch’s faith, makes it clear that although he knows the details of Jewish burial laws, some Yiddish, and a substantial amount of prayer, he wants nothing to do with Judaism. During the episode, Munch refuses to participate in a minyan, a group of 10 Jewish adults required for certain prayers, at a shiva for Helen Rosenthal, a victim whose murder he is investigating who also happens to be his high school crush. At the minyan, Munch claims (while obviously lying) that he doesn’t remember the Mourner’s Kaddish, the hymn of praise to God said by those grieving for a loved one.

Throughout “Kaddish,” we trace young Johnny Munch’s infatuation with Helen. That relationship is important by itself to understanding the adult Munch, but it also lets us peek at his nerdy childhood in the heavily Jewish Baltimore suburb of Pikesville, where he ran a paper route and dreamt of being a detective, “like Johnny Staccato.” Growing up in the suburbs in front of a television, afraid of bullies, it’s easy to trace a line between Johnny Munch and the cynical Sex Crimes cop.

As someone connected to Judaism more through a sort of worldview than through faith, or even rituals, Munch seems to be a kindred spirit of Homeland’s Saul Berenson, another Jewish law-enforcement official who may not be exceedingly religious but takes Judaism as crucial and constitutive of his personality.

Both Munch and Saul experience similar moments confirming their inherent Judaism. Saul says kaddish over Asfal Hamid, a terrorist who has committed suicide, as a way of expressing the compassion that makes him such an effective CIA operative. Likewise, at the end of “Kaddish,” Munch returns to Helen’s shiva, dons a yarmulke, and joins the minyan, the sound of the Mourner’s Kaddish providing the grace note of the episode.

Before he heads back to the shiva, Munch asks his partner why people forget the simple pleasure of holding another person’s hand, clearly pining for the pure love he felt for Helen. The contradiction at the heart of John Munch—the cynical, paranoiac bastard with four ex wives who still believes deeply in true love—is less a signal of the hard-bitten cop’s rejection of Judaism and more a representation of the reluctant Jewish hero, a tradition as old as Moses.

Previously on Network Jews

Dr. John Zoidberg, the Klutzy Jewish Crustacean on Futurama

Jean-Ralphio, the status-obsessed sidekick on Parks and Recreation.

Shoshanna, the scene-stealing afterthought on Girls.

The post Network Jews: Police Detective John Munch on ‘Law & Order: SVU’ appeared first on Jewcy.

Max Greenfield, the man behind New Girl’s Schmidt, stopped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night and, naturally, talked about his mother and his bar mitzvah.

He called his mother right away when he found out he got nominated for an Emmy, and her response was “You’re nominated against SAUL?” He imagines her spitting out her Nespresso coffee (“They just got a machine, they’re very excited about it”) when he listed the rest of the nominees.

Fallon also showed pictures from Greenfield’s Saturday Night Live-themed bar mitzvah, which we’ve heard about several times before. SNL people, just let the guy host already—please?

Previously: Network Jews: Schmidt from ‘New Girl’

(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

The post Max Greenfield Tells Jimmy Fallon About His Mom and His Bar Mitzvah appeared first on Jewcy.

Rachel Berry moved to New York and we stopped watching, Annie Edison and the rest of Community was pushed to 2013 (though that didn’t stop us from getting our Alison Brie fill in other ways, and we’re still confused about how we feel about Shosh (but not Zosia, never Zosia) making 2012 very much the year of men for our Network Jews series (with sincere apologies to Hanna Rosin).

While there were many worthy candidates, here are the Top 5:

1. Schmidt:

Our first Network Jew is also our favorite. While we remain mixed about the merits of New Girl (even if it did lead to this) we can always rely on the real star of the show: Schmidt. He may have started out as a douchebag, but somewhere along the line he’s become, as Willa Paskin dubbed him, an “aspirational douchebag”—somehow going from disgusting to endearing.

Of course a major part of all this is his Jewishness. But perhaps the best part is that the actor who plays him, Max Greenfield, is up for anything, whether it’s dressing up as a Jewish Assassin or making in-character spin videos. Let’s just hope he stops guest–editing GOOP.

2. Saul Berenson:

Dov Friedman called Mandy Patinkin’s turn as the CIA Middle East division chief “the most accurate depiction of an American Jewish identity ever portrayed on television.” And for good reason. Homeland finished off it’s second season [spoiler alert] with Saul saying kaddish yet again as David Estes and a whole bunch of other characters were blown to smithereens. It isn’t just Claire Danes who thinks of challah (or was it holla?) when she sees our favorite bearded CIA agent. Just watch this video.

OK, we may be getting distracted, we’re talking about Berenson, not Patinkin, though it can be difficult to separate the two. Inspired by the Israeli show—and some would say superior—Hatufim, there’s at least one place where there’s no competition: the character of older, wiser intelligence officer. We only hope that in Season 3 they figure out some way to let him sing.

3. Max Blum:

Probably the most underrated show on this list, Happy Endings’ six-person ensemble is held together by Max Blum. I know, I know. We just talked about how great Schmidt is, and here we’re saying that Happy Endings’ anti-Schmidt is also our favorite. You know what, we can have our cake and eat it too … with Max, while listening to Mandona.

The pop culture-obsessed sarcastic slob of a gay best friend is everything you’d want in a pop-culture obsessed sarcastic slob of a gay best friend. Don’t just take our word for it, Emily Nussbaum thinks the man who brought us Boyz II Menorah is Amahzing too.

4. Eli Gold:

The Good Wife may have started out as an Eliot Sptizer-style, ripped from the headlines, procedural-style show, and it might still be that, but somehow it rises above. While there’s lots to say about the shows women, and even Jewcy favorite Josh Charles, the biggest surprise has to be Alan Cumming’s Jewish turn as Eli Gold.

As Abe Fried-Tanzer wrote, “It’s no coincidence that Gold has been compared to a real-life famous Jew with a similar profession. Rahm Emanuel, former Chief of Staff for President Obama … has quite a reputation for winning at all costs, and Gold has managed to earn that same status in what could easily have been (and originally was) merely a guest-starring role. Gold may reinforce the stereotype of Jews wanting all the power, but he’s definitely someone you’d want on your side.”

5. Ruxin:

There’s no getting around it: Nick Kroll’s Ruxin is a self-assured asshole. (In one episode, Ruxin defends a paint company whose cans explode by arguing that anyone buying such a cheap item should have “a reasonable expectation that that product will explode in your face.” “And, morally, you’re good with this?” asks his friend, Pete. “There was just one word in there that I am not familiar with,” Ruxin responds.) But, for Sala Levin, this is all the more reason to love him—and love him we do!

After all, “A man who coasts through life on his assimilated rudeness but maintains some iota of his people’s historical dread is, after all, every girl’s dream.”

The post The Best of Network Jews 2012 appeared first on Jewcy.

• Jon Stewart took some artistic liberty with the plot of A Christmas Carol in response to Fox News’ War on Christmas coverage. [Mediaite]

• Novelist Jami Attenberg—star of yesterday’s Twitter Book Club—discusses the creation of an obese literary character with playwright Samuel D. Hunter. [NYT]

• Joan Rivers has some advice for the Australian radio DJs who prank called the hospital Kate Middleton was staying in, who have been vilified after the nurse who took the call killed herself. [Mediaite]

• Why do classic Rankin-Bass Christmas animated specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman look so…Jewish? [Tablet]

• Jewcy favorite Mandy Patinkin tells Stephen Colbert it takes eight to 10 weeks to get his beard to its full glory, then schools Colbert on the roots of terrorism. Saul Berenson FTW. [Colbert Report]

The post Daily Jewce: Mandy Patinkin’s Beard, Jon Stewart Does ‘A Christmas Carol’ appeared first on Jewcy.

• 60 Minutes looks at Steven Spielberg’s new movie, Lincoln, which was apparently more than a decade in the making. Hope it’s good!

• Why sending The Big Bang Theory nebbish Howard Wolowitz might not have been the best idea.

• Jason Schwartzman likes clothing and Keith Moon.

• In today’s Homeland news, relive the glory of Mandy Patinkin’s Saul Berenson coming face to face with mini Darth Vader.

• The ladies of Community get NSFW—now will you finally premiere their show’s new season, NBC?

• Sarah Silverman and Lizz Winstead helpfully explain the difference between corporations and people.

The post Daily Jewce: Spielberg’s Decade-Long Movie, Alison Brie Gets NSFW appeared first on Jewcy.

• This is kind of awkward, but Lebanon wants to sue Homeland for its depiction of the country.

• Over at Vulture, Jewcy contributor Jesse David Fox poses some absurd plot lines for Homeland’s Brody. Our favorite is the one where he plants a recording device in Saul’s beard.

• What we can learn from George Costanza about the pigeon code in New York City.

• Rashida Jones, Jewcy’s patron saint, talks women writers in Hollywood.

• Amare Stoudemire, the Hebrew-studying New York Knick, gets ready for the season.

• Jerusalem, meet Gangnam style. It was bound to happen sooner or later, really:

The post Daily Jewce: Lebanon Not a Fan of ‘Homeland,’ Gangnam Style in Israel appeared first on Jewcy.

This summer, Hulu began streaming Hatufim (Prisoners of War), the Israeli show Homeland is based on. And while I’m always excited for new devotees of Israeli television, I noticed a strange phenomenon: people commenting on the relative unattractiveness of the Israeli actors in comparison to their Homeland counterparts. In fact, a similar thing happened when I was writing weekly recaps about the Israeli TV show Srugim—there were a few commenters who repeatedly popped up to air their opinion on the female characters lack of hotness.

Look, people are the worst. But they may sort of have a point. It is true that American TV stars, with their airbrushed perfect skin and glossy hair, are better kempt and more conventionally attractive than their Israeli counterparts. That’s partly due to the much lower production budget for Israeli TV, and partly because Israeli media lacks an US Weekly-style obsessive cataloging of every actresses’ baby weight or latest wrinkle.

And while some might prefer everyone onscreen to look like Bar Refaeli, there’s something comforting and refreshing about the every-guy quality of Israeli TV actors, who really look like people you might see on the streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. I mean, would you really trust a CIA operative as attractive as Claire Danes? I have never seen anyone with such shiny hair in Foggy Bottom.

Danes’ character has no exact analogue on Hatufim, but as I pointed out a few weeks ago, the great Israeli Hollywood takeover has lots of Israeli and American actors playing the same characters. Cultural differences aside, some actors manage to bring more believability to their roles than others. To see how the Americans stack up against the originals, here’s a side-by-side comparison.

Show: In Treatment/B’Tipul
Character: Psychologist

Israeli version: One of Israeli’s most iconic actors, Assi Dayan—son of famed eye patch-wearing foreign minister Moshe Dayan!—plays Dr. Reuven Dagan. The therapist’s office may be a bit run down and his clothes slightly rumpled, but even while his inner life is in turmoil he still conveys his commitment to his patients.

American Version: Gabriel Byrne plays Dr. Paul Weston, with an Irish brogue that lends gravitas to everything he says. His long silences and distant looks instill confidence—as do his well-tailored suits.

Most Realistic: Byrne. He’s easy to imagine as one of those annoying therapists on the Upper East Side who doesn’t take insurance and makes you pay upfront.

Show: Traffic Light/Ramzor
Character: Type A Wife

Israel: Yael Sharoni—who also starred in Srugim, my favorite show about the love lives of Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem—plays Lilach Itzkovich-Yafa, the overly opinionated wife of the henpecked Itzko. Her verbal (and implied physical) abuse is a running joke throughout.

America: Liza Lapira plays Lisa Reilly. Lapira is a talented actress, but because the showrunners don’t think America can handle an unlikeable woman, the character is watered down to a bland nothing.

Most Realistic: Sharoni. She was born to play a Grade-A bitch. Plus, Srugim!

Show: Homeland/Hatufim
Character: Returning POWs

Israel: Yoram Toledano and Ishai Golan play Nimrod Klein and Uri Zach, two Israeli soldiers returning home after being held in captivity in Lebanon for 17 years.

America: Damian Lewis is Nicholas Brody, an American soldier who has been held by Al-Qaida since 2003.

Most Realistic: Yoram and Uri. The two must have lost a significant amount of weight to look as emaciated as they do and they never lose their haunted look throughout the season. While I adore Damian Lewis, the man doesn’t even have bags under his eyes.

Show: In Treatment/B’Tipul
Character: A patient going to therapy with his wife to decide whether or not to have an abortion.

Israel: I don’t remember much about Rami Heuberger’s performance as Michael. Just that the character was all kinds of awful.

America: Dan Rydell Will Gardner Josh Charles plays Jake, with a penchant for denim and an unfortunate mustache and goatee.

Most realistic: Josh Charles because he is the king of office Passover seders and all things Baltimore.

Show: Homeland/Hatufim
Character: The older, wiser intelligence officer.

Israel: Gal Zaid is Haim Cohen, who is convinced the two returning abductees have a secret they aren’t sharing.

America: Mandy Patinkin steals the show as Saul Berenson‬‬, Carrie’s mentor and erstwhile defender. ‬‬

Most Realistic: Mandy Patinkin, holla

Previously: Is That a Falafel in My Situation Comedy?

The post Reality Check: The Israeli vs. American Actors of ‘Homeland’ and ‘In Treatment’ appeared first on Jewcy.