This series about culture clash is set in foreign countries
and
has a seemingly documentary quality, but winds out to be
the
beginning of a thriller (without catharsis). It is whimsical
but
deep.
Many of the dialogs include a lot of humor, but the humor is
meant for the players on the
set, who sometimes laugh, but
sometimes show their cultural differences when they don't.
This is a non-violent show. There is no physical violence
shown, but the people's attitudes towards violence and its
use, and their opinions about the need for violence, are
central to the show. So violent events are present off-
screen
and are referred to.
In each episode, we get to meet a small group of people
singled out from within a larger group of the same ethnicity
and culture in a different country (and language). These
include kids and elders.
Each episode shows two very different even clashing
cultures
within the chosen ethnicity and country. During the episode
the enmity between the cultures is clearly expressed in
very
strong terms.
The cultures are painted with authentic details of their
everyday life. But in a subtle way, they are also depicted as
you would expect from their stereotypes.
At the beginning of each episode, we get to see how they
live
happily, what makes them glad. Each episode starts with a
narrator explaining what kind of humor this culture has and
how it is used. Some time into the first quarter the narrator
talks about violence and how this culture views it in their
narrative.
The stereotype is emphasized in each episode by showing
the
older generation passing on its values to the next and
younger
generation. These values are very different from those
usually
shown on film. Such as values of fear of the
elders and respect for crazy traditions, adopting strict
hierarchy, and advocating values that are generally
unacceptable in the "modern world". Each group is shown
to believe that they are superior to the others.
The heroes of the movie, at least one man and one woman
from each culture, are singled out, and lead the episode's
plot
(although the actual plot is secondary to the idea of the
film).
The people singled out, try to show that they are NOT the
stereotype that people think of them. But unknowingly
they
fail and leave you with the (false) impression that the
stereotypes
you had held all along were and still are all correct and
very real.
Besides the main characters, in each episode you get to
meet
quite a few other people in a close way, with something
they
did in the past that they regret, and somehow showing what
they would like to be remembered for.
=======================
The Jews own the media, the bank, and the law firm, run
the
porn industry and wind up helping each other even though
the
liberal reforms hate the ultra-orthodox Jews. They are
always outsmarting everyone and breaking down society
because of their inherently unpatriotic character, which the
heroes take time to attempt refuting to the camera.
The Sunnis pay for a Muslim Brotherhood fundraiser and
emphasize how the Shiites are crazy and not true Muslims.
Proud mothers talk about their son being a real man,
marrying more than one wife.
The Ukrainians hate the Russians and think they are much
smarter than them, while all work as scientists in the
military
and food industry. The Japanese do everything robotically
calculated without feelings and hate the Chinese. And the
Protestants hate the Catholics while teaching their only
daughter
about love. She meets the Catholic kids at school who
almost
kill her in a snowball fight....
Season 1 episode 1 starts by meeting Redneck Americans.
One of the last episodes in the series shows two enemy
"liberal" cultures, who all suffer the same problems that the
other older cultures hold.
Anyway all that is just the background. The main part of
each
episode is when it turns into a thriller, when the main
characters meet the characters
from the previous episode in an always funny but
sometimes scary culture clash.