What you need to know before binging new Israeli show “Losing Alice”

Ayelet Zurer as Alice in ‘Losing Alice.’ (Image credit: Apple TV+)

Jordan Palmer

If you have been enjoying the recent splurge of Israeli TV shows hitting your streaming services, you are about to keep your smile. Apple TV+, after the success of the spy thriller Tehran, is debuting another show, and it’s being described as “oh-so addictive.”

Created, written and directed by Sigal Avin (The Ex List) and stars one Israel’s top actresses, Ayelet Zurer, here’s everything you need to know.

  • The show will debut Friday, January 22, 2021 on Apple TV+
  • There will be eight episodes in total.
  • According to Apple, the series follows Alice (played by Ayelet Zurer), a 48-year-old female film director, who feels irrelevant since raising her family. After a brief encounter on the train, she becomes obsessed with a 24-year-old screenwriter femme fatale, Sophie (played by Lihi Kornowski), and eventually surrenders her moral integrity in order to achieve power, relevance and success. Through the prism of this female Faust, the series explores issues such as jealousy, guilt, fear of aging, and the complex relationships women have among themselves and each other. But above all, Losing Alice is a love letter for the still-too-rare female director.”

Here’s the major players in the upcoming series:

  • Ayelet Zurer (Alice)
  • Lihi Kornowski (Sophie)
  • Gal Toren (David)
  • Yossi Marshek (Tamir)
  • Shai Avivi (Ami)
  • Chelli Goldenberg (Tami)

Kveller.com’s Lior Zaltzman writes, “In the show’s trailer, Alice touches on a concept so familiar to women caught in the tensions between mothering and working, between domesticity and freedom: “I don’t believe anyone who says you can have it all. Because you can’t and sometimes people need love, sometimes people you love get hurt on the way. I guess it’s all part of the ride, and you pray to God that it will be worth it at the end,” she says, breaking into tears.” 

In an exclusive interview with Zaltzman, Avin said it was important to for her to bring up the concept of can women have it all? “She told me sometimes people look at her life, her marriage, her two daughters, this amazing series she is helming, and think she’s found the winning formula — but the truth is far from that. “There is always a sacrifice,” wrote Zaltzman.

Losing Alice will be available in both the original Hebrew, with subtitles, or with English dubbing.