For years, television shows often followed a tried and tested storyline, with almost cookie-cutter characters who face unrealistic challenges. The show ‘Unorthodox’ is unlike anything that has been seen before. This is a Netflix show with the feel of an indie movie, the characters are heartbreaking and honest, the story based loosely on one women’s truth.
The premise of the show revolves around the central character of Esther Shapiro played by the superb Shira Haas. She is a nineteen-year-old recently married young woman who is a member of a strict segment of the Jewish community in New York. Unhappy in her arranged marriage and lacking a sense of belonging she runs away to Berlin.
From the start of this four-part drama, the tension is palpable. This is a raw portrayal of a world many people would have no knowledge about and is true binge-worthy content. You cannot look away, the viewer is transported and becomes engrossed in the story. Each cast member builds a character that feels so authentic, it feels like we are peering into a real-world instead of a scripted piece.
This story is told through English and more notably through Yiddish also, the first of its kind on the streaming platform. The piece is directed by a woman, Maria Schrader and primarily written by women also. The show also has many producers who are women. The author of the book from which the piece is inspired ‘Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots’, Deborah Feldman is a huge contributor to the piece.
This television show takes its viewer on a rollercoaster of emotions, by the end of the story you experience the same feelings as Esther and feel a connection to her story. This is not a boring or one-dimensional tale about a frivolous topic, this is real and current with a diverse cast from around the world.
The shots of Berlin are stunning, in a documentary of the show entitled ‘Making Unorthodox’ the creators of the show explain their use of specific architecture in Berlin to contrast with the closed and stunted life of Esther in New York. Alexa Karolinski, who is a creator and writer of the story explained their use of buildings from areas in “former West Berlin” and their aim to create a “lightness”.
Esther changes before our very eyes, her clothing, the incorporation of makeup into her routine is a breaking away from her former life. She finds solace in a music school in Berlin, determined to make a future for herself with no education and little practice on her chosen instrument, the piano.
Her journey to find a voice and need for self-expression is an important tale for young women everywhere. The pressure to conform and the expectation of perfection is at a heightened scale in the show but on a small level, many people will be able to relate to this uplifting story.