‘Fauda’ Tells the World the Truth

For the longest time, Fauda was just a Netflix series about an Israeli counterterrorism unit, and even though it was compelling and smart, it was not especially important. It was an escape.

That was seasons 1 through 4, which aired from 2015 to early 2023.

Then, October 7, 2023, happened, and Fauda became something much bigger.

The fifth season, which came out earlier this month, opens two years after the Hamas attack on the Jewish state, and for the first six episodes, you don’t see much of the violence—just hints, fragments—but it’s ubiquitous nonetheless. Death presses in on everyone: their faces, their memories, the absences that fill up their lives. The dead loom larger than the living.

Doron Kavillio, the commander of the counterterrorism unit, has retreated to his grape farm, where he lives with his wife and kids. He is a broken soul attempting and mostly failing to repair himself. It’s unclear where the brokenness comes from—the end of season 4, in which the whole unit is nearly wiped out, or somewhere else? He cannot remember several hours from that day. The attack. The bodies. The kids. He seems to be floating.