Fauda He Ain't: Meet Pini, the Star of the Best Israeli TV Show You Never Heard Of
If you’re a fan of Israeli TV, you’re probably used to protagonists who are gruff and tough, like the elite IDF fighters of Fauda or the hardened characters on Hatufim, the show that inspired Homeland. If you like your Israelis all muscles and stubble and guns, you’re probably not going to like Pini.
The protagonist of an indie comedy that debuted online in 2014, Pini, played by the show’s creator Tomer Barzide, is a happy-go-lucky young Israeli man, the kind of guy you’d expect to find not running on the battlefield but lounging in some trendy café. Fresh out of the army, Pini, who has never been abroad, decides to move to London in the hopes of becoming a celebrity chef like Gordon Ramsay. Before too long, though, he faces the struggles of life across the ocean: Having two faucets instead of one, driving on the left side of the road, and putting up with bland bangers and mash that pale in comparison to his native spicy shakshuka.