HaBitza

When Vera and I chose the name for this site, I think we realized that thanks to Srugim, so many more people know about the Katamon singles scene and its slightly derogatory name – the Bitza (which means swamp in Hebrew).

Laizy Shapira is one of the creators, producers, etc. etc. of the extremely popular show, Srugim (סרוגים). Srugim is a show about, well, my life. Well, sort of. It’s a show about a group of Orthodox people in their 30s living in Jerusalem who want to be married but aren’t. Yep, the premise of the whole show is that the main characters aren’t where they want to be in their lives. But then, when you break things down, that is probably the premise of most shows/movies/books/blogs/etc.

Laizy was just interviewed at Jerusalem.com and you can read his interview here. I wonder if it took strength on his part to put a show like that out there when everyone knows it’s based at least somewhat on his life. He chose to share something personal with the world and that is impressive.

The new season is scheduled to start airing on January 10, 2010. I am looking forward. I watched the whole first season while sick, within two days. At first I didn’t like it because it was depressing for me. I felt like I was watching a depressingly exaggerated version of my life. And I didn’t like how the characters were acting; the decisions they were making… But very quickly the characters grew on me, I began caring about them and wanted to see what would happen to them. I think I must have been able to remove myself from their situations, realizing that it really was exaggerated – it wasn’t as if I was watching myself on TV. But I could relate so much better than I ever usually can relate to anyone on TV.

And thankfully because I was sick, I was able to find out in two days everything that happened in the whole season.

If you also want to watch the whole first season (legally) in two days, click here.

(thebigfelafel also just wrote about srugim.)