HaPlilistyot – A Review and a Lesson
‘HaPlilistiot’ is a show that provides two models for the modern liberated Israeli woman – CHOOSE WISELY.
Recently, the TV show ‘HaPlilistiot‘, From the production house of Slutzky Communication, aired on Netflix. The TV show premiered on 12th of march on Reshet 13 and has 8 episodes.
The show, a Reality Documentary, depicts the story of seven successful female criminal lawyers: Naama Elhadad, Or Ben Shaanan, Chen Meiri, Shani Ilouz, Shani Deri, Karin Legativi & Sheila Dorfman. By the initiative of Naama, they form together a female law firm and think tank in which they brainstorm about their cases and consulting each other about precedents.
In one of the cases, Shani Deri makes an incredible deceptive trick. In that case, the police experts relied on pictures of weapons found in her client’s phone in order to arrest and prosecute him. So, she kicked the ball back into police territory. In front of the judge, she showed the police experts two pictures of BB Guns and Unusable Rifles from a museum in order to dismantle their claims. The experts couldn’t notice the differences. She won the case. That trick was also seen in the TV show “Better Call Saul” where Saul Goodman dismantles an eyewitness testimony in court. What a Classic.
While I’ve enjoyed the criminal aspect of the show, I was really intrigued about their personal lives as well. Six of them are divorced, only one currently married (Karin), Chen never got married and today she has a child and another baby on the way. While it is nice to see that she is becoming a mother, which is one of the greatest achievements a woman can have in my opinion, i don’t think that normalizing “Single motherhood by choice” is good — especially for the kid himself. Studies show many disadvantages that a household without a father has. Sheila was divorced. Twice. Shani Deri, unfortunately, lost her second husband to cancer. But what was shocking to me was when her girl was asked by her mother if she would prefer that Shani will spend more time with her or keep working hard from AM to PM, she said she prefers the later in order to keep all her goods and luxury lifestyle.
While the show was on air, Naama, 39; Or, 35 and Chen, 35, Didn’t had children. The three have gone through hormonal treatment in order to get pregnant in the past. Chen even got pregnant during the show but aborted the baby due to her busy work schedule. While it didn’t work well for Naama and her ex husband, Or stopped her hormonal treatment due to complexed relations with her ex husband and the fear of the changes that naturally comes with a newborn.
The show also raised a few interesting points about motherhood and the general choices that women have to face these modern days. In a world where women are torn between a career life or motherhood, the show provides two models for it: The Karin Legativi Model and the Naama Elhadad Model. Karin has three children and what seems to be a good stable relationship. She is also religious. These three components are a boost of energy and are providing a great silver lining at the end of every work day. It also shows a capacity to endure complexed situations involving the Family – Career conflict. Sheila and both Shani Iluz & Deri seems to chose this model.
On the other hand, Naama build herself from the ground-up at a young age and became very successful with a nice condo and a luxurious car and designer clothing. But the fact that the only thing that waited for her at home, her dog Louis, wasn’t more important to her then a call from her client shows her priorities in life. For context, Louis had an issue with his breathing, but she had to reschedule his vet appointment because of a call from work. BTW, everything turned out to be ok with Louis. It seems, and has been said many times epsecially by Chen, that their priority is not to settle down and start a family, but to buy a shirt that cost more than 2 thousand shekels. Or was recently divorced while filming, however, while the girls stayed at Karin’s loft at the north during the show, she couldn’t hang her phone for 5 minutes because of a call from work.
Summary
The main issue for women, when they try to eat from the cake and keep it full, is the biological clock which makes it harder, if even possible, for them to get pregnant at a later age. Not only that, but the risks for miscarriages and the implications in general of getting pregnant later in life are also still a thing.
It seems like there is a possibility for women to enjoy both worlds – Career and family wise. However, on one of them, there is a time limit that comes with a risk. prioritizing family first and then a career makes a huge sense in most cases. Remember, you can’t turn the sand clock of biology twice ladies. Once life started, we have to live with the consequences of our decisions and priorities – and some mistakes are irreversible.
It also fair to say, that i don’t have their whole life stories. Like everything in life, its not black & white. This article is just a reflection that i had from watching the show. I sincerely hope they will be happy and everything will workout great for them.
