User Reviews

The best thing about this series is it made me research more about a war that does not get a lot of attention, but one that was critical to Israel's existence and that paved the way for peace with their Arab neighbors. It is not a bad period piece and the sets seems well done. It is just they miscast a couple people who stand out compared to the well cast other actors. Then they have a horrible script that makes tough IDF fighters look like sissies at times. On top of that, they have characters acting like they have never had any military training. "Oh, the Syrians are coming, I know let's all hide in a small confined area." The first thing I think is a couple grenades will do the work, which of course the Syrians do. The actor who played Caspi is unbelievably over the top and I know I would have slapped him silly if I served with him. The father of the paratrooper, who is supposedly a veteran, tells a long story on the radio in the middle of the war, steals a jeep full of supplies, tries to get missions scratched to reach his son, who he has mistreated all his life. The main characters act like self centered millenials instead of 1970's era IDF soldiers. I was half expecting them to take out a camera phone, take a selfie and post a tiktok - "oh look, me in combat. Oh, wait, that did not turn out right, let's do another one". Just a lot of stupid writing and a wasted opportunity given the budget.

First off, the show is shot in Hebrew so watch it in Hebrew with English subtitles. The English overdub version is so bad it's almost unwatchable - not only does it not match the timing of who's speaking but it doesn't match the emotion either. Feels like a different (better!) show in Hebrew.

Secondly, it's very one-sided. Guess that shouldn't be a shock.

And yes, Avinoam is a seriously annoying character in the first few episodes but he does grow toward the end and that's a key part of the story. (Also, it makes me laugh when I see commenters complain about the 'whiny, horrible actors.' The actors do what the DIRECTOR wants them to do, how the DIRECTOR wants them to do it, and they say what the SCRIPT WRITERS want them to say. Your issue may be valid but it's not with the actors.)

All in all, and watched in Hebrew, this is a pretty good watch. A few too many unnecessary and overly-dramatic subplots, for sure, but it's a good quick look at some important history most people outside of that region only know a little about (if anything).

My only real complaint is that some of the storylines don't seem to wrap up. The show just kind of ends. Maybe it's because the show is called Valley of Tears and so they were only trying to show what happened in the valley and not cover anything that happened after those specific events. Or...maybe they just just ran out of money 😏. Either way, closing the loop on a few more subplots and characters would have been appreciated.

The story is known: on Yom Kippur 1973, Israel endured a surprise attack from Egypt and Syria. After a few days of often tough fighting, the IDF prevailed and then made its own gains on both states. In the end, it was an even more impressive show of Israel's force that brought Sadat to the table at Camp David in '78 and left Assad only enough room for some side-shows (aka meddling in Lebanon). What the series appears to be doing with this history (judging by the first 2 episodes) is to leave the grand narrative to the side and focus on what was going on on the ground. So, we're invited into the barracks and get to know Israeli soldiers, some of whom are not, in fact, Jewish - and some, too, might be personally opposed to Israel's expansionist policies. In other words, if you know James Jones' "Thin Red Line," you know what to expect. The enemy is treacherous, but easily overpowered - in one of the early scenes of combat, 3 Israeli Centurion tanks survive a bomber attack and decimate a Syrian brigade of Soviet T-55s (I think), suffering exactly 0 losses. The fight is tough, but rarely hopeless - as when the listening post/fortress in the Golan Heights is overrun by a Syrian commando, but the defenders hold out for what looks to be hours, enough to plot an escape. What's admirable about the series is that it makes a genuine effort to tell a complex story. This isn't yet the Israel of today, veering ever further toward right-wing dystopia, but a country that is still reconciling its Enlightenment ideology (of creating a new land with science and effort) with its tenuous hold on a tiny sliver of land lodged between the Arab "wolves." The problem is, the series tends to look as naive as some of the characters. When you shift focus from the macrohistory of the planners and generals to the microhistory of unit leaders and soldiers, you should not only experience the manias and anxieties of individuals caught in the middle of something they can't control, but also get to know the trade-offs that go with being inside a war. The series does show us the inhumanity of this conflict, but it lacks that element of darkness, something that Jones brought into "TRL" by way of irony bordering on satire. It's too painfully straight, even when the characters themselves are dumb or twisted, like the intelligence man with his white rat or the two childish tank commanders who only pretend they're adults. I don't know, it just doesn't feel like a meaningful contribution.