Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem’ Season 2 on Netflix, A Romantic Melodrama Set Against The Backdrop of The Israeli-British-Palestinian Conflict

Based on the novel of the same name by Sarit Yishai-Levi, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is an Israeli drama series on Netflix set against several of the most tumultuous times in recent history: World War II and the Israeli war for independence among them. The series time-jumps through the decades to tell the story of the Armoza family, from overbearing matriarch Mercada, her unloved daughter-in-law Rosa, and Rosa’s beautiful daughter Luna. The new season picks up where season one left off as Luna, now married, faces the same challenge her mother once did, finding herself sharing a marital bed with a man who loves another woman.

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF JERUSALEM: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Tel Aviv, 1942. Our title character, Luna (Swell Ariel Or) walks into a hotel room with her new husband, David (Israel Ogalbo) to kick off their honeymoon in this beautiful seaside city.

The Gist: The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem‘s second season picks up where the first left off in its most current timeline, with Luna and David married, and Luna’s parents, Rosa (Hila Saada) and Gabriel Armoza (Michael Aloni), still involved in a mostly-loveless marriage that’s strained even more my Gabriel’s domineering and cruel mother, Mercada (Irit Kaplan) and the fact that Gabriel has just learned he has a grown son with his former lover, Rochel.

Luna, desperate to be loved by David, laments that he never voluntarily says “I love you,” and it seems like every day she learns new secrets about him: he won’t share their bed because his experience as a soldier made him accustomed to sleeping on the hard floor.

As the couple attempts to connect on their honeymoon, Luna’s father sets off in search of his son, now living in a shelter for the poor with his sick mother. Gabriel wants to connect with the now-grown man, and little does he know, his son wants to connect too, arriving unannounced at his door. Rosa answers and invotes him in, not knowing his identity, and though he enters, he flees after a moment, stealing a family photo of his father while he’s at it.

All of this personal strife is set amid the backdrop of violence and upheaval as the British occupy portions of the country and the Israelis rebel against their occupation. It’s only a matter of time before all of these strands of the story will come together over the course of the season, over the first episode, characters cross paths and certain events are set in motion that will definitely result in more upheaval and grief for everyone.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is a classic intergenerational soap opera similar to This Is Us or the Colombian series Pasion de Gavilanes, where factors like romance, personal trauma, legal troubles, and heartache afflict all the members of a very complex family.

Our Take: The generational trauma that the entire Armoza family carries is present in nearly every frame of the show. So too is the cultural trauma of the Israel-Palestine conflict that lies at the heart of the series. The show develops several layered stories about the family secrets every character keeps hidden, interspersed with scenes of Israeli rebels fighting against the British and Palestinians who occupy the same land, and there’s not a lot of lightness to the show – at every turn, it seems we meet a new character with a sneaky or sinister motive.

The show is a beautifully shot period piece which captures a moment in time most often seen through a Western lens: It’s rare to watch a mainstream show that takes place in 1942 that’s not on American or European soil, so it’s refreshing to watch another side of that historical era play out. (Though it does feel strange to consider that the political conflict at the heart of the show remains unresolved to this day.)

Sex and Skin: The episode begins with two newlyweds on their honeymoon, and yeah, they do what newlyweds do on their honeymoon.

Parting Shot: After they fight, Luna and David go to sleep, him on the floor and her in their bed. When she wakes up, David is gone. She races to the beach near their hotel where she finds his suitcase filled with clothes, but no sign of David.

Sleeper Star: As Luna’s husband David, Israel Ogalbo is quietly tortured and full of secrets. In nearly every scene he’s in, you can feel his inner torment.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m not the same David I was before I left,” David tells his new wife, explaining how the war changed him. He’s distant with her, and clearly struggling with PTSD, and New David is not as interested in being Luna’s husband as Old David was.

Our Call: The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem Season 2 picks up where season 1 left off and continues the soap operatic journey of the Armoza family, adding more complexity and mystery to their lives with nearly every scene. I heartily recommend that existing fans of the show STREAM IT. Everyone else, make sure you go back to season 1 to catch up before you dive in.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.