I think this show is hilarious! I thoroughly enjoy watching it. Please provide more shoes like this.

it is just nice to see arab and jews just laughing and making jokes...this is the way that it should be ....

It just just great!

I wish I could write a love letter to this body of work. The writing is lighthearted but never shallow, round and beautiful. The characters are at once unique and familiar and the acting is first rate. I love everything about it, and maybe especially, the timing. Amazing work.

May these good people get as many seasons as they will give us!

I just watched the first episode from the USA. I am a Palestinian-American that grew up speaking only English and learning American traditions as my parents resisted passing on the Palestinian culture to me. Consequently, there are many idiosyncrasies about their culture that I could never fully grasp. After watching the 1st episode, I didn't howl with laughter, but I did think it was extremely thought provoking and insightful. Seeing the nutty culture firsthand, even if it is full of lampooning and mixed with Jewish culture, helps to make the weirdness understandable. Look at the standards for manhood - Amjad is ridiculed by his father for having his seat belt on (You homosexual!). The scheming and lying about the car is a manipulative but an all too familiar scene for me. So I am learning about my people from another vantage point that helps me make sense of it. But most importantly, I can see how heartbreaking it is for Amjad to want so desperately to be a normal and accepted citizen within both cultures without the constant searches, degradation, and unequal treatment from the law or the impossible standards of manhood from his own people. The show gives viewers a chance to step into a Palestinian's shoes without the "terrorist" label in his face, a viewpoint almost never shown in sitcoms and one I have grown up with my whole life.

I watched the first episode, where, in no particular order, the main characters:
Lies to his father about his unborn child to get money,
Becomes an accomplice in a car theft and auto parts theft operation that targets Jews,
Is deceived by his father, who deals for a stolen car for 20,000 and tells his son it's 30,000...
Ironically wrecks the stolen car after a radio debate with an Israeli about auto safety.

There are a couple of jokes about Jewish racism, and much is being made of the Arab scriptwriter(s) but on the whole, Arabs are depicted much like Jews were depicted in Nazi Germany- as criminal, heartless, conniving, and ruthless termites, who secretly eat out the heart of decent society. For a chilling comparison, everyone should watch the Nazi propaganda film "The Eternal Jew". "Arab Labor" is nothing more than a modern version of the same.

wonderful show - funny, thought provoking. love it! hope the show has a second season and we get to see it

This is a very funny show in which everyone, Arab, Jewish, Leftist, Rightist, Religious, Reform Jewish etc. is lampooned. What make the show good is how it satirizes everyone. More than that, it depicts in a funny, light-hearted way, the absurdity of all points-of-view and impossibility of the situation of the Arab in Israel. Those who can only see anything to do with Israel and Arabs from an ideological or political point-of-view, will have problems. Just watch it and laugh, just see it as a comedy about people who are human beings, not Jews or Arabs or Israelis or Palestinians.

Kashua in his books, and in this series, wants to be a universal man, not a Palestinian or an Arab. Nevertheless, because he is an Arab, he can never be a universal man, as was often the situation of Jews traditionally in other lands.

I agree, soloche.... I have been raving about this show to my friends and referring to it as the Arab-Israeli Curb Your Enthusiasm. That's just my brand of humor:) I think it's clever and nuanced. I actually love the fact that it doesn't go over the top with making a political statement, rather it presents all of the characters as equally human, equally flawed, equally biased, and ultimately equally funny. The current issues going on with finding a Kindergarten for Maya and with Meir's kidnapping (which may be the funniest yet) really exemplify the genius in the writing. These writers have managed to take situations that are really unfortunate, that do happen in real life, that exist on both sides of the fence, and they make light of it. It brings levity to the region, and I think if both Arabs and Israelis watched this show on a regular basis, it could have an enormous effect on the region:)

I'm quite surprised to read the posts with the opinion that Arab Labor is not funny. I'm the mother of five grown children, all in various academic placements around the country - I myself live in Berkeley, CA - and the feedback all of us are getting from showing it to friends on campuses is that those who see it are bowled over by how sophisticated and subtle the show is. Folks are literally howling with laughter. Honestly I wouldn't really compare it to Seinfeld, but to Curb Your Enthusiasm - a show for example with no laugh track, a more permissive filming style, more political issues, and a greater range of characters. However, there aren't many shows, even Curb, with such a clear and consistent viewpoint in the first place as Arab Labor - one popular sitcom being the persistently overlooked 'Barney Miller, a cop show from the 70's, set in NY - with a diverse, untypical cast, and leftist positions on many city problems. Arab and Jewish neighbors came in more than once to settle issues at the cosy cop station on the Barney M. show. Other than Curb and Barney M. not many sitcoms reach the level of Arab Labor for funny + politically fantastic. For every reason I am completely delighted by this new show.

Thanks to the brief review several weeks ago in the L.A. Times, I found this show and Link TV. I (a middle-aged, Jewish, Southern Californian) have found the show to be highly entertaining if it occasionally pushes the boundaries of stereotype a little too far. Kashua is a rare talent -- and kudos to Danny Paran for seeing that and giving him the opportunity to show his stuff. I look forward to the remaining episodes in season 1 and hope to follow the series on Link TV throughout its run on Israeli television.

IN the day, I used to think that All in the Family's and the Cosby Show's characters were pretty one-dimensional and uninteresting, however I do have to admit that the both All in the Family and the Cosby Show did make an incremental impact on American mainstream attitudes.

You (Straticus) said that some folks in your family have not been able to hear the truth about what is going on in Israel/Palestine. I know that some people change attitudes slowly. Have you asked anyone in your family to look at the series?

With all due respect, chaver, I lived in Israel for 11 years, and am well versed in terms of the hugely complex fabric of the region. But we're discussing the television show in the context of its filming, the dialogue, the scene blocking and the humor, just for examples. And in spite of my wishes to REALLY love this program, and after watching the second episode, I can sum up my opinion in a few words. I'll even say it in Hebrew for you

Ani m'od mitztaer, aval zeh LOH matzcheek beechlal.

Sorry for the cheap transliteration, but it's the best I can do under the circumstances. And for those who don't speak Hebrew, I said:

I'm very sorry, but it's NOT funny at all.

Afula. Yes, I remember the "ruler road" quite well leading into Afula. Your experience in the region sounds as if it was traumatic, to say the very least, and I really do feel your feelings of being torn in several directions at the same time. It's not an easy situation, either to discuss, or in which to live. I was raised to believe that no matter what Israel did, it was the RIGHT thing, and that the Arabs weren't to be trusted. When you hear that over and over again for 30 years, it's difficult armor to strip away. The only way I could truly attempt to understand things was to go and live and work there. I was only scheduled for 2 years, but it stretched to 11. My pro Israeli family simply won't hear the truth of what's going on there, particularly the calamitous failure of the Gaza Strip. When I try to tell them that I consider the Israeli occupation similar to apartheid, they either change the subject, or storm angrily out of the room. However, I was trying to discuss the merits of the show simply on its own terms. It would never air if it really got deeply into the political climate that exists, and I find the humor sophomoric and even somewhat insulting to both sides of the coin. Again, simply my opinion. I'll continue to watch, as I really do want the characters to grow on me, and to actually care about them. At this point, they're just so unidimensional and uninteresting it's difficult for me to care about them at all.

Respectfully,

NJT

I wish the sense of humor will be more developed in all viewers, not everything that happens in the Middle East or Israel has to do with the Palestinian situation. Not every joke tramples on the Palestinian cause. The Jews may be responsible for a lot of jokes but not to every Arab or Palestine problem. People who do not live in Israel or even Israelis who do not live in the northern part of Israel do not realize to the extent of Arab Jewish integration. I used to work in a hospital in Afula, about 50% of the staff and patients are Arabs, there are issues but as long as you do not talk about politics every one gets along. I can not expect an Arab nurse to be a Zionist more than she can assume I support the PLO. A lot is written about the discrimination of the Arab population but for a country at war, the situation is amazingly functional. I was a combat medic in regular and reserve service. During my college years I worked in a hospital as a medic. I used to change Arab babies one night and the next night I would be in Lebanon doing my best to kill their distant family. How is that for a split personality disorder; not many societies deal with such situation and still manage to function. In summary, the situation is complex and humor is a good way to deal with those pesky issues.

I just watched the first episode and was disappointed. It wasn't funny, it was far too stereotypical, and the translation wasn't wonderful. I don't speak Arabic, but my Hebrew is pretty fluent, so I know that the translation left a bit to be desired. I was very excited to hear about this program, and anticipated its broadcast eagerly. I'll definitely keep an open mind, and watch more episodes before I decide whether or not it's truly relevant, or just a waste of video tape.