While Hollywood has had a lull when it comes to rom-coms, Israel has a hit series about two women in their 30s looking for love in Tel Aviv.
“Bloody Murray,” whose first season is available on ChaiFlicks, stars Naomi Levov as Mo, better known as Murray, and Rotem Sela as her best friend and roommate, Dana. They have to navigate a sticky situation: Murray gets into a traffic accident with Lior, a hot guy she’s attracted to, but he winds up sleeping with Dana.
“I had a good friend and first we were both single,” show creator Stav Idisis told The Journal. “Then I was dating someone and a man tried to start up with me, but I was dating someone. He began dating my friend and they got married. I got to know him and he was the perfect guy. So the idea of a love triangle was in my head. Eventually, I became single and I got to know the guy and he is perfect. So my biggest fear was to fall in love with my best friend’s husband.”
Of course, she says, the show is a comedy, so some events are exaggerated and not true to her life. But the emotions in the show ring true, because some are based on real life and reflect her struggles and feelings.
In the first season, Murray is dating a bartender, but pines for Lior. She thinks she would be a better match for him than Dana is. At one crucial point she uncovers a secret that could surely ruin Dana’s relationship and she has to make a crucial decision to be a snitch or a faithful friend.
“I would hope we could live in a good world,” Idisis said, knowing that many fans reacted to the character’s controversial decision.
Idisis is a fan of “When Harry Met Sally,” and it influenced how she balanced comedy and heart in “Bloody Murray,” although it’s not always an easy recipe to perfect. “I can’t tell you how I did it, it came from my head,” she said. “I can’t write something cheesy without making it funny. If something is sad, I need to put a little joke at the end. I like that comedies also make us feel something in our hearts. It’s not only just for the laugh.”
She did not originally plan to have any big names in the show, but when she saw Sela, one of the most famous stars in Israel, she was worried. Sela did a great audition, she said, but she was afraid because “she is the biggest star in Israel and I thought maybe she was too pretty and I didn’t want it to be on a [TV] show. But I took the women who did the best auditions and Naomi and Rotem definitely had the best chemistry.”
The scene when Murray vomits into a fishtank, only for her boyfriend to care about the fish and not her, was made up. Writing is a lonely and difficult job and sometimes, the 20th idea is the right one. Things are changing in Israel, she said, and it’s less of a stigma for women to be single at a later age, though Idisis, a single mom, says that’s still not the most common thing.
Idisis admits that while she knew the script was good and she was stoked when studios immediately agreed to take it, the success of the first season meant a second season was in order. “The audience loved it and there was pressure to do another season,” she said. “I was worried it wouldn’t be as good.”
That worry proved to be unfounded as the second season, which was seen in Israel last year, won numerous Television Academy Awards, including Best Comedy Drama Series, with Idisis taking the award as creator, while Levov and Sela won Best Actress in a Comedy Series and Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Besides the great writing, the chemistry of the two leads is palpable, something Idisis said she immediately saw in the first audition.
So why did she name the show “Bloody Murray”? Murray is the name of a friend’s daughter. But more, Idisis is not impressed with how bartenders in Israel made a Bloody Mary. “In Italy, they know what they are doing,” Idisis said.
Like a good cocktail, “Bloody Murray” goes down with a kick that makes you want to have a second.
