Unorthodox Is Netflix’s Best Miniseries, And There’s A Lot More To It Than Meets The Eye
Netflix has grown quite popular over the years. It has a reputation of streaming series that are hilarious, scary, depressed, and romantic and recently has kept everybody entertained during such trying times. From Sex Education to Black Summer, Next in Fashion and Tiger King, people have immensely enjoyed these series. But, what series has managed to strike a chord in our hearts and draw tears from our eyes? Unorthodox is one such show.
The show is a Netflix original series released in March 2020 and has become quite popular in such a short period. Unorthodox has only one season, but fans are hoping that the show is renewed for a second season.
But with the Coronavirus crisis worldwide and no specific solutions, it would be foolish to expect a second season anytime soon. However, what is Unorthodox about and is it based on a true story?
Unorthodox: Plot, Cast And Backstory; Is It Based On Real Life Events? Find Out
Directed by Maria Shrader and consisting of four episodes, the show reveals the story of a young woman named Esther Shapiro. Esty is 19 years old and is brought up in the Satmar Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Esty then marries a fellow Satmar Jewish Yanky in an arranged marriage. However, one year into their relationship, the couple are yet to have sex and one painful night, after they do have sex, Yanky tells Esty that he wants a divorce.
Soon after, however, Esty finds out that she is pregnant and flees to Berlin, Germany where her mother had escaped to as well. Upon arriving in Berlin, Esty ventures into finding a scholarship in a music conservatory. That’s when her family find out about her pregnancy, and they decide to bring her back and start a family.
Now, is the show based on real-life events? Well, yes and no. The story is based on Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection Of My Hasidic Roots. Feldman herself had grown up in a Hasidic Jewish community.
She had been brought up by her grandparents, who, similar to Esther’s parents, were Holocaust survivors. Feldman took had a loveless marriage at the age of 17 like Esther. So chances are, the series is based on the memoir with a few alterations in the details.
The cast of Unorthodox features Shira Haas as Esther, Amit Rahav as Yanky, Alex Reid as Esther’s Mother and several others.
