In the summer of 2014, there was a serious incident in which three Jewish teenagers were kidnapped and killed by Hamas gunmen. In the same period, the body of a burned Palestinian teenager from East Jerusalem was found in mysterious circumstances. Over time, an agent from the Internal Terrorism Division investigates the murder, while the parents of the dead teenager begin a new mission to find the real killer of their son.
This is not to say Our Boys is detached - if anything, the emoting is deeply felt and often difficult to bear - but it is so microscopically focused on the tense real-time linear progression of the investigation that no moment feels contrived.
Trying to portray the intricacies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a TV show is always difficult, but Our Boys is a compelling fictionalization of a very complicated story.
This 10-episode HBO series puts faces on a conflict often seen -- especially in the U.S. -- from a distant aerial view, bringing the loss, pain and senseless circle of violence achingly home.
"Our Boys" is done in such a thoughtful and sensitive manner that it demands to be viewed by as large an audience as possible, both locally and globally.
The strange case of a narrative that might have been curated carefully with its investigative beats, but so little appears to happen in each episode that a necessary tension is lost.
