Before watching The Oldest Trick in the Book, it seemed like the only reason that could justify buying a subscription to new Israeli streaming platform Izzy was to watch Kugel, the Shtisel prequel released in February exclusively for its viewers. None of the other series available on the platform particularly leap out to the untrained, non-Israeli eye, and who needs another streaming subscription anyway?
But then I watched The Oldest Trick in the Book. And then I kept watching, and I kept watching, and I finished all eight episodes in one night. The series introduces us to author Aviram Katz (Yehezkel Lazarov), a man recognised around Jerusalem for his popular crime novels, but who is in something of a career lull thanks to an unrelenting case of writer’s block. Outwardly maintaining the image of the busy sophisticate, behind closed doors Katz rewrites the same sentence over and over, naps, swipes on a dating app, stares out the window, naps again – he is the poster child for creative constipation.
The swindling, ego-driven writer cannot cope with the fact that an amateur could write a masterpiece in just one draft
When his neighbour Dr Victor Guetta (Sasson Gabay) asks Katz to offer some feedback on the first few chapters of a story he’s written, the big-headed Katz is initially irritated by “this amateur’s” presumption. But then, tired of staring at his own stagnant work, Katz decides to read Guetta’s story, which turns out to be a breathtaking mystery about a woman gone missing – and an utter masterpiece.
Pushed up against a deadline to submit a story to a literary magazine, the smarmy Katz decides to send Guetta’s story under his own name. Later, when cops come knocking at his door, he learns he might be in trouble for more than just plagiarising. If that sounds like a titillating plot, it absolutely is. Although the first episode was a bit slow, I nearly applauded when certain twists were revealed in the ensuing episodes, they were so satisfying.
I was compelled to watch The Oldest Trick in the Book, written by actress/writer Dana Modan (who also plays police officer Linda in the series) and released in Israel with the title Aviram Katz in 2023, mainly because of Gabay, who brought an unmatched warmth and complexity to his role as Nukhem in both Shtisel and Kugel.
As the gentle Doctor Guetta, a relatively minor role for Gabay, he brings his usual benevolence, swiftly becoming a character the audience can root for while spending the majority of the series hating the simultaneous protagonist and antagonist Katz.
But Katz is a familiar character in that his motives are all too believable. The swindling, ego-driven writer, unable to create a piece of work that lives up to his past success, cannot cope with the fact that an amateur such as Guetta could write a masterpiece in just one draft.
“There are rules,” Katz tells the doctor. “You have to write, and rewrite, and edit it to death. You have to hate yourself until you forget why you even started, until you want to die and puke whenever you look at the text.”
Any artist who has plumbed the depths of his or her soul for inspiration knows the misery of which Katz speaks, but there is hardly a greater crime in the arts world than that of creative theft. His suffering from both self-disgust and a God complex presents a fascinating paradox; it is easy to empathise with Katz, and just as easy to root for his downfall. Every episode takes on a slightly different tone from the one before, but each is made up of striking shots – particularly episode three, in which the visuals of the Israeli desert are both haunting and glorious.
For British viewers open to some subtitled TV-watching, Izzy really is worth adding to your roster of streaming platforms.
Episodes of The Oldest Trick in the Book are being released weekly on Izzy
★★★★
