The fifth season of the Israeli action-thriller “Fauda” ranked first among Netflix shows in Lebanon during the week of Sept. 7-13, according to the subscription-based streaming service’s Tudum country rankings for the period.
While the series unsurprisingly placed No. 1 in Israel, it entered the Netflix Top 10 in several Arab states, ranking fourth in Jordan and Qatar, fifth in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, seventh in Oman and ninth in Kuwait.
Netflix released the 11-episode season on Sept. 8. It follows Doron Kavillio, played by series co-creator Lior Raz, as he returns to a counterterrorism unit scarred by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. The new season centers on trauma, grief and a deep-cover operation in Marseille, France, rather than depicting the war in Gaza.
Col. Jacques Neriah, a former Israeli intelligence official and researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, said Lebanon’s interest in “Fauda” should not be read as evidence of an imminent political opening toward Israel.
“It’s a very good show,” Neriah said in an interview on the Misgav Institute’s “Israel in 10” program. He said the series’ popularity may reflect both admiration for the drama’s portrayal of Israeli covert units and curiosity about an adversary: “Let’s learn more about our enemy and see how he works so that we can imitate him.”
Maya Khadra, a French-Lebanese journalist, wrote in Atlantico that the series’ popularity reflects its long-standing appeal as an espionage drama and its portrayal of characters with “wounds, fears, contradictions and traumas.” She said the new season may also allow some Arab viewers to see Israeli collective trauma beyond political narratives, while its popularity suggests “mutual curiosity” despite entrenched regional antagonisms.
The newest season of the series was filmed primarily in Israel and Budapest, Hungary, after plans to shoot its European segments in France were changed due to security concerns.
“Fauda,” which debuted in Israel in 2015, has aired in 190 countries.
