The constructed quality of Israeli TV on Netflix: The cases of Fauda and Shtisel

Abstract

This study investigates how the concept of ‘quality TV’ is evolving in the age of streaming video on demand (SVOD) platforms, using reviews of two Israeli TV series on Netflix – Fauda and Shtisel. In accordance with Pierre Bourdieu’s view of journalistic reviewers as social agents and intermediaries with the power to enshrine cultural artifacts in an artistic canon, the study is based on a qualitative analysis of reviews of these two series published on major Anglo-American journalistic platforms. The analysis shows how the reviewers take part in constructing the Netflix brand of ‘a ‘foreign-language quality TV’ series.