Unorthodox – Mini Review

I’ve been watching Netflix more and more and my best friend watched Unorthodox together with her entire family and loved it – and so my mom and I wanted to try it as well! Here are my thoughts on the new Netflix mini series!

Etsy is a young Jewish orthodox woman living in Brooklyn with her grandmother and aunt. At only 19 years old, her family arranges a marriage for her. Almost a year she manages to live with her husband, live the orthodox life – before she decides she’s had enough. Now she’s on her way to Berlin in search of a new life and the mother she never had: there she meets a group of artists from all over the world working at the Berlin conservatory. Trying to escape her old life, she enrolls at the conservatory in order to break free and establish a life on her own. But her past is catching up as her husband is on his way back to Berlin trying to get back his wife, to the lonely and strict life of an orthodox Jew in New York…

This German-American Netflix original series comprises four episodes, each 50 minutes long – and honestly: that was so refreshing. I’m super tired of watching all these series with more than five seasons, where some secret is revealed in every other episode, where one discovers the truth tiny bit by tiny bit. The length was perfect and I’m super happy I watched this in two days.

Intriguing, moving and an experience – the perfect way to describe this series. I was never aware what being “Jewish orthodox” really means. The extreme difference to our daily life, being American but living in a community far away from the life around you. With no internet, with no education for women, with arranged marriages and the bearing of children as the most important part of a woman’s life. And then the story of Etsy, the young woman in a marriage and she’s not able to produce a child at first and then escapes: this series was like a blink into a different reality and more than that, it’s based on a real story.

Let me tell you: if you’re in search of an experience to open your eyes and need a good, short and brisk story – watch this. I loved all the characters, Etsy was so relatable and the actress was fantastic, the plot will never bore you and it will just be something different from all the other series like Suits, Modern Family or Big Bang Theory we’re always watching nowadays.

And now my very favorite aspects: you learn about the orthodox way of life and hear Yiddish (which is super easy to understand if you speak German), you experience New York and Berlin in a different light and have 4 hours of eye-opening story telling.