Despite the “hot mess” that was Lifetime’s The Red Tent adaptation (newly out on DVD!), a major network is turning another feminist Jewish narrative into a TV miniseries. The Dovekeepers, based on Alice Hoffman’s 2011 novel about three women during the ancient siege and fall of Masada, will premiere over two nights on CBS. Its producers are the same people who brought you The Bible (including Touched By an Angel star Roma Downey). What could go wrong?
The trailer is out, and it’s action packed. There’s sex! White people (and a few Latinos) portraying Middle Eastern Jews! Asking “Yahweh” for rain! Women disguising themselves as men! More sex! Josephus Flavius as played by Sam Neill! Even more sex!
The first part premieres March 31. In the meantime, you can whet your pseudo-historical, semi-feminist, Jewish-ish appetite with the trailer.
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Gabriela Geselowitz is a writer and the former editor of Jewcy.com.