Have you watched #TheHonourableWoman? You should!

Can we talk about Nessa Stein? I predict this post to be all about Nessa Stein. Can someone scream badass? First Nessa is a baroness, not just any baroness, a first generation Brit baroness. Not just any first generation Brit, but an Anglo-Israeli first generation Brit. Yes, the barony is the lowest rank of the European nobility, but it was originally instituted as a mark of a pledge to militarily defend the king.

Now, I only know three ways to become a Baroness. One, you marry a Baron. Two, you're born into it. Three, you're granted the title by a Queen or King. Obviously, Nessa falls into the third category. But, the thing is that the third category is the hardest. It is extremely rare. So, color me impressed that Nessa is a frakking baroness, even though her father, Eli, was an Isreali who procured arms for Zionists. Nessa turned her father's former arms company into a company seeking to broker peace in the Middle East. She does this by providing high-speed data cabling across the Middle East, increasing learning and knowledge, and tabling peace in the Middle East across the globe.

More about Nessa's Barony, Nessa is a life peer. Unlike a hereditary peer, her title cannot be inherited by her offspring. It kinda dies with her. But, her children could style themselves with the prefix "The Honourable," like she can too. Which is a nice play of word. For many do debate whether Nessa is The Honourable Woman because of her new barony or because she diligently works towards bringing peace in the Middle East, an honorable endeavor. Like I said, nice word play.

Now, can we talk about Nessa's bossy haircut and her spectacular dress sense? Levo League has a My Power Outfit section. Why? Because the right attire has the ability to make you feel super human. It turns you from a mere human to a super frakking ready to kick down the glass ceiling and send it to where it should rightly be - hell - business woman. Caroline Ghosn, CEO and Co-Founder/Levo League, puts it best "Power is ultimately about the energy you emanate from within. To the extent that what you wear expresses your aesthetic perspective, it speaks to that energy." According to Edward K. Gibbon, the show's costume designer, "the clothes [Nessa] wore were a layer of her personality and a lot of the time she was hiding behind the clothes to a degree. She wanted to present this image to the world that wasn’t particularly where her head was at. In a way it was a protection layer, like an armor or shield, a shell to cover her."

The thing about Nessa is that she's vulnerable, cutthroat and brave at the same time. She is a totally round character. But, she also takes her selfless nobility to a fault, often to the detriment of her mental health. Honestly, with the amount of shit she deals with privately and hides from the world, I am so surprised she hasn't cracked much further than her present state. I often go between understanding and accepting her self suffering habit like sleeping in that cold and bare cell hidden behind the pretty things in her apartment to wishing she gets help. Especially when she gets raped the second time. I get not reporting it to the authority. It is consistent with her character, but she doesn't talk to anyone about it, not even Atika. But, it's all too well something I understand. The habit of hiding so deep within one's self that one doesn't see the need to bring others in, a trait some might call destructive. Even the aloof monotonous cut-glass English drawl that Nessa speak with hides her from the world, in her "doomed attempts to distance herself from personal traumas buried deep in her past."

Maggie Gyllenhaal describes her character as "a very powerful, smart and emotional woman, but at the same time, broken and confused with a deeply troubled past. She is deeply conflicted about past events, events that have haunted her, and it is the reason why she is constantly battling a consuming internal conflict. This internal struggle for reconciliation with her past and her search for personal equilibrium is manifested in her political activities—to try to reconcile a conflict that has equally haunted a region of the world, countless lives and political agendas for many years."

Enough of Nessa Stein, since I can go on. But, why else should you watch The Honourable Woman? Well, you would forever kick yourself in the shin if you deny yourself of the pleasure of watching it. Minus the awesomeness of Nessa's character, you get a "brilliant story line that deftly mixes international intrigue, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not-what-they-seem family dynamics and a study in female empowerment."

The Honourable Woman is a breathless spy thriller, thoughtful political drama and fractured family eight parts television miniseries saga which follow Nessa Stein and those around her as she launches the third phase of an ambitious and long-standing project: connecting the West Bank with optical fiber cables. The project is riffed with complications like the death of her Palestine business partner, the Israeli and Palestine power struggle that intensifies after, with each side battling to get the contract, and the kidnapping of a dear close friend's son. Things unravel slowly in true European TV fashion, at least for the uninitiated. The first three episodes can be unnervingly slow and annoying, if you're not used to the European style of story telling. Rather than rely heavily on action and violence like its American counterpart, European TV, especially British TV, focuses on details, relationship between characters and the totality of a story. It takes an all-round view of the situation and isn't afraid to slow things down. Because, in real life, things do slow down. I do agree that The Honourable Woman does take the slow pace to the extreme. However, I enjoyed it that way. But, this could be because I bingewatched the show in two sittings, unlike having to watch it stretch out for eight weeks. 

There is dedication given to the other characters' stories. While my post is quite Nessa Stein filled, The Honourable Woman isn't only about Nessa and her calling. It is about Ephra Stein, her brother, and the things he does to protect his sister. It is about Atika, the bond - I still believe love - between her and Nessa, and her cause. It is about Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle, Monica Chatwin and Dame Julia Walsh, and the spy game they play. It is about all the minor characters. There's literally no useless character. You know the one you can't figure why s/he isn't dead yet or sent off to the neverland in the series. 

The Honourable Woman is not perfect. Show me a perfect show. There are some things that should have been cut, shortened or simply axed. Yes. Too often, the viewers find themselves staring at Nessa's protruding spinal cord as she bends, with her back faced to the viewers, and sobs with jerky movements into her sofa. Too often, we see her walk into that cell room of hers. Like that one time depiction of her immaculate fashioned bedroom, the front for outsiders, it would have been better if the cell wasn't shown as much. Two or three times to reinforce the notion that she sleeps in that cell, with its pinkish glow rather than her immaculate bedroom would have sufficed. The audience would have pieced together everything once it sees the pink room she was enclosed in while she was kidnapped in Gaza and the ordeal that went there. She spent over a year in that room, with no visible window and no bedding. It makes absolute sense it imprinted on her. But, it was too much of a plot devise, more like a plot filler. For nothing ever happens in the cell room. But, all these can be forgiven.

Watch the trailer below and go find The Honourable Woman to watch!