Hashoter Hatov (The Good Cop) is an Israeli police sitcom created by Erez Aviram and Tomer Aviram. Its first season aired in 2015, and the second season aired in 2017. A third season was approved but has yet to see creation.
Cowboy Cop First Sergeant Danny Confino (Yuval Semo) works in Petach Tikva with his oafish partner Dubi Azaria (Yigal Adika), cheerful Razi (Loai Nofi), pretty Corinne (Ortal Ben-Shoshan), and self-important commander Jacob Rabi (Guy Loel). When his girlfriend dumps him, he's forced to move back in with his parents and deal with the hijinks of his sleazy father (Moshe Ivgi), ambitious mother (Liora Rivlin), and criminal brothers. At work he's ordered into psychological evaluation with police shrink Reuven. Hilarity Ensues.
Received a Foreign Remake in 2018 called The Good Cop.
Hashoter Hatov contains examples of:
- Accents Aren't Hereditary: Izhar has a pronounced Moroccan accent (an exaggerated version of Moshe Ivgi's native accent). Yona speaks with an upmarket, educated accent. Danny has a fairly standard, middle-class, Tel Aviv-associated accent.
- All Jews Are Ashkenazi: Averted. Danny is of Moroccan and Ashkenazi descent (Izhar is Moroccan, Yona Ashkenazi), Dubi is Mizrahi, Corinne is Bukhari.
- All Jews Are Cheapskates: Danny's father Izhar is spectacularly cheap. Made all the more hilarious by his frequent (unsuccessful) get-rich-quick schemes. Rabi also comes off like this, but given that he's working with the budget he's given it's understandable.
- Alter Kocker: He's not Ashkenazi, but Izhar comes off like this.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Izhar and Yona, both of whom are prone to dropping Too Much Information.
- Awful Wedded Life: Izhar and Yona. To a lesser extent, Dubi and Yochi.
- Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: When Danny and Izhar go fishing in episode 8. Izhar being, well, Izhar, he takes the opportunity to inform Danny that he was only born because Izhar couldn't afford to pay for Yona to have an abortion.
- "Basic Instinct" Legs-Crossing Parody: When Corinne is flirting with the inspector, she invokes this. We don't see whether or not she flashes him, but we do get plenty of opportunity to admire Ortal Ben-Shoshan's nice gams.
- Beauty Inversion: While Moshe Ivgi was never exceptionally beautiful, here he's aged up and made to look as slovenly as possible to play Izhar.
- Berserk Button: Don't come between Dubi and his food.
- Big Little Brother: Danny is about a foot shorter than his baby brother Eitan.
- Big Eater: It's easier to count the times you don't see Dubi chowing down on something.
- Brick Joke: The first episode is centered around Danny's dispute with a guy dressed as an eggplant. In the second episode, when he furiously asks Dubi what he hates most of all, Dubi guesses eggplant dip.
- Camp Straight: Jacob Rabi. Adores manicures, facials, and is always meticulously groomed - and definitely loves the ladies.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Frequently, but the most epic comes when mild-mannered Razi gets his memory back and lets out a truly impressive stream of cussing in Arabic.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Reuven. His own life is implied to be a mess.
- Country Matters: Amongst the most heard swears is kuss emek, which literally means "your mother's cunt" and depending on tone can be as mild as "goddamit" or as harsh as "for fuck's sake".
- Country Mouse: Downplayed, but Corinne grew up on a rural moshav and still has shades of being far more innocent and sweet-tempered than her more cynical colleagues.
- Covert Pervert: Reuven's interest in Danny's sex life goes a bit above and beyond that of a professional therapist.
- Dinner and a Show: In episode two, when Danny meets his parents for dinner in Ramle only to find that Dalit has also been invited.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Predictably enough, the officers of the Petach Tikva precinct love their shawarma.
- Everybody Smokes: Truth in Television. Israelis are heavy smokers.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Izhar gets granted a "hall pass" by Yona, it ends up being a very intoxicated Corinne who comes to his room. Instead of taking advantage of her, he encourages her to pursue a relationship with Danny.
- Exiled to the Couch: Izhar is banished to the sofa after completely screwing up his job as maintenance man.
- Fan Disservice: There's nothing remotely appealing about seeing Izhar naked, but we do anyway. Same with Dubi's Shirtless Scene.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: How Danny's brother got Izhar's motorized wheelchair, or so he claims. Danny isn't fooled for a second.
- Flipping the Bird: Rabi gives the bras d'honneur variant behind the inspector's back.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Danny gets sexually harassed by a female cop and battered by his girlfriend Shuli. And it's mostly Played for Laughs.
- Friend to All Living Things: Corinne. Danny gifts her with a donkey to get back in her good graces. It works.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: When Miron attempts to get the hell out of town, Danny pops up in the back seat of his cab and pops him a good one. Later Miron is seen with an obvious shiner.
- Hidden Depths: Dubi is quite good at shesh-besh (backgammon) and dovish in his politics.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Nelly is apparently well-known to the cops in Petach Tikva, but they're on friendly terms. She's quite affable.
- Identity Amnesia: One episode has Razi developing this after a blow to the head from a donkey kick. He now believes himself to be a right-wing Orthodox Jew. The rest of the station at Petach Tikva immediately try to find out how to get him back to his old self.
- The Immodest Orgasm: "Susanne" the "Ambassador's Wife" is apparently quite loud.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Yona was apparently quite sexy back in the day. And she's not bad looking now. Izhar claims this of himself, but is somewhat less believable - and he's definitely let himself go.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Danny is an asshole, but he adores Ronchu and treats him as his own son. He's also shown to be a romantic at heart.
- Kavorka Man:
- Danny is neither good-looking nor particularly nice, but somehow manages to attract an impressive list of hot women. (It's implied that he's really good in bed.)
- Arguably Izhar as well; he is not at all good looking, incredibly unpleasant, lazy, and not that bright. But Yona stays with him, and he managed to attract the beautiful, rich Sylvie.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Danny has issues having children and wants them. Meanwhile Dubi has several children already, doesn't want any more, and yet has no trouble knocking up his wife.
- Meaningful Name: Dubi is rotund and jolly - and his name, while quite common as a nickname in Israel, is also the Hebrew term for "teddy bear."
- Momma's Boy: Razi. This isn't shown to be a bad thing, it's just accepted. Danny has shades of this as well; when Izhar suspects that Yona is cheating on him, Danny takes the time to point out that Izhar hasn't worked a day in his life, that their house was bought with Yona's inheritance, and that Izhar was failure as a father - concluding with saying that his mother deserves a little fun.
- Nice Jewish Boy: Reuven is arguably a deconstruction of the stereotype through an Israeli filter: he's nerdy, Ashkenazi, divorced, long-suffering, and made out to be a wimp.
- The Napoleon: Danny is short of stature and temper.
- Nice Guy: Razi. Even-tempered, cheerful, eschews caffeine, and well-liked. He's also close to his mother and sisters.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Played with. Danny is extremely macho and has ideas about women and sexuality that could charitably be described as outdated. However, he isn't racist, and is the first to back up his Arab coworker Razi.
- Nobody Poops: Thoroughly and spectacularly averted, often.
- No Periods, Period: Averted again...no one's particularly prissy about bodily functions.
- Only Sane Man: While Razi is this for the Petach Tikva precinct, Danny is this for his family.
- Papa Wolf: Danny for Ronchu, even though he isn't Ronchu's biological father.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Danny really, really, really doesn't want to hear the details of his mother's university experimentations.
- Parental Substitute: Danny is this for Dalit's son Ronchu, whom he adores.
- Raging Stiffie: The predictable result when Izhar takes his Viagra.
- Real Men Take It Black: Danny asks for a sip of Razi's coffee and is disgusted that, rather than strong black coffee with cardamom, it's expensive Italian decaf.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Razi has discriminating taste in coffee and a keen eye for interior design.
- Retired Badass: Sure, Jacob Rabi is a Desk Jockey now, but a look at his insignia reveals that he served in the Paratroopers when he was in the army.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Often. Truth in Television; see this article on protekzia
and its pervasiveness in Israeli society. - Take That!: Plenty of potshots taken at the city of Petach Tikva, which is a memetic Place Worse Than Death in Israel (it's not particularly crime-ridden or violent, just full of arsim and lacking in culture).
- The Unfavorite: Danny is not his parents' favorite child by a long shot. Izhar even says he was only born because they couldn't afford an abortion. While it's ambiguous whether or not he was taking the piss, it's still clear that Danny is definitely this. Overlaps with Middle Child Syndrome as Danny is, predictably enough, the middle child.
- Through Her Stomach: Izhar tries to curry favor with Yona by making her a nice shakshuka. She sees right through it.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Danny and Corinne.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Inverted. When Razi develops amnesia, they want their laid-back Nice Guy back.
- World of Snark: Almost everyone dishes out the snark.
