Ha-Chevre Ha-Tovim (literally, "The Good Buddies"), was an Israeli Teen Drama that ran between 1999 and 2002. It featured some of the big teen stars of the early 2000's in Israel.
The show centers around a group of high school students from a low income neighborhood in a city in central Israel - Assi, Natalie, Maor, Dudi, Tanya and Dana. The show won high acclaims by critics, an almost unheard feat for an youth oriented show in Israel before than. The show dealt with socio-economic tensions, racial disparities, sexual assault, drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, religious tensions within Israeli Jewish community and the mandatory draft to the IDF.
The TV show provides examples of:
- Age-Appropriate Angst: And quite a lot of it
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: first subverted than played straight with Tanya and Golan.
- All the Other Reindeer: Maor, sometimes.
- Alpha Couple: Dudi and Natalie, who are on-and-off throughout the entire run of the show, in a classic Will They or Won't They? kind of way.
- Beta Couple: Mostly Assi and Tanya, who make a more stable couple. This is eventually subverted when Assi's brother, Golan, entered the situation and a Love Triangle is formed.
- Attention Whore: Lee.
- Betty and Veronica: several examples. Tanya is the Archie of two triangles, first with Maor (Betty) and Assi (Veronica), and then with Assi (Betty) and Golan (Veronica). This triangle also has shades of Noble Male, Roguish Male.
- In season three there is also a classic example, with Dudi as Archie, Natalie as Betty and Lee as Veronica.
- Big Fun: Dana, at least in the first season.
- Birds of a Feather: Subverted with Tanya and Maor, who have similar interests and personalities, but don't make it.
- Zigzagged with Shlomi and Dana, who have very similar personalities and a strong relationship, but come from different backgrounds.
- Book Dumb: Many of the guys are portrayed as this, but mostly Dudi, whose native language is Buffy Speak.
- Brainy Brunette: Dana.
- Broken Bird: Lee.
- Can't Spit It Out: Several characters on different occasions. First, Dudi cant bring himself to open up to Natalie about his feelings. Then Assi can't be honest with Tanya, and neither can Maor. Later on Shlomi can't tell Dana how much he likes her, and Natalie can't bring herself to tell Dudi what he emans to her after he cheated on her with Eva.
- Chick Magnet: Assi.
- Cute Bookworm: Dana.
- Creepy Uncle: Natalie's driver's ed teacher uncle that harasses Tanya.
- Damsel in Distress: Natalie seems to require some sort of rescue often. Lee fits this trope mostly because of the trouble she gets into while under the influence of drugs.
- Date Rape: the main plot line of the pilot episode. Natalie goes to the home of a older, wealthier student. He and his friend try to pressure her to sleep with them. We don't know what happens after that, though Natalie later claims they did not rape her. She is, however, furious when Dudi riles up they guys from the neighborhood to "protect her honor".
- Dating Do-Si-Do: A staple of the genre. First Tanya dated Assi, than for a brief second - Maor, and eventualy she hooks up with Assi's older brother, resident bad boy Golan. Dudi and Natalie are always on and off, and both Dudi and Maor date drug addict Manic Pixie Dream Girl Lee.
-
Dawson Casting: Inevitably, given the genre. Most of the actors were in their mid 20's while portraying 16 year olds. - Deadpan Snarker: Maor, Golan and Dana.
- Death Seeker: Maor flirts with this territory in the second season.
- Disappeared Dad: The bum father of Golan, Assi and Nati.
- Driven to Suicide: Eventually subverted with Lee.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Maor, towards Tanya.
- Dude Magnet: guys *love* Tanya.
- Eat the Rich: A strong narrative motif in the entire series.
- Expy: One can't help but notice Natalie bears many of the qualities of one Joey Potter.
- Fatal Flaw: Assi's pride and macho honor, Golan's short fuse, and Dudi's inability to commit to anything.
- Fiery Redhead: Tanya.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Assi is Leukine, Dudi - Phelgmatic, Dana- Sanguine, Natalie - Melancholic and Tanya -Choleric.
- They also work as a Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Assi is conflicted, Dudi (or Maor)- apathetic, Dana -optimistic romantic, Natalie - realist and Tanya - the cynic. Golan sometimes plays in as a more extreme example of cynicism as well.
- Freudian Excuse: Golan and his deadbeat dad, Lee and her awful absent family.
- Friendly Enemy: Natalie and Dana sometimes fall into this category,
- Full-Name Basis: Ilan Arush, the scariest thug in the neighborhood who stabbed Golan and threatened to kill Assi.
- Girl Next Door: Natalie.
- Hot for Teacher: Assi and Cool Teacher Gaya in season 3.
- Informed Ability: Natalie's artistic skills. Her paintings win high praises in-universe, but don't seem exceptional in any way on screen.
- Intrepid Reporter: Dana, who investigates the maltreatment of Romanian work immigrants.
- It's All About Me: Natalie, always.
- Jerkass: Entitled rape-y creep Shachar and his psycho friend Eran.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Golan is usually described this way, but he sometimes veers into Jerk with a Heart of Jerk waters.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Natalie has a pretty bad attitude.
- Like Brother and Sister: Dana and Dudi.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Lee.
- Lovable Rogue: Golan.
- Mood-Swinger: Natalie.
- New Transfer Student: Tanya arrives in the neighborhood from Tel Aviv in the pilot.
- Nice Guy: Dudi for sure, and sometimes Assi as well.
- No Sympathy: Natalie, towards basically anyone. She is very judgmental and tends to hold a grudge.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Golan hates his father, but he is first to admit that he inherited his tendency to get in trouble.
- Oblivious to Love: Tanya towards Maor.
- Odd Friendship: Dudi the jock and Maor, his geeky best friend Maor.
- One of the Guys: Dana. Dudi lampshades it more than once.
- Sensual Slavs: Tanya is a very rare example of this trope in Israeli media.
- Shipper on Deck: Dana ships Natalie and Dudi, Nati ships Assi and Tanya.
- Shipping Torpedo: Most of Dana's friends try to break up her and Shlomi at first, fearing she will become an observant religious Jew for him.
- Shower of Angst: Tanya, after Natalie's uncle touched her.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Assi an Golan. Assi the responsible, even tempered brother, while Golan is Wild Card with a very short fuse.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Tanya and Golan.
- Slut-Shaming: A common attitude in the neighborhood. It is featured very prominently in the second season when Dudi dates an underwear model and makes some gross assumptions about her.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Tanya, mostly towards Assi. It is also somewhat of a deconstruction of common stigma on Russians in Israel, who are often pegged as cold or harsh.
- Stalking is Love: Dana and Shlomi.
- Tag Along Kid: Maor.
- Take a Third Option: Maor with his fellow asylum patient, Mishmish.
- The Idealist: Assi.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Lee, mostly on Maor but also on Dudi.
- Town Girls: Natalie is the flirty girly one, Tanya the edgy in-between and Dana is the tomboyish book worm.
- Tsundere: Natalie shows shades of this trope, though the most obvious example is Lee. Tanya flirts with this trope, but is usually a Sugar-and-Ice Personality.
- The Un-Favourite: Maor considers himself to be this in comparison to his step sister, Natalie.
- The Unfettered: Golan, who wants to bring chains and sticks to a fist fight.
- Uptown Girl: even though she comes from a poor family and is a first generation immigrant, both Assi and Golan look at Tanya this way.
- Very Special Episode: Season 2, episode 7 is an
Anvilicious scare about drugs and catfishing.
