Most secular and observant Jews can agree on one thing — the Hebrew bible is full of entrancing storytelling. Deadly sibling rivalries, giant fish, jealousy and betrayal, the Torah truly has it all.
Recent makers of TV and movies seem to agree. In the past few years, we’ve gotten movies and a Netflix TV series about Moses (with multiple rabbis and Israeli actor Avi Azulay), an Amazon Prime series about King David (which features his famous lyre and some Hebrews singing) and even an animated film about that same Jewish king (which features young Jewish voice actors).
And now, someone’s finally paying attention to one of the most exciting, complex and intriguing (and dare I say, feminis) stories of the Torah, those of the four Jewish matriarchs (“imahot”) from the book of Genesis: Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, as well as that of Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid.
A new Fox series, “The Faithful: Women of the Bible,” is premiering on March 22, just in time for Passover and Easter.
Its first installment tells the story of the first Jewish matriarch — Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who will be played by the legendary Minnie Driver, of “Good Will Hunting” and most recently “Emily in Paris” fame. Viewers will see the story of Abraham and Sarah, and also of Hagar, who Sarah instructs to bear Abraham’s son, Ishmael, after years of infertility, only to later give birth to their son Isaac.
The second installment follows Isaac’s wife, Rebecca, and the way she treats her two sons, Esau and Jacob.
The final episode of the mini-series will tell the stories of Jacob’s two wives: older sister Leah, whom he is tricked into marrying by her father, Lavan, and her younger sister Rachel, his favorite wife. Their 12 sons would later become the 12 tribes of Israel.
The show continues the tradition of non-Jewish British actresses being cast in Jewish roles (from Gilda Radner to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), including Driver and Millie Brady (“Pride, Prejudice and Zombies,” “Surface”), who plays Leah.
Native American actress Blu Hunt (“The New Mutants,” “Sherlock and Daughter”) plays Rachel.
The show does feature one Jewish actress in a matriarch role: Alexa Davalos (“The Man in the High Castle,” “Angel,” “Defiance”) plays Rebekah. Davalos’s father is Jewish.
Hagar is played by Lebanese-Irish actress Natacha Karam (“The Brave,” “9-1-1: Lone Star”).
Jeffrey Donovan (“Burn Notice,” “Law & Order) plays biblical patriarch Abraham, Tom Mison (“Sleepy Hollow,” “Robin Hood”) plays his son Isaac, Tom Payne (“Prodigal Son”) plays Isaac’s youngest son, Jacob, who steals the rite of the firstborn from Esau, played by “Vikings” actor Ben Robson.
The series’ executive producers are Carol Mendelsohn (“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”) and Julie Weitz (“Game of Silence”) and writer and showrunner Rene Echevarria (“Carnival Row,” “The 4400”). It’s nice to see a series about these powerful, history-making women helmed by female creators.
“Our names were whispered through time,” Driver as Sarah says in the first teaser for the series, “from generation through generation,” quoting the Jewish concept of l’dor va’dor, or passing down the Torah and Jewish traditions.
At the end of the trailer, we see her embrace her firstborn son, Isaac, after decades of infertility. “Truly nothing is impossible for God,” she tells her husband.
Driver first opened up about being part of the series, which was filmed in Rome and Matera, Italy, back in July of 2025. On Instagram, she wrote about how grateful she was to be part of so much “brilliant storytelling” that year — “from a crime drama on Netflix [“Run Away”] to ‘Emily In Paris’ to a female-driven Biblical epic, to a play about love and grief and life and death.”
“The Faithful: Women of the Bible” premieres on Fox on March 22. It’s second episode airs March 29, and its finale airs during Passover on April 6, Easter Sunday. The episodes will be available on Hulu the following day.
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