Show of the Week: Kid Sister

Kid Sister

New Zealand comedy drama following Lulu, a young Kiwi woman in her prime, but in the Jewish world she is careening towards ‘spinsterhood’. Now on the verge of 30, Lulu’s parent’s attempts at pushing her off the shelf into the arms of a ‘Nice Jewish Boy’ leave her clinging on for dear life.

Matters are only further complicated when Lulu discovers that she is pregnant to her on-again off-again very non-Jewish boyfriend, Ollie. She has to make some big calls and fast.

As Lulu digs herself deeper and deeper into a ‘shituation’, she is forced to face the question she’s been avoiding her entire adult life: how can she do what she wants while also making everyone else happy?

The series, written by and starring Simone Nathan, aims “to portray the New Zealand Jewish community in an authentic way and to draw humour from some of the bizarre experiences the characters go through,” explains Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia, VP of scripted acquisitions & co-productions at the show’s distributor Red Arrow Studios International.

“Judaism is part of the author Simone Nathan’s life and her goal was to tell it the way that she experienced it with all the facets it entails.

“As we witness Ollie going through the Jewish conversion process, this allows the viewer to also get an outsider’s perspective on this community. Kid Sister is a super personal comedy about the joys and the troubles that arise when old world meets new, exploring the universal themes of cross-cultural conflicts, culture clashes and character collisions.”

Kid Sister has already aired its first five-part season on TVNZ in New Zealand and a second is in development, due to go into production early next year, with Emily Anderton, producer at Greenstone TV, telling TBI that the show has so far been warmly received with “a high episodic completion rate of 89%.”

Anderton shares that life will get “even more complicated for Lulu” in the second season. “With Ollie converting to Judaism to be with her, Lulu continues to avoid the big question: does she actually want a Modern Orthodox boyfriend? Wasn’t that what she was trying to get away from in the first place?”

Ibarguengoytia is confident that the series will be well received by “a broad international audience” through its authentic exploration of the Jewish community combined with its “quirky and charming tone”.

He adds: “You don’t have to be Jewish to understand that this is a story about family and it’s a love story; a show with a lot of heart.”

Producer: Greenstone TV

Distributor: Red Arrow Studios International

Broadcaster: TVNZ (New Zealand)

Logline: A young Jewish woman navigates life’s big issues in this comedy drama set in New Zealand, where more people identify as Jedi than Jewish