'Red Alert' Review: October 7 Series Is Harrowing

The four-part series “ Red Alert ,” a scripted account of the terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, gains its power from the absence of context. As conceived by writer, director and co-creator Lior Chefetz (“The Stronghold”), the story eschews a bird’s-eye view of Hamas militants’ incursion from the Gaza Strip, the IDF’s counteroffensive or the broader history of a conflict now well into its eighth decade. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is never mentioned; neither is Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar, the attacks’ mastermind. (Even the word “Palestinian” doesn’t appear in the scripts.) Instead, the main characters of “Red Alert” are ordinary people — kibbutzniks, cops and kindergarten teachers blindsided by a horrifying onslaught of violence. We experience the day as t