In the post-nuclear war Jerusalem of Dead End a couple teengers, Kineret (Gaya Beer Gurevich) & Yarden (Ofir Sasson) act as teengers do while searching through the aftermath of a decimated city and its outskirts for their wandering little brother who’s forever one step ahead of them. 

Sounds like a laugh riot, I know. Dead End’s premiere episode “The Most Important Speech You’ll Ever Hear” does actually manage to find humor in the situation quite easily. I’m not saying it’s hilarious, but for five minutes it’s certainly funny enough that I’d give the next one of its 10 episode series a chance. Since they’d all take less than an hour in total I’d probably just breeze through the entirety in one go, in all reality. 

I especially enjoy the dry & sardonic nature of Dead End, though I’m sure being no stranger to Jewish humor my whole life primed me well. Between the dog companion with its exposed rib cage and the–well, other odd stuff that’s more fun if you experience it yourself there are plenty of amusing touches. The discussion that results when Kineret & Yarden run into a cow at one point jumps to mind as a favorite for me.

As for the animation and voices, it all seemed of similar or better quality to many things I’ve seen on Adult Swim so Dead End could easily slide right in to something like that–if everyone’s cool with Hebrew being the main language, anyway. It couldn’t hurt to have a few international animation options in that wonderfully weird midnight to sunrise range so maybe one day I’ll stumble across such a thing.

Dead End is currently playing at Slamdance 2021.

8 out of 10 Amusing Cow Discussions