Ha Shminiya (AKA The Octet or The Eight) is an Israeli mystery teen oriented TV series from Turn of the Millennium. The show ran on the Israeli kids channel, and its original three season (2005-2007) run was a huge hit in Israel, and is still considered an emblematic piece of Millennial culture. The show had two further seasons starting in 2013 that featured a cast full of Replacement Goldfish, and were quite a flop. The show is centered around eight gifted teenagers (Adam, Natasha, Avi, Mika, Dori, Roni, Aya and Nini). They solved crimes together, facing terrorist organizations, magical cults, gentlemen thieves, as well as their own crazy parents.
Also - two of them just happen to be five years younger than the rest, but underwent Rapid Aging thanks to a machine called Turbo Time. The kids possessed unique brain waves called Lambda waves, which were at times treated as superpowers and at times as the renewable energy source of the future. Each of the eight teenagers possessed a unique type of intelligence, and involved in a very dynamic Love Dodecahedron. It was one part spy thriller and two parts teen Dramedy - basically the original Riverdale.
Now has a Character page.
Examples:
- Acting Your Intellectual Age: Aya and Nini are actually ten years old, look fifteen years old, and have the intellectual capacity of adults.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Aya and Nini pre Rapid Aging.
- Age-Gap Romance: Roni has a knack for these, first with the older Ilan, then with the younger Nini and later with the older Daniel.
- Dganit and Amos are a more classic case, with Dganit being in her early thirties and Amos being in his early fifties.
- Alpha Couple: Aya and Adam
- Beta Couple: Mika and Avi in the first two seasons, and then Roni and Nini.
- Better as Friends: Dori and Natasha.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: quite a few of the characters during the second season, as the members of Scorpio utilize their hypnosis skills.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: In seasons two and three are coded with the their Lambda balls and later Council watches.
- Avi: yellow
- Mika: red
- Nini: blue
- Aya: green
- Natasha: orange
- Roni: pink
- Dori: white
- Nitzan: black
- Adam: silver
- Commonality Connection: Dganit and Amos/Dedi originally bond over their work as teachers.
- Cult: The Scorpio cult, of the Religion of Evil variety.
- Defeat Means Friendship: At the beginning of the series, Adam is quite mean to Nini - and Nini hates him for his cockiness. However, when Nini beats Adam in a game of chess, Adam learns to respect him and they eventually become very close.
- Double Agent: Lily in the Scorpio cult
- Gratuitous Russian: Natasha, especially with Lina and Adam.
- Frameup: a bunch. in season 1 Avner is framed for Lilly's crimes, and in season 3 Natasha and then Roni are framed for Daniel's scheme.
- Love Dodecahedron: The eight (eventually nine) kids hook up and date in just about every possible constellation that doesn't involve Twincest.
- Adam takes the cake after hooking up in some way with four of the five girls.
- Mad Scientist: Roberto, the Big Bad of the first season.
- Professor Caldreon, one of the secondary villains of season 3 also fits the bill until his redemption arc.
-
Narm: The acting style can be a little over the top, but the top moment has to be Lina's fake fit in season two. - New-Age Retro Hippie: Shlomik, Dganit's ex and Ben Ben's father. Eli, Roni's older sister, has shades of this trope as well.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Once the minor character of Yair Noam was appointed prime minister, he started resembling [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Olmert
Ehud Olmert]], who became the actual prime minister of Israel in 2006. He even had to resign in less than respectable circumstances... - Opposites Attract: a beloved trope on the show, including the reserved Natasha and the boisterous Adam, tough Nitzan and nerdy Dori, bubbly Roni and sensitive Nini and many, many more.
- Rapid Aging: Amos builds the Turbo Time machine that makes his kids to age five years in a matter of minutes.
- Sensual Slavs: Natasha is the designated Dude Magnet of the group.
- Street Smart: Avi, who comes from a low income family from the periphery of the country, is more Street Smart than his upper middle class friends. When Nitzan is introduced in season 2, she officially takes over for him in this department.
- Teen Genius: the original eight kids (Nitzan is clever but isn't exactly Book Smart).
- The Casanova: Daniel, Roni (and Natasha's) ex.
- The Caper: a few throughout the series - there were two (!) Ocean's Eleven style casino heists, and one museum heist.
- The Caper Crew usually includes Nini as The Mastermind, Avi as The Hacker, Dori as the Gadgeteer or Mission Control, Nitzan as The Burglar, and loudmouth Mika or Adam as The Roper.
- The Fundamentalist: The entire Scorpio crowd, but especially Lina.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Roni and her sister Eli have a love hate relationship, especially in season 1 where they fight over Ilan. It gets better once Roni gets over Ilan and starts dating someone new.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: In season 3, Nitzan (the tomboy) and Roni (the girly girl) move in together they develop this dynamic.
- Took a Level in Badass: When Aya is stranded in the desert alone for a month and has to fend for herself, she learns to hunt and fight.
- By the third season, the other eight were recruited to "The Council" (i.e the Mossad), and undergo official combat training.
- Twin Telepathy: Nini and Aya have a natural connection, and he is able to sense it when she is experiencing strong physical pain.
- Wild Card: Lily Dvir, Aya and Nini's mother.
- Younger Than They Look: Amos (who is fifty and looks 30), and his kids Aya and Nini who are actually five years younger than then look.
