The youngest is Yael, whose flame-kissed red hair, sparkling blue eyes and pale skin make her more of an oddball in their community than a beauty. Upon her mother’s death, she returns to Israel to watch over her uncle’s two young motherless children. Shirah tells of her hard life in Alexandria as the daughter of a Jewish “witch” (a medicine woman), who had been cast out of Israel for her practices. Shirah (de Pablo) and Yael (Brosnahan) unfold their story before Josephus (Sam Neill), a Jewish collaborator with the Roman invaders, who appears to sit in judgement on the women for reasons not immediately divulged. Most convenient.Īlso Read: ‘Dovekeepers’ EP Roma Downey Says Viewers Are ‘Hungry’ for Inspirational Programming (Video) “The Dovekeepers,” based on Alice Hoffman’s fictional novel about the siege of Masada, stars actress Cote de Pablo (“NCIS”), Rachel Brosnahan ( “House of Cards”) and Kathryn Prescott (“Reign”) as three strong-willed Jewish women carved from hardship, hobbled by their own passions and fighting for survival when Rome’s legendary Tenth Legion descends on ancient Israel.ĭespite some muscular sword-and-sandals work when cultures clash, this tale is really about first century girl power - at least, as much as you can get away with while still tossing around lines like, “God won’t punish you you did as your husband demanded,” as if all a gal’s got to do to avoid perdition is to blame her spouse. The setup reads like cynical Hollywood screenwriting humor: What if you crossed “Touched by an Angel” with “Survivor”?īut those paths do cross in the husband-and-wife team behind CBS’s 4-hour, 2-night miniseries “The Dovekeepers,” executive produced by the star of the former and the creator of the latter and boasting equal doses of spirituality and hardscrabble living.

The dovekeepers book review