Fans of Homeland will get a real treat out of Netflix's "Fauda"

For a small country of only 8 million people, Israel packs a lot of artistic talent, People who watch and read the credits of Showcase's hit series Homeland know that it's based on an Israeli TV series. (That series, upon which the American show was very liberally based, was called Prisoners of War.)

For fans of taut, gritty, realistic espionage shows, you're not likely to find anything more entertaining and engrossing than another Israeli show called Fauda.

It centers on Doron, a retired Israeli security forces agent, running his own small winery, who is brought back into service to hunt down a Palestinian terrorist mastermind called Abu Ahmed thought to have been killed, but is very much alive and planning a massive terror attack.

The show's creator and star, Lior Raz, was a member of an Israeli counter-terrorist unit and his experience brings realism and intensity to the show that is like nothing else on television now.

The series, the title of which translates to "riot" or "chaos," explores the lives and families of both Israeli security agents and Palestinian terrorists. The acting is superb and the casting different than the sort of thing you see in most television. These people don't look like actors, they look like the people they are meant to portray.

The show is in Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles, and the first season, consisting of 12 episodes, is currently available on Netflix.