You want I should give you the good news or bad news first? The good news is that there’s a prequel to Shtisel, the Israeli television series about the ultra-Orthodox eponymous family who lived in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem that became a global hit.

The bad news? Kugel, which is available exclusively on Israeli streaming service Izzy starting in late February, doesn’t star the gorgeous and plaintive Michael Aloni, who played Akiva, the wayward and favorite son of Rabbi Shulem Shtisel.

Instead, the new show from Shtisel co-creator Yehonatan Indursky takes place in Antwerp, Belgium, and is the story of Shulem’s younger brother, Nuchem Shtisel (Sasson Gabay), and his daughter, Libbi (Hadas Yaron), set a few years before they both travel to Jerusalem to find her a husband. (A small spoiler here for those who haven’t watched Shtisel: The duo’s time in Jerusalem, where Libbi eventually marries, are major plot points in season two of the original show.)

“The creators felt that Shtisel was over for them, that they said what they had to say,” executive producer Dikla Barkai said in an interview from her home in Israel. For a spinoff, the production team realized, they wanted to “take a side character and make a whole series for them.”

Who better to follow than Nuchem? “He’s such a great character,” Barkai said, “and this way we could take it out of Jerusalem and make a whole new world for them. It’s similar but totally different.”

Related: Are We in a Golden Age of ‘Haredi’ Television?

It is different. For one, as shown in the first few episodes, Kugel—named after the beloved Ashkenazi casserole that features heavily in this series—is lighter and more humorous. (“If you burn the whole kugel, there wouldn’t be a burnt part of the kugel,” one character oh-so-wisely states.)

Also, Nuchem, who works as a jewelry dealer, is a more nuanced character than his older brother. More shyster than scholar, he alienates his wife with his schemes, preys on widows and sets off a matchmaking crisis with his daughter—unheard of in the insular Hasidic world, where girls like Libbi may be considered old maids if not married by age 22.

Despite his behavior, Nuchem is charming and can be lovable, even as he strives to become a gvir—a mover and shaker in the community, worthy of entry into the city’s private sauna open only to wealthy donors, or as he calls it derisively, the “shvitz.”

Nuchem cares for the women in his life—his estranged wife, the women he woos and his daughter, Libbi, a teacher and aspiring writer.

“Something’s troubling you,” Nuchem says to her in one scene when the two are eating alone after his wife leaves.

“Nothing,” she answers.

“Even nothing can be troubling,” he says. “Nothing and more nothing can suddenly become heavy.”

And that’s what Kugel is: a collection of seemingly ordinary “nothing” moments—Nuchem cycling through Antwerp, the coattails of his long black jacket flapping; Libbi pensively riding the bus when everyone but other Hasidim fade to the background; bearded men gathering to eat kugel at a restaurant. Yet, together, these moments form an intimate portrait of a broken family struggling to piece their lives together.

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Amy Klein is the author of The Trying Game: Get Through Fertility Treatment and Get Pregnant Without Losing Your Mind.