Revenge, love, and mysterious crimes: 7 Turkish miniseries worth watching (trailer)

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Turkish TV series are gaining attention not only for their long-running melodramas but also for their short-format projects that captivate viewers with their content and acting skills. Especially in recent years, miniseries consisting of a few episodes or seasons have been highlighting complex family relationships, love, revenge, crime, and various aspects of the human psyche.

"As If Tomorrow Will Never Come" (2024)

Journalist Hakan usually writes about politics, but one day he is assigned to interview Manolya, a TV series actress. Moreover, people discuss her sensational personal life more than her roles. For this reason, during their meeting at a restaurant, Hakan treats Manolya almost with disdain. However, after their first clash, they spend the night in the same house, discuss all topics, and even swap roles with each other.

This Turkish miniseries is based on the Dutch film "Interview". In the Turkish version, the journalist is played by Halit Ergenç, known for the series "Magnificent Century".

"Ethos" ("We Met in Istanbul")

Meryem, a devout woman, works as a cleaning lady and starts attending sessions with psychiatrist Peri due to unexplained fainting spells. Peri lives a completely different life from her client, so their worldviews differ drastically. At the same time, the story also follows other people connected to Meryem: her tyrannical brother Yasin and his depressed wife Ruhiye, psychiatrist Gülbin and her devout sister, and others.

The series shows how people belonging to completely different worlds live side by side in one city, specifically in Istanbul. This highlights how diverse the population of Turkey and their lifestyles are.

"The Teacher"

A tragedy occurs in a Turkish high school: a talented schoolgirl who practiced water sports commits suicide. This is caused by a fake video allegedly showing her using doping. Physics teacher Akif Erdem tries to identify the author of this video, but he does so in a radical way. He takes the entire class hostage, claims there is a bomb in the room, and demands a confession regarding who caused the girl's death.

"The Teacher" is a remake of the Japanese series "Class 3-A, From Now On, You Are Hostages", which aired a year earlier. However, the Turkish version turned out to be much darker: the main character transformed from an unusual and eccentric teacher into a determined and strict person.

"Love 101"

In the late 1990s, in a high school in Istanbul, four students — Sinan, Eda, Osman, and Kerem — are about to be expelled. However, they are protected by their kind teacher Burcu. Soon, the teenagers find out that their teacher is planning to resign and move to another city. Then the teenagers come up with a plan: they need to introduce her to the new physical education teacher, Kemal. But for some reason, the characters do not want to fall in love with each other.

The Turkish miniseries is crafted in a unique way: it parallelly tells the story of the characters' school years and their current lives as adults. The events are dedicated not only to attempts to arrange the teacher's personal life but also to the experiences of young people going through their first love and starting to think about the future.

"Fatma"

Fatma, who works as a cleaning lady, loses her son, and her husband, who recently got out of prison, goes missing. The woman decides to investigate this matter herself and accidentally commits a murder. Using her inconspicuous status, she begins to get rid of people who stand in her way one by one. In this way, Fatma takes revenge for past humiliations and traumas.

The idea for the series came to the creators after reflecting on "invisible" professions like cleaning. They decided to turn the plot into a story about the gradual transformation of the main character: a gentle woman becomes a serial killer, but this happens almost out of necessity.

"Dilemma"

Journalist Neslihan Turhan is known for exposing criminals live on her show. She does not give in to temptations and always seeks the truth. But when the body of a girl who fell victim to a murder is found, the investigation leads Neslihan to her son. Now the protagonist must choose between her principles and the desire to protect her child.

"Dilemma" became the first Turkish miniseries released on the Amazon Prime Video platform. Since director Can Ulkay had previously worked on feature films, he shot the streaming project in a style closer to the cinematic format.

"Word of Honor"

Once upon a time, Cihan Adabeyli promised his savior to fulfill any of his wishes. Years later, that man reaches out to him, asking to protect his daughter Esra. Cihan takes the girl to an island belonging to his family and gradually falls in love with her. However, the world of wealth and intrigue turns out to be foreign to Esra.

The series primarily attracts attention with its visuals. A massive filming set was specially created for the project, transforming it into a fictional luxury island. To make it even more realistic, filming was also conducted in Izmir and on Kalem Island.