ARTICLE
At first, they were enemies, but over time, their hearts grew together THE MOST COMMON THEMES IN TURKISH TV SERIES LAST YEAR WERE TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS, DIFFERENT LIFESTYLES, OTHERS, THE WAR BETWEEN CONSERVATIVES AND SECULARISTS, THE REAPPEARANCE OF MISSING CHILDREN AFTER YEARS AND THE DIFFICULTY OF ADAPTING TO A NEW LIFE, THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THOSE ABOVE AND THOSE BELOW. HOSTILITY WAS THE FIRST STEP ON THE PATH OF EVERY SERIES COMPETING FOR RATINGS ON SCREEN. THOSE WHO HAD EXCLUDED EACH OTHER DREW CLOSER AND OVER TIME, THEIR HEARTS BECAME UNITED. UNTIL ANOTHER ENEMY APPEARED... OYA DOĞAN doganoya@gmail.com
“D
on’t worry about my order being messed up, my life being turned upside down. How do you know that life wouldn’t be better if it was upside down?” said Şems-i Tebrizi… The drama is also very much fuelled by this quote from Şems. Because it created anxiety, it triggered the idea and the change. And by changing, the Story came to exist. If we look at Turkish dramas today, almost all the characters are blindly attached to the comfort, the unhappiness, the traumas and the order that they have established, saying that “they are mine” anyway, and they live like devotees of this life. They no longer question, feel, look or see. They are even afraid, madly afraid, that a stranger will come and change their order in this system they have built for themselves and called life. This makes them more angry, more conservative, more resistant to change. And that’s when the conflict starts...
BOTH FAMILIES WERE MUSLIM, BUT DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED
Over the past year, the conflicts in Turkish TV series have evolved in parallel with the country’s agenda. As a Muslim country governed by a republican form of government, Türkiye’s divisions between secular and conservative factions have also been reflected in the TV series. And in a short time, it paid off in the ratings. In a world where everyone was pushing their own values, it was important to understand and listen to the “other”. Turkish TV series did not stay away from this. One Love, which focused on the events that took place after the marriage of Fatih and Doğa, who had families with different cultures, lifestyles and ways of life, was the most popular TV series of 2023. This was because while Doğa was the daughter of a secular family, Fatih was the son of a conservative family that practised Islam to the full.
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