October 15, 2020
ETC launched its first dizi (Turkish telenovela) last month with the rom-com "Everywhere I Go." They are premiering their second offering this month, this time with the romantic drama "Endless Love" (Turkish title "Kara Sevda") which ran for two seasons from 2015 to 2017. This long-running series won as Best Series in the International Emmy Awards (Best Series 2017), as well in various Turkish TV awards, particularly for the performances of its two attractive and charismatic lead actors, Burak Özçivit and Neslihan Atagül.
One day, pampered rich girl Nihan (Neslihan Atagül) rode a public bus for the first time and encountered difficulty with how to pay the fare. Regular middle-class boy Kemal (Burak Özçivit) helped Nihan out of her awkward situation. From that single chance encounter, these two young people were struck by love at first sight for each other, but still they were yet to be introduced. However, fate had other plans for them.
Kemal saw a poster of an art exhibition with his face featured on the banner. He rushed to the exhibit hall saw his portrait mounted on the wall and noted Nihan's name as the artist. One night, because her arrogant persistent suitor Emir (Kaan Urgancıoğlu) made an ugly scene at her birthday celebration, Nihan left her party to cool off next door at the docks, which by chance was where Kemal was working as a caretaker of boats.
The setting may be in Turkey, but the running theme in this series is certainly universal -- star-crossed lovers who dared to challenge the wide gap between the rich and poor. Even the character of the main antagonist is very familiar -- a spoiled, unscrupulous and ill-mannered rich brat who was used to getting anything and anyone he wanted. There had been so many Filipino movies and telenovelas which addressed this theme since the beginning of the film industry itself, so getting settled in won't be difficult.
There were the usual problematic stock supporting characters, like Nihan's imperious mother Vildan (Neşe Baykent) or Kemal's jealous older brother Tarik (Rüzgar Aksoy). But there were also some wild card supporting characters whose contribution to the story had yet to be revealed, like Nihan's twin brother Ozan (Barış Alpaykut) or Kemal's younger sister Zeynap (Hazal Filiz Küçükköse). There was also Kemal's kind senior neighbor Leyla (Zerrin Tekindor) who had a major secret up her sleeve to be revealed in a future episode.
However, by the third episode, there would be significant events that transpire which would even things up between Kemal and Emir and make their conflict over Nihan a fairer fight. So there will certainly be more than the very basic melodrama formula we watched unfold in the first two episodes. These initial episodes merely established the romantic chemistry between Kemal and Nihan, and set up the dramatic foundation upon which more and more complicating situations will be built in the next coming episodes.
No comments:
Post a Comment