This post is going to be a strange one, definitely not the usual topics I'm writing about. I can't recall for sure, but I think I've only written once or two movie reviews and can't even remember when. What I'm going to write today is not going to be a proper review as others do here, but it is an important detail about a series I've been watching lately.
Today I'd like to talk about a Turkish TV series called Kimler Geldi Kimler Geçti or the English title, Thank You, Next.
I hope the Turkish users won't notice this as what I'm going to say next, won't be to their liking. Turkish are mostly known for making soap operas, movies that are not of value 😬 (again, hoping Turkish users won't notice my post). I have only seen one or two I think and those have been also by mistake as I had no idea they are Turkish. I only realized when I saw they are of extremely low quality.
I also know one Turkish film director and screenwriter, Ferzan Özpetek, who's works are exceptional by any standards, but he's Turkish-Italian, born in Istambul and moved to Italy at the age of 17.
This series looked ok on Netflix and after watching the trailer, I decided to give it a try, which turned out to be a good idea.
Upon recovering from the betrayal of her first love through the help of her friends and a handsome chef, a successful lawyer, Leyla Taylan, takes over the divorce case of the famous third wife Tuba Tepelioglu, also known as the case of the year. Facing her is Cem Murathan, a serial relationship killer, who got divorced from three different women in 15 years. Leyla will defend her client against this narcissistic man in the most passionate way. However this passion will blow up the whole situation.
It's a light series, entertaining, for those who don't want something serious and complicated. It's not perfect, not flawless, but I liked for several reasons.
First of all, it is far from the American crap you see these days, where the most important thing is for the characters to show off. It's totally different and maybe that's why I liked it.
Although it looks like a love story, it's not just that. It is more than that and the last episodes are full of food for thought, things everyone should think about.
A huge plus is Buddy, the lovely black Labrador, who is so adorable. My heart was aching for poor Buddy to be tossed from one to another, but this is not the main reason why I wanted to write about the series.
As a non Turkish speaker, I needed a language I understand and the most obvious was English. Luckily English audio was available and English subtitle as well, which was not needed though. I can honestly say that the audio was really good. The voices were pleasant and the translation was professional.
Then I thought let's check out the other available languages I understand, to see what those are like. My mother tongue is Hungarian, so I set the language to Hungarian and got the slap on my face at the first sentence. I could barely believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it's just a phase and the rest will be ok, but was wrong. What I got was the lowest slang and the ugliest version of the language and this is why I don't watch movies with Hungarian audio. Then I checked Italian, which was ok, quite enjoyable.
This matter made me think of what determines a movie's success? With Netflix and other online streaming services, most of the movies and series are available to everyone with a decent internet connection. With technology at the level we have it today, subtitle and audio in several languages is not as a big deal as it was years ago. This means any movie or series is available to almost everyone, but not everyone would rate it the same way.
Take my case for example. I chose English from the start and now I'm saying the series was quite good. If I would have chosen Hungarian, would have given up on it after the first 20 minutes because it was literally unwatchable because of the audio.
I'm not a movie fanatic to know all the details and secrets, so I have no idea who's ordering the audio in different languages, or who's supervising the production, but whoever it is, has damaged the series' reputation a lot. This is how you lose viewers and ruin the future of a movie or series.
I am more than disappointed and I'd like to know if you've been in this situation with languages you know. Let me know in a comment. Am I the only one with high standards when it comes to languages?
Oh, I almost forgot. Have you seen the series?
Leyla Taylan (Serenay Sarikaya), lead actor and one of my favorite characters in the series. She's a really colorful character. Another thing I loved about her was her style. Those clothes ... sometimes very unusual, quite extreme, but interesting.
The other character I liked was Feyyaz (Boran Kuzum), or Seyyaz, how Leyla called him. He has an interesting role and plays it well.
I'm curious if the Turks have more good movies and series 😛
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