Binbir Gece

I agree with the person who posted the other comment. If I knew that Turk tv shows were called soap operas I wouldn't have watched just because in my world, a soap opera was a long drawn out adult themed story line that goes on endlessly (like Yemin with a continuous open narrative).

The first show I watched was Behzat C, and its story arc was so complex and intricate that I knew that the screenwriters were writing to an audience who could hold a mystery in their thoughts for many episodes and that it had resolution and wasn't open ended. Then someone from Turkiye called it a dizi, and said they didn't watch soap operas. I was shocked..how could this be a soap opera.

I have come to accept that the word has a different meaning. I looked it up. It said: "Turkish television series (Turkish: Türk dizileri)". I now believe that the dizi is simply a tv series unlike a movie, and has "soap" elements of sentimentality and emotion, and melodrama because a story has to have peaks and conflict and resolution but of course a good tv series will have that. It is true some people don't watch tv shows period. That is what they meant when the Turk friend said that to me, using what they thought was a universally understood concept of what a soap opera was. It threw me.

Also, I was told that the US story arc has less complexity than other countries. I talked to a Malaysian screenwriter teacher. She said the US writing style is in the 101 class, and the Turk style is in a more complex writing class.

Simply said, the word dizi does not have the same connotation as our English soap opera. ("The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers". ~wiki description) 1001 Nights was a great show, call it a dizi or a tv show, it was well worth the time to watch it. And the music...wow!

The thing is... i've seen at first just an episode to understand why everybody thinks it's such a good s.o.. After that i just started watching episode with episode and getting mad when missing one of them.

The story is very good...nice emotional problems and normal financial and social issues.The characters are well enough chosen and their acting is very good.

The bad things are : kind of strange personality of characters and if you don't understand turkey ,

you really need subtitles.

If you just feel the need to see a soap opera , this is a very interesting and reality-type of soap opera. Top of it's genre.

And no wonder - they apparently actually fell in love during the filming. Plot is razor thin and stretched to unbelievable lengths. But you keep watching because of the fiery chemistry between the leads. Grandparents were great, kids were awesome (especially Kaan). Bennu and Kerem were awesome too. Some of the story extensions were totally unnecessary - Burak, what ever happened to Mihirban, Ahu etc. But I guess they had to fill in 80 episodes. Good escapist soap in these troubled times.

1001 Nights is a wonderful TV show! Oh yes, there was the everyday living and loving, but more than anything it was wonderful to watch a show that show people of character working through their everyday lives with respect. There is so little of that in North America on TV, in entertainment, on FB. A show that I could watch with my fourteen year old daughter and help her understand decisions people make in life and how it affects them. We cancelled TV six years ago. I do not mind reading sub-titles.

Just recently viewed this on Netflix, I loved it and I love Turkish series. I am disappointed though that we only got season 1 with English subs, waiting and hope to get season 2 and 3 on netflix. I think Turkish soaps are really aimed at women. I loved keyitt and sura, which was on netflix also. I could watch these all the time. so much better than American and English soaps.