El sastre

My husband and I have been big fans of Çagatay Ulusoy since his performance in the 2016-2017 Turkish series Içerde (Insider). The Terzi series just solidified for us what an amazing actor he is. He plays Peyami, who is a tailor by trade and is wearing his cards very close to his chest...juggling multiple secrets while trying to help keep his childhood friend-business partner in check. His best friend is Dimitri who is on the verge of his wedding to Esvet and has had Peyami make her wedding dress without ever actually seeing her. Peyami's grandfather passes away and in moves his grandmother with his mentally ill father Mustafa, who he has tried to keep from both the public and his best friend. To help him wrangle work, his best friend, and at least one of his secrets is Suzi, his right hand and office manager. This strong and hardworking character is played by the lovely Ece Sükan.

This is the first time I have seen mental illness portrayed in a Turkish series. First, I want to mention what an amazing job Olgun Simsek is doing portraying the mentally ill character of Mustafa, who had meningitis in his youth and has been kept perpetually young mentally ever since. His son Peyami has been ashamed of his father and asked his grandfather to help hide him away. It is interesting to watch Peyami's struggling with both loving his father and being ashamed. Additionally he has had a secret search going for his biological mother who has not been in his life.

This isn't the only mental illness in the series...Esvet, is adopted by a couple who have a mentally ill son who needs to be taken care of and Dimitri himself seems to suffer from some kind of psychosis that causes violent irrational outbreaks and results in cruel behavior...while at the same time he seems to have an affinity for the innocent animals and child like mentally ill.

My favorite character was Cemre, who was a bit of a surprise in season two. Initially, I thought she was going to be destructive and cause nothing but problems...but she seems to walk this interesting and supportive line that surprised me.

I am writing this review in between the second and third season...and I have to say the third season has a lot to wrap up. Season one ends in a cliffhanger that makes you concerned for a beloved character's life and season two has a beautiful reunion ending.

Really well acted, gorgeous Turkish sets, beautiful musical score, whirling Sufi Dervishes, and a unique story built around family/mental illness make this drama a worth watching series.

My review is based on watching this series in the original Turkish language with English subtitles.

Usually series like this is completely junk. But this one has a perfect camera perspective, It's giving the western type of a picture in some scenes. And some scenes has some perfect Istanbul Aurora like in 1960s and 1970s. The storyline seems very long actually. But they made it very short. That's the only part that I did not like. But in traditional media, we already seeing unnecessary long TV series that makes people want to puke ! The actor choices was perfect. I think "Cagatay Ulusoy" is a perfect candidate for this role. He reminds me "Ayhan Isik", which is a perfect actor from "Yesilcam" era. I give 8 for this series and waiting for the season 2. Thanks to the Netflix for giving us this show. Thanks for the cast too. I love the suits in the movie.

We saw Series 1 on Dutch Netflix in 2023. This was very exciting and very well acted by the protagonists. At the end of the last episode, the expectation was raised that a sequel was coming. We could therefore hopefully look forward to a sequel. At the end of July '23 we could then eagerly look forward to series 2. Especially the role of Mustafa is so good and pure. This story shows you how 2 families deal with success and how they have dealt with parenting in their family where clearly a black sheep has to suffer. The last episode was very pure and emotional where in the end a family is brought back together in good harmony. It was a happy ending and another chapeau for the makers of Yapimci. They have again achieved another great success on their rating.

Who thought that one long affair could be stretched out over 3 series ? I wanted to stop watching after half way through season 1 but like a car crash, you can't stop looking.

I was confused as to whether it was a Muslim or Christian series, but it was unimportant as it turned out.

I didn't warm to the actress playing Esvet. She had one expression which only changed with a few tears. A hint of a smile only happened in the last episode. The script also had her turning up when she shouldn't have - all the time, which was irritating to the story. Pueramy was a good character but throughout, there was lots of "filler" long pauses of "looks' with piano background playing., so I did a lot of fast forwarding.

The actor playing Mustafa was beyond excellent, but he underwent a seismic change in a short time. One minute needing to be spoon fed to wearing a tuxedo and having grow up conversations !

My favourite was Dimitri, the actor had the best part playing a manic with a range of emotions BUT he had the most wonderful wardrobe of spectacles and shaded sunglasses ! By the end I missed his perfect teeth and had serious glasses envy !

I'll admit that I really have to be in a particular type of mood to endure a Netflix Turkiye production, but every once in a while they put out something that leaves an impact quite unique from western productions.

To the seasoned critique, it will come across cheesy and basic, leaving them bored and tuning out a few episodes in. It almost happended to me but as I said, on this occasion I was in a particular mood to not watch with my mind but rather my heart. I think the why 'Dizis' (Turkish serials) appeal to a certain audience is that they apply life lessons most of us can relate to. While undoubetby far more entertaining to watch, I can't relate to Alien Covenant, Interstellar, the Irishman etc.

The Taylor started slow, and during the first few episodes I got distracted and lost focus. My first impression of Dimitri was that of a cheap suit; a loud horny obnoxious guy with a cross tattoo on his forearm. It came across a bit tacky and cringe, so I was immediately put off. The disabled father had zero emotional effect on me; probably the exact opposite of what was intended (too soon for ott emotion!!!). And the straw that broke the camel's back was the Tony Stark vision thing Peyami did before embarking on his next masterpiece. That made me pause, literally!

Then a few weeks later I gave it another go and boy was I glad I did. As mentioned in my title, to me it was a story about flawed humans doing what they do best. Some reviews claimed a bias towards the portrayal of the Greek character(s). I objectively didn't see. For me, it was an objective story that I thought pretty obvious Dimitri was the most likeable character. Fun, charismatic, flawed, broken, yet incredibly loyal and with compassion. I adored Bademci's Rumeli accent, sounding not too different from bilingual (Greek and Turkish speaking) Northern Cypriots.

Perhaps due to my first wife being Greek, and my best friend since the age of 11 being Greek (myself being Turkish), seeing a Greek family and community of Istanbul (my father's home city) really spiked my interest, but that's not the reason I enjoyed it so much. Just binge watched the lot over the weekennd, on the final 2 episodes of season 3...let's see what happens.

If you are going to watch it, watch it with your heart and not your mind. If that makes sense to you, you'll probably enjoy it. Be warned it does start off slow, and it will require a leap of faith.