Muhtesem Yüzyil: Kösem

This was the first Turkish series I've watched and from thereon I've been watching mostly Turkish movies or series. This series focuses on Kosem who originally was known as Anastasia. She was brought into the palace as a slave and gifted to Sultan Ahmed. She fell in love with the Sultan and the series beautifully tells of her journey as a young innocent girl who became a powerful influence on Ottoman politics for half a century acting as a wife, mother and grandmother of different reigning Sultans. It's a fictional historical drama with an interesting script, good cinematography, grand costume and great acting. 3 different character acted as Kosem and all of them did a beautiful job. Lots of palace intrigue, a good depiction of a Sultan's harem, murder, politics, romance and jealousy. Never a dull moment.

Perfect casting, perfect acting, perfect ambience One of the finest series I've watched ever!

Kosem! Love for Power v/s Power of Love.

FANTASTIC ACTING, I'd give 10/10 in terms of acting performance. The cast and acting is solid throughout the series. BRAVO. Music 10/10. CGI/Effects 3/10 - but that's OK, it didn't really affect or distract from the actual storyline. Storyline/script 7/10 - it's really a game of thrones, betrayal, power plays. It was basically 60 episodes at 2-2.5 hours per episode. What it lacks: grandiose scenes of the Ottoman Empire's power and history to make it look more epic. What brought me to the show was a random picture of Beren Saat from a random scene of the show, so it intrigued me to watch it. Took me a month to finish the entire show in English subtitles, so overall I would rate it as 8 stars. My favorite characters in terms of acting performances where Kosem (By Anastasia, Beren, Nurgul), Safiye, Murad, Ibrahim. Whoever did the casting should be given a raise!

Muhtesem Yuzyil:Kosem was a good show, Beren Saat's acting was amazing. It was well-shot, with interesting shots taken. The music was beautiful and suited the scenes very well. However, I would have to say that it had some plot- holes like Safiye Sultan would always make a evil comeback at Kosem, this sometimes got boring!

Safiye Sultan continuously refers herself as a third person and calls herself in plural, namely as "BIZ". In Christianity "Popes" refers themselves in plural, referring to the "Trinity" (God, Holly ghost and Christ). Neither in Osmanli, Turkish nor Muslim languages there is a place for such a misinformed deviation. I suggest to stop this non- nonsensical pretension. Kosem Sultan series is true history and that makes it very believable and authentic. I have to make one more comment about the series; it is too slow. I wait impatiently to watch it every Thursday, however even myself sometimes I lose my focus because too long conversations and lack of action. Ergun Tok (erguntok@msn.com)