Hot Skull

Hot Skull is a good Turkish dystopia travelling around contemporary social issues pandemic, state pressure, totalitarianism, resistance, individualism, and search for hope. Presented in a gloomy Istanbul atmosphere portrayed in brown, yellow and green colors, this eight part series tells us the story of Murat Siyavus, a linguist and an intellectual who is immune to the a social-medical pandemic, yet prone to another illness related to (his) bodily reactions. Around social and medical issues, Hot Skull presents a dark future, where the cities are wound round with walls and law enforcement forces. It is a good series since it is a dystopia that is not common in Turkish popular culture and it presents contemporary social-medical issues with good visuals, and credible storytelling. The acting of Osman Sonant, Sevket Coruh, Haluk Bilginer and especially Tilbe Saran are notably good, the rest is unfortunately below average. However, since it is within the boundaries of popular culture (yes Netflix) the series limits itself and almost always stops where it can say something more, and become critical and notable.

"Hot Skull" is definitely better than I expected. It's far from perfect of course, but still quite a solid sci-fi from Turkey. I would not mind a bit more "sci" in it, they did not really go much into the explanation of jabbering throughout the series.

I was disappointed in the last episode, though. It felt rushed, and not so much in the story department, so much as in production. It felt as if actors have lost their edge and their performance got worse for no apparent reason. Although, I was watching it with English dub, so maybe it was the dub problem, and not the actors.

Nevertheless, I would not mind seeing a second season.

Starting off with captivating protagonist and promising story that delivers to some extend but not all. Epidemic, societal decline and government control are main themes. Beautifully shot with grim city scapes. Reasonable realistic character development but it crumbles a little at the 5/6 episode mark where the story takes detours. The biggest fail and why it is not high 8s for this review is the lack of explanation around this epidemic, the mortality and symptoms for example. Without this, it is difficult to feel threat or urgency which also sends other storylines a drift. It feels like the story is searching although the cinematography is excellent.

I was reminded of Pontypool and various story plots of Charles Stross and Greg Bear regarding mental virus ideas.

It was a nice change of pace from Zombies and the actors all looked "real".

A pleasant edition was no sex instead of love character plotting.

And older people were actually depicted as stars and not simply incompetent bystanders as one finds in most US productions.

I'm always surprised at the respect and wide characterization foreign media allows older adult roles. There is no pandering to the youth market or excessive gore and sexuality.

Either way everyone should watch and create their own opinions instead of following someone else's.

That includes mine.

It was a very successful production for Türkiye, especially in the science-fiction genre.

The actors and script are pretty good.

We should all make useful comments to pave the way for such quality productions.

The cooperation between Neftlix and Türkiye will become stronger day by day.

It was a successful production about a mass epidemic that started in Turkey and what would happen next.

While I am used to seeing similar original science-fiction works as a work done by different countries, I was very happy that Türkiye signed such an original work.

I would like to humbly invite those who want to watch this series to watch this successful series without giving spoilers.

All my best wishes, Enjoy watching!