A Round of Applause

I have never seen a TV-series like this before. Although I have been watching TV for more than 40 years, this is the first time I felt that I have to comment about a TV show.

Berkun Oya's writing is phenomenal. Sometimes, a diologue/monologue or a sentence makes you laugh first, then it makes you think, and question the life and the world. The language and symbols he uses are very poetic at times. Unfortunately, some part of that beauty will be lost in translation. In some scenes, I didn't know how to react such as when little Metin was reciting a poem of Einar Georg Einarsson after witnessing his parents fight.

Although the show's messages about parenthood, childhood, relationships, and existential questions are to some extent universal, the world Berkun Oya created speaks more directly to people who lived their childhood in the 1980s and 1990s or people who were parents in the same time period.

I am hoping that they don't make another season and lose the originality of the show at the expense of commercial success.

I saw the first 3 episodes in one row. It's very beautiful how the series mixes comedy with drama. Mixing inner selves with reality has very novel solutions. It deals with a long period. And it suits it very well.

It can be slow for someone who trained in today's series but the slowness always pays off.

So I will continue to watch. And it's playing with the language. Very psychological. But always breaks it with humor you never know if it is real. It's a dream or just someone imagining it, or some inner voice.

I recommend it to people who like more artistic movies and series. It could have been a 3-hour movie.

"A Strong Applause" is a bold and introspective mini-series that dares to explore the invisible weight carried within families. With poetic visuals and surreal storytelling, it invites the viewer into the quiet chaos of a child's mind, where love, fear, and identity collide. The performances are raw and compelling, especially Aslihan Gürbüz, whose restrained emotions speak louder than words. Though not always easy to watch, the series is a moving reflection on memory, trauma, and the unspoken truths that shape us. It's a rare and thoughtful piece of television that lingers long after it ends..

A magnificent work of Berkun Oya. What scares me the most is whether the translations in other languages will kill the spirit of the work, since the language in which this work was written is Turkish.

Because whether it's New York or Tokyo, Mecca or the Vatican, I want people who consume this work to have the same pleasure I do.

Criticism of daily life? Criticism of society? Political criticism? Self-criticism? Reproach criticism? Criticism of religions that deny God?

Oya held her pen both harshly against everyone and everything and equal to everyone and everything.

The cast and the behind-the-scenes team, who are at least as successful as Berkun Oya, have worked hard to make this work leave a unique taste in people's minds.

This is why I love Netflix ... If Oya had continued making films, he would not have been this free and he would not have been able to reach so many people.

I think the same thing after every Berkun Oya work; I wonder what his next project will be like...

Thank you Berkun... again and again.

I started watching the first episode without any intention of binging it. However, I finished the six episodes in a few sittings. So, it was not a bore for me. However, it might not be everyone's cup of tea, especially if they seek linearity in fiction.

There are laughing moments, there are quasi-substantial moments etc.

I liked the 4 year old kids' take on love and life.

I did not like playing with the fourth wall moments all that much.

Berkun Oya seems to have found more familiar waters to swin in this time though, in terms of socio-economic class familiarity with the characters, events, life-styles etc.

The series is as good as this review: It deserves a chance in the desert of Turkish culture.