Karadayi

I loved this series. I don't speak Turkish, but I found a way to see it through all three seasons.

First, I loved the actors. All the principal actors were fantastic. The Kara family, Feride and her mother, the friends from the neighborhood, the other love interests, were all very believable. A few of the bad guys were over the top, but I guess the global audience loves seeing the bad boys being bad. Targut was kind of funny when he had his tantrums.

I thought the plot was well developed and had lots of interesting twists. I enjoyed the backstories of all the characters. I fell in love with the Kara family, especially the parents, with their love, strength, courage and poetic embrace of life.

The direction was good. The actors worked together seamlessly. All that emotion was pulled out of everyone. There were many beautiful romantic scenes. The director did not depend on cheap tricks, like showing the same events over and over, or holding onto facial expressions too long. The settings were interesting.

I binge watched season 1 subtitled in English on Netflix. The rich voices of the actors made it easier to read along and know what was going on. After season 1, I looked around YouTube for more English, but

just found a few scenes.

Then I found Resumen HD in Spanish. This became the Feride and Mahir show because they cut most of the other scenes that had other actors, keeping just enough to keep the plot together. There were things that I never did understand, like why Mahir's brother had a sudden change of opinion, but I still enjoyed watching the story to the end.

Karadayi is definitely the best series i've ever seen. I've never seen anything like that!! It's so smart and exciting and every episode was full of action and excitement since episode 1 till episode 115. I would like to thank the whole cast for this amazing show i'm so grateful i watched it and i wanna thank them for the hard work and everything else. I never regretted watching this show and i would like to tell everyone else to watch it because it's worth it. Also it's almost unbelievable how things changed from episode 1 till episode 115. And i loved the new characters in season 3 and btw season 3 was the best, everything was clear and everyone is working together to give this amazing result, all the seasons are remarkable but season 3 is just something else, i'm so proud of the cast and i'm thankful.

The first time I started Karadayi was three years ago, I watch two episodes on YouTube and stopped because I thought it was too slow... then three years later, it showed up on my Netflix recommendations. I was at a different place in my life and I started watching it again.. and lo and behold, I couldn't stop! I binge watched the 93 episodes that were on Netflix in two months (because I work for a living).. and I was left wanting more! I needed to see how it ended. So I looked and looked till I was able to find Seasons 2 and 3 on another source. I loved how the series took time to develop the characters, and how those characters changed throughout the series. Some even transformed from annoying to stellar. What I realized is that by the end of the series, I knew each and every character so well that I could anticipate their next move. And I knew the streets of Mahir's neighborhood.. where the bakery was, where the Kara shoe shop was, where the indoor bazaar was and most of all, I looked forward to Mahir and Feride's rendezvouz in the beautiful and quaint Cay Bahcese. I also loved how characters weren't just good or evil.. they were given context.. you knew why each character was the way they were. And when one of them overcame a difficult life choice, or came to a realization, you cheered. The story starts as a murder.. Mahir Kara's father, a shoemaker in Istanbul, is framed for a murder and Mahir goes undercover as a law clerk on his father's case to prove his father innocent. While undercover he falls in love with the Judge in charge of his father's case. But as the series progresses, you see that its more than just a murder.. that the frameup is a result of corruption in the system.. and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Along the way, over the course of the 3 plus years that is the timeframe of the series, you meet the Kara family. You go through their trials and tribulations as they struggle to prove their father's innocence and you witness a love story unlike any you have ever seen. Every woman should be loved the way Mahir loves Feride, and every man should be loved the way Feride loves Mahir. Their love is mature, self sacrificing and has withstood the test of time and tragedy. Only the first season of the series focuses on the murder trial, but the other two seasons bear out the fruits of the investigation that Mahir along Feride have conducted along the way. Quotes like "As long as the sun comes up, and we open our eyes, we hold on to hope." may seem cliche, but you will remember their true meaning as you watch the tribulations of the Kara family.. And new quotes like "If I don't burn myself, if you don't burn yourself, if we don't burn ourselves, how can there be light in the darkness?" will forever be ingrained in your memory as you face the notion of righteousness vs power in your every day life. I can honestly say that Karadayi gave me a whole new perspective on life, family and justice. I highly recommend it.

Suffering through this series.

Love love everything about this drama but at season 2, I'm starting to really suffer through the plot.

I love the addition of a new character but it's not enough to push the narrative forward.

I'm left with the feeling that the story is going nowhere and the constant repeating of plots (back and forth of the main couple, in and out of jail, etc) is exhausting.

Reluctantly taking a break.

Reluctantly because it's still an amazing cast and script but right now I can't deal with the repetition. At this point, I don't know what they could have done differently to push the story forward.

Reading some of the others' comments confirms for me that unfortunately world-wide audiences of a particular country's screen industry forget to drop their own cultural spectacles for another pair for the vastly different sensibility that is conveyed - here Turkey. Also to realise that these dizi are a unique format. An English speaking 'westerner' just doesn't 'get it' always. Many 'southern-Europe-to-middle-eastern' ways of thinking are vastly different. The under-pinning of secular Islam is very enlightening, as fans who view a lot of this genre can attest; so much of that culture relates so well to the best life values. (Yet often there is no overt 'religiousness', bar the plain rituals of funeral and wedding.) It's so good to get a feel for all of these things. Marshall-ah! The family table; the emphasis on healthy eating, the daily courtesies, the patterns expected in the 'coupling' department, the tactile affection commonplace between siblings and family members,

Story-telling is so embedded, poetry is generally known and treasured and metaphor and allegory are everywhere in this part of the world, and in Karadayi. In my country anyone who drew attention to themselves gently to launch into an often poetic story, and to have the company s/he's with (usually his family) attentively loving it would be an oddity. The Persian, Sufi, Aramaic, Turkish, Arab and all the 'stahns' have a huge store of narrative. Long-windedness can be a put-down summation. We have to start by knowing that these TV dizi are not 'soaps' - they are tele-novellas with 2 or 3 seasons separated by and summer breaks. For impatient Anglo-celtics they can be too drawn out, but for me as someone who just isn't held by today's trends Sci-fi, or CGi, GOT, Block-busters or fantasy, there is gold to be found in Turkish drama. The ease of incorporating passion, sensory delight, sweet verbal exchanges perfectly expressed in ease of owning emotion and poetic sweetness. The de-sensitised "West' calls these attributes cheesy, cliche - sadly.

The technical expertise in Karadayi is to die for, settings, location always real (not parked out like the US/UK ones can be) - costumes perfect etc. Karadayi just won me over right at the start; amazing to see a 1970s setting in perfect detail; dial telephones, woolen overcoats, flared pants, snall family shops, tweed women's professional suits, non-skyhigh heels, American imported cars. I couldn't fault any of these aspects. And I'm surprised that no other comment has rejoiced in this. (No cellphones interrupting every 5 minutes as they do in the large number of contemporary urban popular dizi!).

There seems to an endless supply of gorgeous looking people in the cast but also the ordinary and unprepossessing. Kenan Irmilioglu is of charismatic looks, is tall and imposing with his co-star Bergutor Kolar a tall actor also, a perfect foil for her co-lead. Mahir is too noble by far perhaps, given as he is, to fiery anger often causing trouble. Cetin Tekendor is a veteran 'older person' with a 'centering' role in the story. But all the cast performs expertly. Netflix often start a sub-titled series off, but due to contract issues will often show only the 1st Season. The frustrated viewer must search for various server Groups ('Turkish Dramas with English subtitles' is a starting Google) which provide sub-titled versions which usually require a donation.

I give this series high praise - although I may find viewing all episodes for the full show's length a challenge as always there seems to be a too dense middle stage with more sub-plots and additional characters, adding twists and turns. But Karadayi has so much going for it it should be worth going the full distance.