Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Aşk-ı Derun

Photo credit:  tims.tv  

Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Aşk-ı Derun is the Turkish TV show that I have watched years later after it was extremely popular. It is 139 episodes with each episode being about 2 hours (without commercials). Yes I have invested a lot of time to it and more often than not, it paid off big time.

This post should be written in Turkish but since all the Turks already know about it I decided to put it in English.

I didn't watch it at the time for a few reasons. The first is that I don't like the main lead. This man who is a very good actor actually, for some reason never had my sympathy and I have stayed away from everything the did (and all his shows were hits even when he is the bad guy). The next is that I didn't believe there would be a good production of a period drama in Turkey. And when I realised that they actually pulled it off, it was too late to jump the vagon. It took all night to watch it with commercials and I felt distant. The show also brought out the nationalist tendencies in everyone (and us Turks are very much susceptible to delusions of grandeur)

However this Ramadan the days were long and I love to sleep but I needed to be awake and eat and drink so I thought I'd give this a try to keep me awake. I love period dramas and I knew that it is at least a decent production.

Of course I was hooked by the second episode.

Firstly this is not a factual representation of that time (the most glorious in Ottoman history). The facts only inspire the story, the decor, the costumes and the characters. That was a great way to approach it and it was also a good idea to make the focus on the "deep love" (aşk-ı derun in the title) between the Sultan and his concubine.

This is the story of one of the strongest rulers in Ottoman history, Süleyman the Magnificient and one of the strongest female sultans in Ottoman history, Hürrem, his wife and their various children and their fight for the throne.

I loved the actors, the screen play and cried like a baby when a most beloved character (in real life history and in the show) is murdered. And keep in mind that this show has a body count similar to GoT. The last episodes were a bit dragged with a lot of scenes just Suleyman staring into nothing with music in the background but since I was already hooked, I didn't mind and never fast forwarded once.

Highly recommended if you have time to invest in it.