I was first excited about DEK because it was a true story and not a love story. Sadly, season one was the exact opposite of the true story and a love story was forced fed to viewers. I say force fed as poor directing and inexistent chemistry between the leads made it really cringeworthy. Demet Ozdemir spent the whole season crying while Ibrahim Celikkol just walked around saying... not much...
Season two became a bit more eventful with Medhi finally becoming abusive and Zeynep stronger and opinionated (as per real story). It was all mashed up with numerous side characters, all with a different opinions and odd events clearly created to fill in the 2h+ episodes. Although, more eventful, it felt like many plots were created not for the story but to fix past mistakes made in the script; it's not flowing which is odd given that they have a book the story is supposedly based on?!? Book is gone out the window though!!
It is obvious the writers are trying to convey a message about domestic abuse, but are also stuck between the demands of the public, producers, director and basic dizi rules, AND Covid limitations!!! This all makes for stretched plots but the acting is overall more solid in season 2 despite average director and twisty script.
More entertaining than the show is the online argument between those who loved the couple is season one, mostly Celikkol fans, many of them outside Turkey, who can't accept that the "hero" is bad and those, without bias, who just watch the show for what it is and can identify an abuser and a victim. It creates, at times, many uncomfortable arguments between those who defend an abuser at all cost and even bash/blame the victim because they love the character and actor (Ibrahim) and others, maybe less romantic or at least more mature to recognise an abuser, good looking or not!
So, even if not so great, this show might have further the dialogue about domestic abuse, which is always a good thing.
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