The less that is said about the last ten episodes of Sen Cal Kapimi, the better. There is no one thing to blame but, much like phases in life, the narrative did not fit with the flow of a story rooted in strong foundations. Well sketched out characters became unrecognizable, the plots lost their depth of storytelling, and the emotions the audience derived were anything but joyful. The last episode took me more than 4 weeks to finish because I simply did not feel motivated to keep moving forward beyond a few minutes at a time. Much as I have come to enjoy the pretty faces and framing on screen, it is the strength of character and storytelling that draws me in and keeps me there.
I resurface for my reviews with the promised return of Ayse Kutlu Uner at the helm of Sen Cal Kapimi, and I am equally excited that she plans to complete her story in 11 episodes. 11 is Ayse’s magic number. She does an extraordinary job of blending and pacing details that builds the crescendo of a love story, and for both Erkenci Kus and Sen Cal Kapimi rounds 1, she reached the peak in 11 episodes.
With a major time jump and a brand new plot line, I am hopeful she can keep the story varied enough for an engaging and amazing 11 weeks of a love story that has touched our hearts, both on reel and real life.
The Implosion
Without going into too much details of why the last 10 episodes are a closed chapter in my book for Sen Cal Kapimi, I will provide a bulleted list:
1) Serkan stops being Serkan and becomes a wimp of a man, brainwashed by the likes of Selin whom he had ‘never loved’
2) Serkan willingly holds Selin’s hand, hugs and snuggles with her – this broke the camel’s back
3) While he is ‘committed’ and engaged to Selin, he makes googly eyes at Eda with selective flashbacks of moments with her
4) Eda loses her fire in all the confusion and her lingering misery stops being desirable drama
5) Ceren suddenly decides to reach for her punk roots, and descends from being a self-aware young professional to one more crazy, redundant character
6) The departure of Fifi and out of the blue quirkiness from Ceren broke the kizlar in irreparable ways. This is almost as unforgivable as the desecration of Serkan
7) In her bid to win back Serkan, Eda enters a pretend relationship with resident creep Deniz, who goes from a confident and capable childhood friend to a spineless parasite
8) Engin and Piril become poster children for why some adults should never become parents
9) Serkan’s memory loss and recovery from it is shown in the most unbelievable manner, with little to no connection to the pre-Eda Serkan he was supposed to be. After weeks of dragging out the plot with Selin, with no audience insight into Serkan’s thoughts and feelings, he gets hit in the head and everything becomes hunky dory.
10) And as such, we go from a Serkan who looks and acts like this
To one like this.
Enough said.
Post-reconciliation togetherness, as always, lasted less than a millisecond, as we get the scare that Selin is pregnant, which is followed by the most unsatisfactory dismissal of her character. Even though I am very sympathetic towards Bige and the loss of her father during that time, the build up to and the execution of Selin’s confession was so poor, her return to the series and her exit was an absolute disservice to her talent.
Within the same second to last episode of the season, Serkan receives a diagnosis for a brain tumor, and the plot takes another sharp turn into fulfilling a cuckoo bucket list.
It seems the revolving door of writers wanted to try all possible cliched plots, and then some, often with very poor implementation. The exhaustion of the cast & crew became even more obvious as good actors slipped into being themselves or less on screen, as opposed to the character they had worked hard to create.
By the time we come to the last episode of the season, which just seems like a filler episode with little to no substance, the ratings have fallen and many among core fans have moved on. The love for Hande and Kerem still keep many tethered to the series but there is unanimous consent that the #EdSer we fell in love with during Ayse’s early reign was no longer the same.
It saddens me immeasurably that from writing poetic analysis of characters, emotions and a timeless love story, I am reduced to delivering caustic comments dripping in sarcasm. It is like being enamored with and transfixed by the splendor of the Taj Mahal and then, finding myself rooted in my vantage point, watching looters and anarchists destroy the innate beauty of the structure.
Hope Springs Eternal: Season 2
Kerem and Hande finally making their relationship public may or may not be related to a publicity stunt for Sen Cal Kapimi, but it does not and should not matter. They are both hard-working professionals and one hopes they wish to make a space in this world with the strength of their craft.
Setting aside the fan excitement about their real life love story, there have been mixed reactions to the premise for Season 2. A five year time jump, paired with a changed cast and the idea that Serkan and Eda still decide to separate after everything we all endured for a season, have left many fans unhappy. Even though I partially agree, I also stand by my assertions on twitter that the versions of Eda and Serkan we saw towards the end of Season 1 should not be together.
Serkan, with or without amnesia, doesn’t know how to honor his woman, giggling like a schoolboy whenever he gets attention from another woman. Eda has lost touch with herself in her bid to hold on to Serkan and cannot even remember the dreams she had built for herself. A union of two such individuals is a recipe for disaster.
Even though the time jump still assumes major life alterations for Eda due to Serkan’s self-centered choices, it will be refreshing to see them come back with both having a better sense of mutual respect and personal boundaries. They will have had time to break out of the toxic molds they had been shoved into with plot inconsistencies.
With the addition of a hidden child in the mix, the considerations and compromises between the couple will have to be different from round 1. Eda and Serkan ought to have outgrown their incessant bickering. I loved them the most in episodes 8 – 11, while they have their individual awakening to their feelings but neither have the language to express it. Ideally, with the history they have shared and the ways they have diverged, this kind of angst would be a perfect fit to their new stations in life.
We will have to see what is in store for us, and I can only hope that all the fan excitement will be gratified. I trust Ayse to do it justice with her deep understanding of her characters, poetic undertones, symbolism and literary references.
The wait is nearly over. I look forward to finding joy with the fandom once more where we collectively find pleasure in the strengths of character and plot design for a love story well told.
Till we meet again!
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