Reviews

It's obvious that Börü 2039 made professionally, but mentally it's amateur. Of course this fact comes with pros and cons.

First of all, director is giving his best...Actually, "best" isn't the correct word. More like he is giving all of his life experience.

Because of this watching Börü 2039 is extremely intense. You are always in a dialogue with the director between the lines. In one scene he says "Read that book, you will see it's benefits" and on another "Do you see how she talks? A president should be like that.". In short, it's not an entertainment product (And this is a big problem.).

This "dialogue intensity" continues for 1 hour.

You will use pause button a lot.

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This mentality is obviously wrong for filmmaking, but ironically it's also exactly what Turkish industry needs. Almost all the dramas using a certain formula in Turkey. Most of the times I'm able to tell scenario just looking by a short scene. They are reminding me mainstream AAA video games, looking big and fancy, but empty inside.

Börü 2039 is vice versa. It's %100 a text-based game with good story.

It needs a better teaser, catchy soundtracks and more screentime to explain what is going on... I'm saying Börü 2039 is strong at the core; if you spend your time for it, it's rewarding you. You begin to see real life gunfight tactics, Asimov books and Dune references (director says "begin from the classics, Turkish youth!"), notrino particles to explain time machines etc.

Lastly: Some scenes are superb, some scenes are not. Because the staff is just trying to do their best, there is no standard. You can see this as a plus ("Amateur spirit, boy!") or a minus (Not professional, dude.") , it's up to you.

A suggestion: Find a Turkish sci-fi nerd, watch this with the nerd or ask him questions after watching alone. Probably he will tell interesting facts.

7/10

You might want to follow Alper Çaglar. He is the first Turkish director trying to do a sci-fi. Imagine what we'll be watching 10 years from now if the world's second largest TV country learns to do sci-fi. (;

A little 5.06.2021 edit: What a final episode! It ended so nice compared to other series! Good job!

I think we all know common aspects of Turkish dramas after all this years. Long episodes (about 2 hours), intrigue, long.and boring glances, a love triangle (whatever the genre is, they put a triangle.), dumb characters. If it's a mafia series, you will see gun fights with zero reload and cities without police...If it's a sci-fi...Joke. There is no such a thing like sci-fi Turkish series. Hahah.

In summary there is no story and plot quality even if it is good acting and good music.

Well, Payitaht still lacks at characters (i have no words against 2nd Abdulhamid he is just amazing) and sometimes naturalness, but you see the effort and quality this time.

There are reasons for this: 1. Turks are extremely experienced in intrigue. Plus we already know that the 2nd Abdulhamid's period was Ottoman's last period. Let alone conquering, Abdulhamid can't even trust the man standing next to him.

In other words, the intrigue experience that is normally used in love series, this time is used for traitors and the sultan. Result: We are seeing "mind games" in a Turkish series, for the first time.

2. The producer is TRT (Turkish Radio Television). Official channel of the state! Means they have a big budget.

3. They are using real locations and clothes. Ottomans ruled from Dolmabahce Palace, between 1856 - 1918, as you can see in the series :)

4. This series is made by ES Film (ES Movie). Before Abdulhamid, they had already made a similar Ottoman detective series called Filinta. Which means, they are experienced in making historical series too.

5. ES Movie has similar mentality with Abdülhamid. So, we are seeing "a Great Caliphate, not Red Sultan" as the description said. We are seeing the real Abdulhamid who trying to save his country with Islamic propaganda, not just random tyrant who cencors everything and kills everyone in the Balkans, lol.

6. Strongest point of this series is SULTAN, AND HIS LECTURES. His emotions, his speeches. Everyone in the world need to watch his scenes at least once.

I gave 8/10. -1 point is coming from long screentime. It's causing boredom and quality drop sometimes.

Other -1 coming due to its broadcast on state television. State TV: They can't go +18. They can't swear. They can't show alcohol, drug or gore scenes or they have to keep in minimal. That's why i said it lack in naturalness a little bit.

Overall, probably in top 10 Turkish series, fairly good.

What did i mean? 1. The movie isn't dramatized too much. Generally movie shows what's happening without effects. 2. The movie is very royal to real events. 3. Unlike most of the movie, 'bad guys' are not dumb, and they are not doing childish mistakes. 4. Acting is phenomenal.

Of course, the movie is not perfect: 1. Movie is way too nationalist. As the other reviewer said, this could be a successful global movie. But...This movie is only for us, Turks. However, the movie is not boring like Mountain 2- so i'm still recommending this. 2. The story goes too shallow, too superficial sometimes. More technical dialogues would be very good. 3. It's not exciting as you think. Unexpectedly, it's like a biography documentary.

Notes: -"People's Republic of Bulgaria", that's how movie introduces Bulgaria. The directors sensitivity deserves an applause. -I oftenly used Google Translate for this review, sorry for the weird english :D.