Dünya Güzellerim

In my blogs, I usually criticise the RTUK (Radio and Television Supreme Council of Turkey) in terms of it’s discriminatory and partisan attitude and lack of providing the freedom of press and expression on media. But in recent days, it decided something long awaited for all participants of Turkish media. RTUK imposed Show TV’s reality show “Dünya Güzellerim” (My Outstanding Beauties) a huge fine for the dialogues that are normally have acceptance in reality tv but reached an intolerable level of annoying the audiences due to humiliation, belittlement and offensiveness. 

For a while, Turkish Reality TV has been pushing the humanistic limits of society. The audiences always complain about that the content it has just includes jeering, insulting and scorning in order to amuse watchers and be watched. However while these shows moving in this way, they empty the meanings of social norms. Concern on this point is not to be conservative about the norms, but the situation came a state of attacking love, etiquette, privacy, personality and these kind of human values. Questioning, revisioning, rethinking and even standing against these values is meaningful for the society and further it’s one of the primary purpose of media, however just making laugh about them doesn’t give one step forward to us in any area. 

I mentioned “Dünya Güzellerim” not just for a prologue, it has a difference from other current shows. The show publishes the journey of Bülent Ersoy, Banu Alkan, Safiye Soyman and Burcu Esmersoy at the voyage in South Asia. It contains a lot of scripted scenes such as snakebite, car crash and monkey purge snatch to show’s celebrities and of course lots of quarrels, as a reality show. But recently the show overstepped more. Before saying what happened, I’d like to introduce the celebrities of the show and their importance for Turkish television and music history. Bülent Ersoy, in other words the “Diva”, is known as one of the greatest singers of Turkish music, indisputably. In other side, Turkish actress and singer Banu Alkan is described as an 80s pop culture icon of Turkey. These two character are pillars of Turkish popular culture. But in the show, these pillars are wracked recently by placing them as two unmannerly women, always fighting with each other and don't hesitate to be cheekily about their professional and private life, financial situation and cultural background. Finally the show disinclined the audiences with that much of blasting away of celebrities to each other, and is penalised by RTUK. 

Up to now, the reality shows have examined and drawed fire because of playing with our current meanings, values and norms. However, with “Dünya Güzellerim”, they started to diminish our cultural icons too. Compromising on these issues to entertain, may carry us a situation we will rue.

Some videos from the show

The Future of Turkish Series, Will They Be Like Soap Operas?

It is a fact that Turkish series have a worldwide success and this led me to think about the success of soap operas in Turkey 10-15 years ago. It is interesting that how soap operas come to a sudden end from being the biggest hits of the daytime. I started thinking about the underlying reasons of this and the possibility of the unexpected decrease of Turkish series at the global market.

It makes sense when a product is not doing well and removed, but in this case it is the end of a genre, not a product. So, I wonder if this change depends on the audience habits or is it because of the existence of the better products.

I remember that we were watching Vahşi Güzel (Muñeca Brava) together with my friends from primary school when we are back home. Everyone was a big fan of Natalia Oreiro and Facundo Arana, and it was the main topic of the young generation at that time. Then, in 5 years there was no interest at all to the soap operas and channels started to remove them from their programming schedule. Instead, they replaced soap operas with reality shows -mainly the ones that depend on women- and since then channels have these reality shows on their schedule.

On the other hand, Turkish series are really successful right now. In LATAM, Middle and East Europe, Asia and CIS countries, there are millions of fans that are waiting for the new episodes to see their favorite actor. But I think that the success of Turkish series may come to an end because of so many reasons. First, if the broadcasters realize a change in the audience habits that starts with a huge interest to another genre, they can replace and prefer the other one because they are paying so much money on Turkish Dramas. Secondly, because of the restrictions on the content of the Turkish dramas, the producers are not able to use scenes with alcohol or sexual intimacy. They also don’t mention any political situations because they don’t want to take risks by being closer to a political standing. I think, in the future this will lead them to produce monotypic love stories in which poor girl and rich guy cannot come together because of the familial and economical obstacles. As a result of these monotypic products, dramas may lose their international audience because it is surely beyond doubt that they will get boring.

I know that there is a big difference between the production values of Turkish products and the rest, but if the rapid increase of the production qualities that happened in Turkey happens in other countries, this will only be a detail.

The Difference Between Mainstream TV and Online Platforms

I did not have a TV set until recently and I started to use online platforms, I am going to mention only legal ones here, like Netflix and BluTV. And I started to notice the difference between the shows that are produced for TV and the ones for the platforms.

The most important difference that I observed is with the storylines. For example, I have been watching Supernatural on CW, at least for 8 seasons. (On 12th season now.) Every season the brothers are on a different mission to save the world from different evils. But in every 4 or 5 weeks we get an episode unrelated to the main storyline or main villain. They would just go to another place and bust another ghost or vampire. On the other hand, in 2016 Hulu created a mini series called "11.22.63" which was about a person travels in time to save President Kennedy from assassination. Unlike Supernatural, in 11.22.63 we watch the parts of one story for the whole series.

I think the second important difference is the ability of the platform to accurately measure the audience. For example, after I watch a movie or series in Netflix it gives me suggestions about what to watch next since I liked the previous one. Moreover, the platforms also show the popularity of the current content so we are able to choose according to these suggestions.

Of course, for me the most important difference between two is the issue with commercials. While I am using a paid service of an online platform I do not have to go through minutes of commercial break or I do not have to wait for the commercials to stop watching. In that way only platforms spend way less time than mainstream broadcast. And, I do not want to watch same commercial for the 10th time every 30 minutes. It is important to note that, we also usually pay for the mainstream TV channels to get a better reception or quality.

Lastly, especially for Turkey we can access uncensored content by using online platforms. There are issues that the TV channels cannot cover, or they must censor the language or even visuals of alcohol or smoking. For example, last night there was a Turkish movie in one of the channels but it was not possible to understand the dialogues because most of the words were censored. However, if I go and watch the same movie from Netflix I would probably be able to understand the content because I would be hearing everything. Or when I watch foreign content, Game of Thrones for instance, from Turkish television I would not see some of the scenes because of censorship.

So, I prefer to use online platforms because they give me more freedom with time and place and also the shows are easier to follow. In addition, I can get most of the content I am watching.

Youth of Turkey and Online TV

Netflix Turkey, Puhu TV, Blu TV and even the short series on YouTube.. Traditional Turkish TV has lost the young generations' attention  to these online platforms for alternative TV shows for a wihe ago. There are many reasons for this. 

First of all, turkish series are so exhausting to watch because of the income from the ads. Turkish youth is very much familiar with the conception of TV shows in America, because of the serious extent of internet usage. They get all they want from an American show that is at most an hour long, wheress Turkish shows on TV can last up to four hours, so that's for sure exhausting. 

Secondly, the restrictions that are arranged by the government strangle the producers and the writers for the traditional Turkish TV. TV shows are supposed to reflect the audience's lives, on the streets, they see violence, they hear cursings, they have intimate moments with their dates or even the alcohol and when they watch TV, they ser none of this. So, the restrictions on TV made the characters of TV shows unrelatable and unrealistic for the Turkish youth.

Furhermore, in my opinion, there is a huge gap between the youth and the elders. The TV shows that we watch say something about us or in other words, exposes something in us. Because of the different world views of this different generations, watching TV in a living room is not a comfortable act for a young turkish person who is in conflict with his or her family in many aspects. Though, online TV has privacy and it's somehow exclusive to the owner of the device or at least to his or her consent. 

Last but not least, online TV doesn't have a limiting timing for the shows, you don't need to go back to home when your favorite TV show's new episode is aired, you can watch it whenevef you want. Even you can pause it at the half and watch the other half when domething emergenr happens that obliges you to leave the house. It's also non dependent on the place you watch, you can watch it at home, subway or anywhere you want.

In conclusion, I think the online TV in Turkey will grow in the market share more and more in further or the traditional TV will reform itself and be able to compete with it, at least for yhe young generations.

The Presence of TV in Shows About Past Times

When we talk about the importance of TV in older times (namely, here, the 70's and prior) we are able to comprehend to an extent, but are we really able to grasp the importance of television in the lives of people back then?

Shows such as "That 70s Show" and "F is For Family" are set in the 1970's United States, and they not only provide good comedy, they also bring into view the social aspects, and problems of daily life.

One element that is prominent in these shows (which is still present in some shows today) is the importance of a television set in the house, and the notion of TV itself.

In the latter show that I mentioned, which is an animated series, the main character is a father of 3, who works in a meager job and has a lot of dull and frustrating responsibilities, whose purest pleasure, and best way of letting off some steam is coming home at the end of the day, cracking open a beer, and watching TV.
During the course of the show, he buys a color TV set that he can barely afford (to compete with his neighbor and to host a football party), acts like it is the end of the world when his son breaks the TV...
In an episode he screams at the TV and throws an empty beer can at it, and claims it's his way of relaxing.
There's also a fictional TV show within the show that is the most popular thing on said TV. He places this show over all his other responsibilities, and is reluctant to miss it even in the expense of missing important social obligations.

"That 70s Show" is does not have a fictional realm of TV and thus it reflects the entertainment medium of the time accurately. TV playing a big role in all the characters' lives, and their references to each other being often about 1970's television programming, one can visually get a glimpse of the importance of TV at those times.
In an episode where the television set is demolished by boys being boys with a bowling ball, the father states his desire that the TV be replaced by a much bigger and superior one , with the top qualities of a television in the 70s, with such passion that one emphasizes with the mindset of older times.
They watch reruns, get latest technology (such as Betamax),, and the show really reflects the experience of wathicng television in the 70s, especially with the presence of an incredibly large TV remote bith gigantic, but few, buttons.
The show also has scenes, in which the characters - to explain something - are set in the clothes of, and talk like the TV content that they're parodying. These include a wide range, from 1950's social responsibility ads to shows of that era. The scenes are made masterfully, as the costumes, diction, and even the camera and visual styles are perfectly on point, allowing modern viewers a very true glimpse into now begotten forms of visual content.

All in all, I feel these shows give a very realistic depiction of those times, and just how prominent TV was in the lives of humans back then, and being in an entertaining visual form, I feel it works much better than historic articles referring to those times.
When I watch these show with my parents, I can see the nostalgia in their eyes.

from manhood to warrior character

Söz - Star Tv

Yesterday, i read the article about Turkish dizi and its relationship with the actual politics. Writer is a student of the Ankara University and he mention that the dizis ''Savaşcı'' (warrior)in Fox, ''Söz'' in Star Tv, and ''İsimsiz'' Kanald. Their issues are state- manhood- militarism which are produce the narration about the state is the most blessed thing, in a way. Also, the perception of manhood is produced again again. It makes a definition that manhood is equal to the warrior man, rougly.

İsimsizler- Kanal D

However, it is also interesting to think with the state attitude towards the Kurds. According to writer Another issue is that these series have been circulated before the referendum. It is not surprising that these series have gained a serious rating in the ongoing political atmosphere of anti-Kurdish politics.

Additionally, many recent cases have been reported; Countries that have acquired post-colonial politics have put cinema and television channels at an important point to build the legitimacy of colonial policies. There are many examples of this in history. For example, in the US; Vietnam, Afghanistan and so on. Rambo-type films were put on a market to postpone human rights abuses following the occupations or to keep them from being a subject of debate. 

What a coincidence?

Tv show portrays the family on how it should be?

Love for Rent is a classic TV show in the genre of romantic comedy which stars Elçin
Sangu as “Defne”, Barış Arduç as “Ömer”, Salih Bademci as “Sinan”, Nergis Kumbasar as
“Neriman”, Levent Ülgen as “Necmi” and Onur Büyüktopçu as “Koray”. two different kinds of family types can be seen on this show.

A traditional family model which is Defne’s family, and a modern and wealthy family model which is Ömer’s

family. According to the results of the my observation , several people pointed

out that Defne’s family is in fact resembling a traditional family, whereas the other respondants

stated that the traditional family was put in the show only to make the modern family more

recognizable. Those people who said that it was not very much like a traditional family

pointed out the economical state of the family as a result of their thinking. And some people

thought that the show depicts the modern family model better and it does not reflect traditional

one as good as the modern becuase traditional families are economically weaker that how they

portrayed it on the show.

These comments from the people of the fan of the show that audience seperates the

traditional family from the modern one in their mind acoording to the financial state of the family

and being modern in the way that people dress. This shows us that the traditional family gets out

of the real norms of being a traditional family and adds some elements into that.

The comments who considered themselves more connected to the traditional family

model reflected their thoughts on how they felt the family relationships and connections were

portrayed on the show, and how correct was these portayals. The comment of K. G. is

related to this issue.

The traditional families in the real world have much more connections than the modern

families in a broad sense. The range of the family members is much more extended from the

grandparents’ relatives to the grand children. Thus, this wide range of close people brings

intimacy and powerful emotional bonds between members of the family. There are always some

powerful figures, like a grandfather or the father itself, whose words are the final choice when

there is something to decide on concerning the whole family. Defne’s family on the show fits this

traditional family structure and it is similar in many ways. First of all, the powerful figure in

Defne’s family is her grandmother, who rejects the values that come with a modern family

structure. Also, the close and intimate neighbor relationships on the show matches with the real

world neighbor relationships.

Considering this comment and the other comments that were very much like this one, it is

possible to surmise that the absense of such relationships and the deficits on such relationshps in

the society draw people to watch this kind of tv shows that portrays the traditional family. In a

way, the tv show portrays the family on how it should be, and that attracts people’s attentions

who have similar values of the family that is being portrayed, but not enough. The soap opera

shows us a certain type of family life and structure.

Conservatism and Reality TV

After talking about the rise of reality TV in class today, I was intrigued by the connection between the rise of the trend and conservatism. I know some about how we perceive conservatism different here than they do in the US. Still, on principle it seems to me that they are two irreconcilable concepts and the situation in Turkey proves it. Here, with the rise of conservatism reality TV shows took a big hit. They either disappeared completely or completely changed form and tone. They went undercover, they went incognito. They are still reality shows that are up in everybody’s business but the way they are framed make them more socially acceptable. After all they still fulfill the primitive need for voyeurism.  For example, ‘’Yetenek Sizsiniz’’ has been a big hit for a good couple of years now. But it is ethically acceptable because people display a variety of ‘’skills’’ if you can call them that.

We used to have Big Brother. As it is in anywhere in the world, people would kiss in half visible corners, try to snuggle in bed together when lights go off and la di da… It would be headline news the next day! As conservatism became the trending view people started to question the ethical aspects of these shows from a religious point of view and voices were raised. Slowly the shows became extinct.  Now we straight up have match making programs that raise less eye brows- weirdly enough if you ask me.

Upon realizing this reverse relationship, we have here against what US has against the pond I did some readings and came across very interesting researches that show a strong link between voting tendencies and reality shows. One research done by Experian asserts that in the top 20 programs ‘’super-democrats’’ watch, only 3 of them are reality shows while the number goes up to 9 with conservatives.  This is usually tied to conservative tendency to compete and the ‘’American Dream’’ idea that promises success to hard workers.  This is why ‘’The Apprentice’’ and the ‘’Biggest Loser’’ makes the cut. And I think this is where the difference between US conservative consumer and Turkish conservative consumer; American conservatism is tightly related to economic ideology and has less to do with religion. But in Turkey, conservatism mostly stands for an ethical and religious concern.

 The neo-liberal conservatism in Turkey, in recent years expanded to more capitalist shores as well so we see some exceptions to the rule. The competitive spirit is on the rise and it is leaking into every aspect of life. The most bizarre example to this would be the Quran reciting competition TRT put up during Ramadan. This is a state funded show that combines religion and competition. How odd is that? Even though it was fanatically followed by a few, it also had some backlash from conservatives as well, so I guess Turkey isn’t fully transformed into a warped American capitalist religious craze just yet!

LGBT in Turkish TV

Turkish TV experienced a LGBT bedroom scene in 2010 on the show “Kılıç Günü" by Osman Sınav. This scene was only contains a half naked gay couple lying on the bed, and the scene significantly appeared on the Turkish media after in a few hours it was published. Osman Sınav horribly justified itself by stating that they displayed the immorality of this community while RTUK President wanted to penalise the discussions about the show on TV which denied by the majority of the board of RTUK.    

Even these intolerable comments witnessed by Turkish audiences in 2010s, the LGBT characters have been presented on national TV since 1993. In those years, this phenomena started on the Show TV’s Sevginin Gücü by the actor Volkan Severcan. In following years, the same actor took place on ATV’s Kaldırım Çiçeği as Memoş who is a gay pimp of two prostitute, performed by popular actresses of the era, Sibel Can and Hande Ataizi. Kaldırım Çiçeği was also important for LGBT community due to its trans characters and LGBT clubs. These two shows’ producer Türker İnanoğlu made another show, Yapayanlız that introduced lesbianism to screen in 2001.

Kampüsistan (2003) and Mükemmel Çift (2010) and even one of the important shows of Turkish TV Bir İstanbul Masalı (2003) had also gay characters in recent years. But some of these shows were cencored in some way such as cut scenes on Bir İstanbul Masalı and Kılıç Günü at the revives of the shows or take out parts of Mükemmel Çift despite they were taped or actors performed the scenes were fired from other shows (Mükemmel Çift, Tuğrul Tülek as main character).

The audiences exposed stories, characters, situations, decisions, lives on TV is the society itself, especially in the high rating owner countries such as Turkey. Whatever they see on TV becomes a part of their life as a knowledge or a possible experience. Even refusing the feed served doesn’t block the apparency of it. Today’s media-raised children are growing up with ignorance of this concept. It doesn't mean they wouldn’t be familiar with LGBT community, but obviously the process will be more challenging without the significant force of media. Authorities are also aware of this power of TV, thats why the censorships mentioned above are overlapped with the period where the conservative political party AKP in-charged. And also it explains the attitude of RTUK to these shows, where the global approach is tendency to contain LGBT characters on shows which is a part of real life. 

These concise yet complete moves of Turkish productors show that the audiences haven’t a problem with LGBT characters and it doesn’t effect the ratings. The shows mentioned above were mostly popular and trendy shows of their times. There is no considerable relation between unpopularity and LGBT content. Contrary, the international shows embraced LGBT are also trendy in Turkey and everywhere now. 

To sum, the mentality of political parties should be less reflected on media, cinema and TV; thus the reailty of humanity will be screened freely and seminally.

Related Videos

Sevginin Gücü Episode 1

Intro of Kaldırım Çiçeği

HUMOR FED DRAMA ON TV

It’s been always a controversy to make jokes about some particular issues on TV. However now, on TV, it’s evident that the most successful comedy shows are all going in with these taboos which were seen in red zone. This kind of a process happens step by step and in my opinion, HBO’s Six Feet Under was the one which revolutionized TV, at least the American TV.

The Show was circling around a family that runs a funeral house and every time an episode begins, the audience sees someone die, sometimes in a funny way and sometimes in a very dramatic situation. In five seasons, at some point, the deaths, sometimes more than one in an episode, become something very random for the audience.The show makes you to take your body as something material as it is and I think, for an instance when the family’s daughter Claire puts some corpse’s body part to her ex boy friend’s locker, it’s a very smart thing to do on TV. The whole show is a critic on our rituals towards death and how we take our bodies so serious. And of course, there is humor in it, because from death’s perspective, our lives are joke. Smallest differences in our lives may cause us to die, and after it’s just a corpse. However, the show doesn’t mix drama and humor crudely, it’s not a rough comedy, it also has the most delicate touch on the emotional side of the issue. Until then, 2001, when the first episode aired, death was some kind of a taboo on TV. The show challenged this taboo and succeeded with many positive critics.

After the Six Feet Under’s finale in 2005, The Office and Arrested Development, two situation comedy shows appeared on TV that deal with the most controversial taboos such as racism, terrorism, incest relationships. Or Sarah Silverman Program, in which the comedian Sarah Silverman literally takes a taboo in every episode as a challenge and brings a funny story about them. I think they all became successful, because Six Feet Under cleared the way from taboos by starting with the “death”. Now there are too many shows that mixes humor with drama, such as Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Scmidt or Orange is the New Black. The audience realized that it’s okay to laugh at and get ease with things that we are so afraid of, and maybe deal with them. I think it was a necessary step in the collective consciousness and I hope some day in Turkey, we won't get scared to laugh at anything. I want to put an end to this blog post with a quote by Joan Rivers on CNN when she gets challenged about her offensive jokes: “Life is very tough, and if you can make a joke to make something easier and funny, do it!”.