Review: The Magnificent Century Season 1

It took me ages to make any progress with this drama. At last, after many breaks when I just couldn't be bothered watching it, I've decided to drop it. Here are my thoughts on what I did watch, and why I lost interest.

The Magnificent Century/Muhteşem Yüzyıl is a Turkish series that aired from 2011 to 2014. It was followed by a sequel, The Magnificent Century: Kösem, in 2015.

I didn't recognise any of the actors, so on to the plot.

The series revolves around Alexandra/Hürrem, starting when she's kidnapped and forced to become one of the Sultan's concubines. She eventually becomes Suleiman's legal wife, in spite of the other concubines plotting against her.

As I said in my first impressions of the series, the main problem with the story is how it pretends a deeply dysfunctional relationship is a grand romance. (I have no idea what happened historically; this is entirely the series' highly fictionalised version of events.) Alexandra loses her parents, her fiancé, her home, her language, her religion, and even her name when she's brought to the palace, but she's only upset about any of this for about half an episode. Then she falls in "love" with Suleiman and starts plotting to gain his favour like all the rest of the concubines.

In any other series that would be the grim, depressing tragedy of a woman who has everything taken from her and has no choice but to adapt to her new "home" to survive. This series pretends everything's just fine and dandy and look, Suleiman really loves Hürrem even though she's just one of God-knows-how-many concubines! Not to mention that part where he slept with Hürrem's former friend while Hürrem was giving birth to his child. There's no way to view that as a romance. It's more disturbing than some true crime documentaries I've seen.

The series doesn't even have the benefit of being interesting. It's incredibly repetitive. Every episode was another rehash of the "Mahidevran plots again Hürrem" story. Nor could I sympathise with any of the characters. They're all doing their best to destroy their own and everyone else's lives, and after the first two episodes all of them blurred together.

So, after eight painful and infuriating episodes, I've given up this series and have no intention of ever returning to it.

Is it available online?: It's on YouTube. I can't be bothered giving a link.

Rating: 1/10.

(Not Really a) Review: First Impressions of The Magnificent Century

After several years of thinking "I want to watch this" and promptly forgetting all about it, I've finally managed to start this series.

The Magnificent Century is a Turkish historical fiction series based on the life of Hürrem, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent. This is the first time I've ever watched a Turkish drama. The first thing that struck me was how long the episodes are. Episode one alone is over one hour and forty minutes. I've seen films that aren't that long. Somehow I suspect it will take me ages to finish the series.

To be honest, I've never given much thought to Turkish history. What I knew about it before this series could be boiled down to three things: the Turks fought Dracula (the historical figure, not the fictional vampire named after him); whoever got the throne murdered all his brothers; and Turkey has a habit of committing genocide and lying about it. Even if the series isn't historically accurate, it still taught me about the sultanate of women and the existence of people I'd never heard of before.

Even if the story is sometimes predictable, the series is worth watching for the costumes alone. (Fun fact: I only learnt it existed by seeing pictures of the costumes on Pinterest and Tumblr.)

I've only watched the first episode, and I can already tell what my biggest problem will be with the story. Alexandra, later renamed Hürrem, was kidnapped from her home, taken to a foreign country, and made one of Suleiman's concubines against her will. It looks ominously like the series is going to portray their relationship as some grand romance. No, no, no. Setting aside whatever happened in real life, the series' version of events is disturbingly reminiscent of Stockholm syndrome.

So far I'm ambivalent towards this series. It's not utterly atrocious, but I doubt it will ever be one of my favourites. I'll write a longer review when (if) I finish it.