In romantic dramedy series, the chemistry between the two main characters is undeniable, whether they’re still together or not. What ends up happening, though, is that the chemistry between them overwhelms their friendships and relationships with other characters. That’s what we thought of when we watched a new Hulu dramedy from Turkey.
Opening Shot: A man and a woman spin into a hotel room in each other’s arms, passionately kissing each other. As clothes come off, one questions whether they should do it, but the other is sure. We then see a “bride to be” gift in the foreground.
The Gist: “A Few Weeks Ago”, we see Güneş (Hande Erçel) busy in her job as an editor for a fashion magazine, and Deniz (Baris Arduç) in his job as an developer. On a call, a friend reads back an essay about love that Güneş wrote for the magazine, referring to a man named “Mr. Alpha”; she’s also a social media influencer, and people familiar with her Insta know that Mr. Alpha is the love of her life whom is only seen from the back.
Very few people know that Deniz is Mr. Alpha, but he and Güneş haven’t been together in about six months; in fact, she’s heading to dinner to break up with her current boyfriend, Boran (Feyyaz Serifoglu). Before she gets a chance to do so, though, he proposes to her in front of his grandmother and the other residents of granny’s retirement village. Put on the spot, Güneş puts on the ring and says yes, but tells Boran that they need to discuss it. Problem is, she can’t get the ring off and doesn’t realize she’s been photographed with it on when she goes to an event.
She also doesn’t realize that Deniz is the opening speaker at the event, and when they run into each other, the tension — both in the sexual and in the uncomfortable veins — could be cut with a knife. Their breakup was particularly painful, with Deniz citing trust issues after his back appeared in a massive billboard of a rival developer, who had a contract with Güneş. Despite the vitriol they utter towards each other, there is still something between them, to the point where Deniz’s current squeeze, Umay (Basak Gümülcinelioglu Çitanak) threatens to break up with him because of it.
Güneş’s boss Pervin (Sezin Akbasogullari) finds out that a reader of Güneş’s donated a house in Cappadocia to them, but she needs to know if Güneş and Deniz are truly in love with each other. As far as Pervin is concerned, having the two of them in that house will be great for Güneş’s brand. Of course, this means that Güneş needs to ask him, which she doesn’t find easy to do. But she needs to sell either her house or the one in Cappadocia to pay for her sister’s college tuition in the US.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Reminder is a bit Sex In The City-esque, and definitely resembles Thank You, Next, another recent series from Turkey.
Our Take: The conceit of Reminder is that Güneş and Deniz are going to reflect on their magical but tumultuous relationship and breakup as they try to convince the lawyer donating the house that they are truly in love. We see this conceit in the first episode, as we get an extended look at the pair’s meet-cute, when he helped her get on a ferry, then motorcycles her to her office when she realizes she’s on the wrong boat. We also see their breakup, as we described above. Subsequent episodes will show other moments like this as the two of them try to figure things out in the present.
It’s a storytelling method that could be confusing, but writer Ahmet Vatan and director Ozgur Onurme manage to transition between present and past pretty smoothly. How the two exes conduct themselves with each other helps the audience, of course; they’re most definitely still in love with each other, but their breakup is still raw, and the two of them talk to each other in bitter, borderline-nasty tones.
But everyone watching knows that even their nastiest statements to each other are belied by obvious feelings that remain. We wonder if the show is going to get bogged down in this as the two of them vie to keep the house. It’s obvious to anyone who has eyes that these two people belong together, and the first scene a few weeks in the future shows that they can’t stay away from each other. So we just wonder how much throat clearing we’re going to get before these two crazy kids connect with each other again.
There are side characters in both Güneş’s and Deniz’s lives, but they seem to just be there as sounding boards and little else. There’s also the artificial mystery of the huge package that was delivered to Güneş’s apartment, addressed to Deniz. She refuses to open it, despite pleas from her sweatily curious friends, but we know the package will be opened eventually, so why tease it out?
Sex and Skin: Even in the steamy scene that starts the episode, everyone keeps enough clothes on to not show anything.
Parting Shot: Deniz gets a surprising call from Pervin about the house; she wants “Mr. Alpha” to reveal himself as a publicity play. After he sees Güneş’s latest post, talking about Mr. Alpha while showing Boran’s back, he emphatically agrees to Pervin’s plan.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Sezin Akbasogullari as Pervin, only because she’s one of the few people who know who Mr. Alpha is, and is driving all of this to increase engagement with her magazine.
Most Pilot-y Line: Oh, did we mention that Deniz is buddies with an 8-year-old kid named Ege (Abdullah Burak Kaya), who comes over from next door when his parents are fighting? Ege is also trying to get Deniz back together with Güneş. Yes, we think that’s weird, too.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The undeniable chemistry between its stars makes Reminder worth watching, but the story itself is a bit underbaked, as are the side characters that only seem to exist in service of Güneş and Deniz.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.