The Tailor

I really like Turkish TV series, for the beauty of the actors, for the pathos of human relationships (emphasized by a certain over-the-top acting) and for the splendid scenarios of a modern and glossy Istanbul.

“The Tailor” series, despite being poorly received by critics, won me over from the first scene. If many events have remained obscure to me, and perhaps they should be developed in a further season which unfortunately will not be made, the story of Peyami Dokumaci, a famous stylist, of his forbidden love for Esvet, wife of his best friend, and of this last, Dimitri, kept me glued to the screen.

The love story is beautiful and vibrant but, if this is central in the first season — together with the problem of the handicapped father of whom the protagonist is ashamed — in the third the relationship between Dimitri and Peyami takes center stage, transforming this soap into a kind of bromance.

We discover that Dimitri is bad only because he suffered continuous abuse from his father, but he is capable of outbursts of generosity and deep feelings. From the love triangle emerge the two men, their brotherhood. Esvet, who stood out in the first season for her empathy and compassion towards Peyami’s father and for the abuses suffered by her future husband, here remains in the background, passive and crushed between the two, a sort of simple object of dispute. Dimitri is jealous of Esvet, he wants to be loved by her exclusively, but, above all, he wants his friend’s love and the idea that this might forget him after his death shocks him more than his wife’s betrayal, of whom he seems to be infatuated and not in love. When it seems that all three are about to die, the two men come closer, embrace each other, review the past and their childhood, wait for the end together. She remains alone, in a corner, almost useless and forgotten.

Of course this series has its flaws. It leaves many questions open, that become dead ends, it emphasizes Mustafà’s mental illness in a grotesque way, it lengthens certain scenes out of all proportion and takes overly shouted out feelings to the extreme. But some elements have an indisputable charm that has marked success with the public, if not with critics. The first is undoubtedly the birth of the forbidden love between Esvet and Peyami. The usual tale of the good and kind girl — here a carer in disguise — who manages to win over the gruff and rich landlord. A romantic classic that never disappoints. The second element is the relationship between Peyami and his father, intense, controversial, tender (perhaps unlikely), capable of transforming a brutalized and animalistic being into an almost normal parent. The third is the bond between Peyami, sufi muslim, and Dimitri, orthodox christian. In the end, the one who gave the most and loved the most was the reckless and apparently incorrigible Dimitri. «You are the person I loved most in the world», he says, addressing the one he calls his “blood brother”.

It’s a shame that the writers decided to close. I will miss Peyami Dokumaci, (born Çağatay Ulusoy) handsome and dark at the right level even if a little overweight.