Critique: The Protector (Series One and Two) 2/2

***SPOILERS***

In Series One, Hakan has only one Immortal to contend with. Unexpectedly, it is Faysal, Hakan’s role model who earns millions through his self-made company. At the end of Series One, Faysal resurrects the other six Immortals, including his lover Ruya. This radically changes the dynamic of Series Two which finally demonstrates the true chaotic potential of the Immortals.

The second series introduces Levent, Hakan’s brother. He was a wild card, flipflopping his loyalties between the Loyal Ones and the Immortals, between those who protect his bloodline and those who seek to destroy it. Yet both groups still permit him to be in on their plans. Levent seems to not trust people but he always breaks people’s trust.

When Ruya tells Levent that she was a nurse during a war, Levent says she can’t be that old so, at that point, he doesn’t know she’s an Immortal. Or at least pretends that way. Likewise, Ruya’s behaviour showed that she didn’t know Levent. So one, the other or both are bluffing, or both are being sincere. What is clear is that Ruya and Levent hadn’t met each other whilst Levent had first joined the side of the Immortals.

Near the end of Series Two, Levent is signed up to the world vision of the Immortals by donating his Protector’s blood for the Immortals’ use. For this to happen, they would have had to divulge that they were Immortal and Protector. Yet we don’t see the moment when Ruya and Levent come out to each other. Considering the show leaves the audience uncertain about these two knowing each other’s secrets in the first place, we should have seen them airing out their identities to resolve the uncertainty.

Initially I thought Levent was lying about being Hakan’s brother because his behaviour matched the Immortals more than it did the Loyal Ones. Indeed, in Series Two we only see six Immortals: one’s missing! So once Levent came on the scene, his behaviour made me think he was the last Immortal and was being Hakan’s brother just to have access to killing both Protector and Loyal Ones. But no.

Maybe if Azra hadn’t lost her cool by telling Levent he was worthless (among other insults) when he joined the Loyal Ones again, he wouldn’t have defected to the Immortals (again) and this whole mess could have been avoided.

Throughout the second series, Faysal treats Ruya like a china doll and this pushes Ruya over the edge. (Off the shelf?) Ruya is so incensed that she easily supplanted control of Faysal’s company. But how?

Not a single second was spent explaining how this happened. The Immortals are always complaining, teasing and insulting mortals, so even if Ruya just said mortals are so stupid and easily persuaded (like the Immortals say often), the ‘how’ would have been sufficed.

Without this explanation, for something so odd like this to happen so easily is questionable. This then brings into question everything that Ruya does in her position as head of the company. It lacks believability. So this usurping seems to have been done for the convenience of the plot rather than worked into the plot itself.

Not only does taking over a company take lots of time and effort but everyone in the company, everyone who knew of Faysal, knew Ruya was dead. Did no one wonder about how she was alive again? It would have at least created some suspicion among the company and the public yet this is neither dealt with nor even mentioned. Someone coming back from the dead is a big deal.

Almost inevitably there was romantic tension between the two protagonists, Zeynep and Hakan.

Hakan’s lust went away when he was with Leyla but Zeynep’s crush became stronger. Yes everyone expects romance in all shows but there was a big enough cast for Hakan and Zeynep to not fall for each other.

Hakan is shown to be a lusty character in general so he in particular would (and did) like others. When he first met Leyla for a job interview, he had just shagged someone else and clearly hadn’t showered (I would have refused him entry for unprofessionalism but that’s just me). When he first had sex with Leyla, he wasn’t afraid to dent tables and walls (this scene was intermittent with Zeynep being attacked against a wall and table, with people in both scenes grunting, sweating and giving intense expressions. This was great cinematography). So there was no need for Hakan and Zeynep to be a thing.

I do hate it when the main female character and the main male character fall in love. Straight men and straight women are allowed to be friends and have a strong, platonic relationship. This kind of stuff in shows and films degrades the value of friendships and overstates the value and importance of romance. (This is a criticism of the trope rather than the programme, to be clear.)

Concluding this review is a bit odd.

The Protector stuck to my attention, full of well-crafted suspense and each character had a strong personality. A language barrier always means these factors can’t be fully assessed but, for my limited, non-immersive experience, it is true. No moment was wasted. No moment was dragged out longer than it should have been, meaning none of that boring, pause-for-effect malarkey.

I want answers to so many questions. The suspense of the audience not knowing something (but knowing there’s something to be known) helped carry the show along. Perhaps this means answering too many questions would completely ruin the dynamics of the show.

But from the ending of Series Two (which was radically different in style compared to Series One), I have a horrible feeling that The Protector won’t be renewed for Series Three.

I can hope, though.

The Protector (Series One and Two) 1/2

https://frostgriffin.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-protector-series-one-and-two-12.html

Critique: The Protector (Series One and Two) 1/2

***SPOILERS***

This Turkish fantasy programme made for an excellent watch. The first episode was slow and built up like a police programme, almost boring me enough to stop watching. (I’d been promised the supernatural and got a mundane drama instead.) But I decided to give episode two a chance and I was gripped from then on out. I’d recommend skipping episode one altogether, in all honesty; the recap at the start of episode two shows everything important.

For several hundred years, Protectors have guarded Istanbul from the seven Immortals with the help of magical relics and the Loyal Ones. This programme focuses on the current Protector Hakan who thinks all the supernatural stuff is a joke and the Loyal Ones to be crazy. The Loyal One Zeynep develops into his best friend after some initial (and hilarious) antagonism.

All this was established by Suleiman because the Immortals wanted to wipe out humanity. These enemies have had several centuries to do so yet haven’t succeeded. They’re invincible aside from one Dagger relic and to each other so they have virtually no competition. With so much time and so little resistance, the Immortals should have succeeded long ago. They are really rather useless.

It’s never established where the Immortals originate from. We do know (from series two) that they’ll be able to return once they destroy humanity, although why they had to leave in the first place remains a mystery. Seeing as Suleiman, God and mosques are commonly mentioned, and all are against the Immortals, it seems obvious that the Immortals are from Hell. But how bad do you have to act to be kicked out of Hell? Or were they too nice (i.e. bad at being bad)? They can’t have been kicked out of Heaven for bad behaviour because then killing all humanity (a bad action) would increase their sins.

Suspending this information on a carrot and stick like they did should have been boring and drawn out but the suspension was just right. They writers balance this skilfully. As long as the viewers get more answers in series three, that is.

Hakan, the main protagonist, feels hard and fast. He and Leyla fall in love real quick. He cries often yet this doesn’t detract from his masculinity. It’s great to watch that happen.

He screams a lot, too. It seems weird to me that people would give a wordless scream, or shout the name of someone who’s just dies as you hold their corpse, or give a heads up to an enemy that you intend to kill them. As if that wasn’t cringey enough, at one point he screams in time with the lightning storm; the only time I would approve of this if he were a bad guy in an animated children’ programme.

Anger over the death of his loved ones and the desire for revenge drives Hakan’s actions. If his best friend and adopted father had still been alive, it’s doubtful that he would become the Protector. Hakan only relents from killing his brother Levent when he sees both are motivated by anger alone. At this point Hakan calms down and gets a grip, deciding to trust Levent rather than killing him. This was a superb bit of character development. (Even if he did relapse back into fury a few episodes later.)

Hakan’s mood is evident on his face without being overdone and he is quick to act on his emotions. Like when he takes off his trousers/underwear to bang Leyla and his face looked adorable. The sort of sweet excitement one would expect from a child. Truly fantastic acting.

‘The Protector’ had both English subtitles and English voice-overs. However, these translations didn’t match, creating hilarious results.

At first I thought the subtitles were a direct translation from Turkish whereas the voice-over was an American phrase to convey the same meaning. The most obvious example was when the subtitles said about not seeing the gnats through the strained camel milk but the voice-over using not seeing the trees through the forest. The funniest (and most common) example was the subtitles stating something like ‘oh dear’ and the voice-over screaming, “Fuuuuuck.” There was also Azra’s subtitles expressing her distrust of Faysal but he voice-over telling the Immortal that “You are a fucking prick.”

The exception to non-matching translations is when Faysal uses the endearment “My dear” in both subtitles and voice-overs. He did this at least once per episode at anyone. So this made the exception to this exception more noticeable: when he spoke “My dear” at Zeynep but the subtitles wrote ‘baby’. Yes, ‘my dear’ and ‘baby’ can be used interchangeably, but only for a romantic/sexual partner. Zeynep is certainly neither of those for Faysal. Just a mistake but brilliant all the same!

Sometimes the two translations contradict each other. For example, Ruya tells Levent she was a nurse in the Great War but the subtitles state it was the Crimean War. There’s no harm when the two translations co-exist but it’s a problem when they give completely different information.

The Protector (Series One and Two) 2/2

https://frostgriffin.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-protector-series-one-and-two-22.html