What Are Turkish Dramas and what's their history?

A Very Dramatic History of Turkish Dramas

Before dizis, Turkish entertainment was all about street performances, music, food, and coffeehouse comedy. Audience participation was encouraged—imagine yelling your opinion mid-show with a simit in hand.

That flair for interactive storytelling? Yeah, it evolved into the jaw-dropping, slow-burn, sob-into-your-pillow kind of dramas we now devour on a Tuesday night (and into Wednesday morning).

The very first Turkish TV drama aired in 1975: Aşk-ı Memnu, based on a romance novel from 1899. So yes, you’re participating in a decades-long cultural legacy.

You’re basically academic, at this point.

What are Turkish dramas and how did they start? Wikipedia’s definition is that a Turkish drama (Turkish: Türk dizileri) is a type of television series in the Turkish language made in Turkey.

But any fan will tell you that Turkish dizis are:

• Gripping stories packed with impossible love, family feuds, revenge plots and enough misfortune to make you feel pretty good about your own life.

• Stunning locations that will have you mentally relocating to İstanbul before the opening credits are over.

• Heart-wrenching soundtracks perfectly timed to make an already devastating stare somehow worse.

• And, of course, an unreasonable number of gorgeous men and beautiful women falling desperately in love while overcoming approximately 47 obstacles that could have been solved with one honest conversation.

Turkish dramas went global with shows like Magnificent Century, Erkenci Kuş, and Kara Sevda. But then 2020 happened—and apparently the world collectively decided we had nowhere to go, so we might as well go to İstanbul.

COVID hit. We were stuck inside. And suddenly Demet Özdemir and Can Yaman were staring into each other’s eyes for an unreasonable amount of time... and we were INVESTED.

The pandemic ended.

The dizi obsession did not.

Because once you’ve experienced slow burns, family scandals, Bosphorus views and a man communicating an entire emotional breakdown with one eyebrow...

Regular TV just doesn’t hit the same.

Fun facts: In 2011, Turkish dramas saw an explosion of popularity with the series, Magnificent Century (and the controversy over historical and re-imagined storytelling is worth reading up on). And... Turkish dramas are the second-largest television series export in the world, after the United States.

And that’s very good news for you and your new obsession. Turkish dramas have been around for decades, which means you’re not running out of shows anytime soon.

Romance. Revenge. Family feuds. Historical epics. Comedies. Crime. There’s an entire back catalogue of dizis just waiting to ruin your bedtime.

So go ahead. Pick your next show.

The Turkish television industry has been preparing for your questionable viewing habits for years.

This is an ongoing series of posts of the Ultimate Guide to Turkish Dramas: Why You're Hooked and Why You Can't Look Away.

You just read:
-What are Turkish dramas and how did they start?

Read on to discover:

-Why are Turkish dramas so popular?
-What is the most popular Turkish drama?
-Why are there so many Turkish drama episodes in a series?
-Why are they so addicting?
-How are Turkish dramas different from other series (and why Turkish TV standards are different)

Pick an article or.... pick a snack ( see below).