Ezel

Ezel

TV Series · 2009–2011 · 33 people

Ay Yapım made Ezel, an action and drama series directed by Uluç Bayraktar. It began on Show TV on September 28, 2009, continued on atv from January 25, 2010, and ended after two seasons and 71 episodes on June 20, 2011. Kerem Deren and Pınar Bulut wrote it, adapting Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo.

The narrative opens in 1997 with a casino robbery and the arrest of those responsible. Betrayed by his trusted friends and the woman he loved, Ömer Uçar returns as Ezel to take revenge. The unravelling of a naive circle of four friends under greed for money and power, along with love and betrayal, drives the story. Kenan İmirzalıoğlu leads, with Cansu Dere, Yiğit Özşener, Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ, Barış Falay and Burçin Terzioğlu in the cast. Set in present-day Istanbul, it was also shot in North Cyprus, Croatia and England.

It built a large following in Turkey; at the 2010 İsmail Cem Television Awards it won 9 of 14 nominations, including best series and best series music, and it also took the Golden Butterfly Award for Best Series.

DirectorUluç Bayraktar
Production companyAy Yapım
NetworkShow TV, atv

Reactions

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Cast

Through different eyes

Series Binger A series devotee tracking character arcs, cast chemistry and season pacing.

Ezel moves The Count of Monte Cristo into present-day Istanbul and makes excellent use of a revenge story's greatest asset: the waiting. The transformation from Ömer to Ezel, carried by Kenan İmirzalıoğlu's quiet, intense performance, is the backbone of the series. The way four friends come apart under greed for money and power gives the story layer upon layer, and the chemistry with Cansu Dere, Yiğit Özşener and Barış Falay is solid. Two seasons and 71 episodes were enough to wrap things up without dragging. In some middle episodes the schemes get tangled and the pace sags, but staying hooked to the end is not hard.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

A series that opens with a casino robbery grabs you from the first minute. In Ezel the tension barely lets up; who betrayed whom, who will wreck whose game, you watch on constant alert. Shooting in North Cyprus, Croatia and England widens the scale too. My only complaint is that the dialogue scenes sometimes run too long. But once the revenge plan kicks in, it is hard to stop.

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo is a novel of loyalty and betrayal read across generations, and Ezel boldly brings this classic into the present. The moral question at the heart of the story, what revenge gives a person and what it takes away, stays alive in the series. Still, for an eye raised on Yeşilçam's soft-hearted heroes, the atmosphere is at times too dark and cold; among the casinos, betrayals and calculations there is little light of hope. That its music won an award is no surprise; it is one of the elements that best carries the soul of the series.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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