Behzat Ç, final episode of the 2nd season tonight

The only Turkish TV serials I have been following is Behzat Ç. Plot summaries of Behzat Ç from IMDB is here:

Centered around a personally troubled, officially discredited police chief and his inharmonious police team in Ankara Police Force. Even though the show usually focuses on murders and other crimes that happens on a weekly basis, the undertone of the story leads to an eventual duel between Behzat Ç. and the rotten department officials and bureaucrats. Written by Agahmoyzen

Derived from the Turkish writer Emrah Serbes’s novels “Behzat Ç: Her Temas Iz Birakir” (2006) and “Behzat Ç: Son Hafriyat” (2010), the series tell the story of Chief Inspector Behzat Ç, leading the Homicide and Vice divisions of the Ankara Police Force. Struggling with a failed marriage, a dark past, a rebellious daughter and corrupt bureaucrats and police officers, Behzat Ç disregards procedure, political correctness and etiquette to pursue and arrest serial killers, hitmen and violent criminals. His underlings from the Homicide and Vice desk aid and assist him in this struggle: the hot tempered, headstrong Harun, the streetwise Hayalet (the “Ghost”), the self-trained forensics expert Akbaba (the “Vulture”), the naive and green Cevdet, and Selim and Eda, who try to maintain a healthy relationship amongst the toil and trouble of dealing with murder every day. Behzat’s brother, Sevket Ç, who administers a shopping mall, also occasionally throws in help. Each episode deals with a different murder, while the main plot thickens after the main villain, Ercüment Çözer, a sadistic serial killer holding many bureaucrats on his payroll, along with his tireless assistant Memduh Basgan, a shady ex-Gladio hitman are introduced. Almost all episodes take place in Ankara, Turkey. Written by thebuckler

As usual, in a country where mainstream media and academia is under the pressure of political authorities and direct/explicit public debate is hard to sustain, some media products emerge to provide implicit critique of power relations. Behzat Ç has been such a powerful narrator that it has already been under attack by political authorities. His being an anti-hero, heavy of use of alcoholism and smoking, intense use of slang, anti-corruption stance, his anti-authoritarian behaviors are all against the politics of morality AKP government increasingly employs and against the new and notorious alliance between the Gülen movement and AKP cadres. But I should note that what Behzat Ç achieves is not only a narrative critique, but also the strong characters, use of local Ankara knowledge and innovations in story telling.

Behzat Ç gradually turned into what I call the leftist version of “Valley of the Wolves” as personal, private narratives began to be linked to social and political critique of establishment values. It has never been one of the most rated TV series, but its fans has a good social media power and related key words become TT whenever a new episode appears.  Many linguistic styles or discursive preferences the characters have are adopted by fans as the series continued to have a plot of great substance keeping a balance between seriousness and humor. Thanks god, this series could still live up to this time despite growing pressure.

Most of the episodes can be watched at the official site.

A massive forum about Behzat Ç at Ekşi Sözlük here.