Cruel Istanbul (TV Series 2019–2020) Poster

(2019–2020)

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7/10
Proceed watching the series with Caution
azizemanifest24 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I don't even know where to start. Ok, I'll start by replying to the reviews that noted they don't understand why people were giving the series low ratings. It's simple, a story has a beginning, a middle and an end. All these aspects of a story have to flow smoothly and make sense. In this series, the end made no sense at all. They destroyed all the characters development that took 30+ episodes to develop. I don't know how a network (kanald) can allow such a thing to happen. Their reputation is on the line and they approved and aired such an atrocious destruction of an otherwise excellent series? I recommend watching the series ONLY if you stop watching at the end of episode 36 or watch the last 3 episodes at your own risk. There was no pay off at the end and I truly wish they could just take back the last 3 episodes and redo them. My thoughts;

1. Cenk - story from the beginning was set up as a redemption journey. Every step he took was of him righting the wrong and healing from the suffering he had gone through since childhood. It showed the various struggles, trials and tribulations he went through to get the darkness out and finally heal. Kudos to Ozan. He was excellent in bringing Cenk story to life and conveying every emotion that Cenk had so well. I loved the healing process he went through in learning how to forgive himself and how to love (mostly Cemre and his son). And just when he achieved all of this, the writers killed him off. I just can't with this. Cenk's story was the heart of the show and the writers had the nerves to kill him off and not to give him a happy ending which is what they were building towards all series long. Wow, just wow at the stupidity. I don't care what the ending was. Cenk + Cemre were the end game. End of story.

2. Cemre - the only sound minded person in the series. Yes, she made mistake but for the most part it's because she was surrounded by ruthless, cruel and selfish people. Her character was so badly dummied down in the last 3 episodes so that they could have the stupid ending that they had. I couldn't believe it when Cenk dad died and Cemre never went to check on Cenk while this what they did for each other throughout the series. They were each other's rock and a shoulder to lean on. Don't even get me started on the finale where Cenk went to say goodbye to Cemre before leaving on vacation. That scene was so messed up and cringe worthy. It was like 2 strangers saying goodbyes to each other. I stopped watching the episode at this point and I don't care to know what happened after that. 3. Agah - he was the bridge (past, present and future) of the Karaçay family. I have tried to think of one good or bad reason why he was killed off and I got nothing. Maybe someone will be kind enough to post a reason if they happen to know of one.

4. Nadim - he's one of the villains of the series (nobody can tell me otherwise) and I cannot believe that they let evil win in the end. Do I feel sorry about what happened to him as a child that left him disabled for 20 years? Of course, I do but that doesn't justify one bit of what he became once he was got better. Never mind that he was scheming while still on a wheelchair. He made sure that the DNA test would say the baby was his and all along he was planning on revealing who the baby father was at birth by giving Cenk the baby. Nadim had some serious darkness in him. While Cenk took the path of forgiveness and love to heal, Nadim took revenge and anger. The guy was so entitled to the point of being disrespectful to his uncle who had worked hard to keep the company and mansion running while Nadim was sick. He had the nerve to want to throw Cenk out of the mansion because he thought Cenk was taking Cemre away from him. The guy didn't have a clue on how to run a company but nope he was arrogant enough to think he would. This is the same person who said he didn't want anything to do with the company etc the time his uncle took him to the office on a wheelchair. He even destroyed his father's picture during that visit because he hated his father so much and anything (like the company) that belonged to his father. Nadim just crated on my last nerve after he was out of the wheelchair. Especially from the fact that he teamed up with Ceren to seek revenge on mostly Cenk and Cemre. Of course, him not saying everything that he knew to his uncle made him an just as responsible for some of the selfish things that Ceren did to his uncle.

5. Ceren + Seniz they were killed off. This is the only thing I agree with in the last 3 episodes. There was no way Cenke was ever going to have any peace of mind and maintain his healing if any of these 2 were in his life. So killing them off or sending them off to jail for life was the only way to end it for these 2.

6. Did I miss something? What was the fuss about June 11th that was sent out in those black envelopes?

7. Oya & Yusuf storylines. I wasn't clear on either of these 2 arcs. Especially with Yusuf. The guy just looked suspicious from the first time we saw him. Cenk was suspicious of him as well. Of course, the last 3 episodes couldn't even get this storyline right. They butchered it as well.

8. This was such a promising series which was ruined in the end. I wish I could give a 10 rating but I just can't with such an ending.
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7/10
It's cliche free people!!
uadios10 August 2021
I think almost every one expected a happy ending it's happy in some way but it was great it's very misleading and the twists will blow you.
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5/10
waste of time
siyakumar-7740721 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
No lovestory,,, both guys love the girl but the girl is confused till the last episode... there is no lovestory

the Rich Karachay family gets DNA tests done as if they are going to the market to buy apples.

Cenk Karachay knows he has brain tumour and yet decides to take a vacation with his infant son in a caravan which he himself drives, Entire trip he is hale and hearty only when the trip comes to near end He collapses.

I think the writers werent paid for the last 2 episodes so they just.killed almost half the cast and then sent Brain tumour detected CENK on a holiday with an infant..where is the logic...
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4/10
The worst script I have ever seen. The best lead role: Ozan Dolunay but it is not enough :( 4 just because of him
juli-ch23 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I thought I could say about this series as my favorite, but what they showed was already stupid. The biggest transformation of the main character, Cenk and his beautiful love for Cemre, who in the last 2 episodes was destroyed for the love which was not shown in all episodes. They killed the main character in a cruel way so that only that couple ( his love and cousin) could connect and destroy the hero who deserved to live. It's worth seeing for him, but it's not enough when you end up with so much disappointment. They could at least let him live with his son. If they wanted another couple so why to kill beautiful character who deserved happiness the most?
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8/10
Fascinating series with the worst possible ending
dragger-115 July 2021
The series started more than promising, extremely interesting and with a very fast pace and curious plot twists. Then, the speed of character and plot development decreased a bit with several exceptions. Still, it was bearable and watchable.

But the end.... The end just destroyed everything good in this series. Was it the COVID crisis that pushed the creators to wrap up the series so fast and abruptly? I hope so. As otherwise I have no other explanation of the worst ending of a series ever (maybe only after Game of Thrones.)
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Depressing ending
iarafrisen9 March 2021
Actually i am still trying to digest the final... Ok by the title Zalim Instambul one already realizes that series talks about the cruelty...anyway...hated the ending, usually this programs try to give some lessons, but this one was 2 much For me the best ending would be: AGAH KARAZAY- being such an honored man, after so much deception from his wife returns to his hometown and become a very close friend with SeHer, like great neighboors.. Çenk would finally heal from his internal demons and woukd be able to conquer Cemre. Cerem and NEdim after the divorce would feel some how connected, the the 2 couples would be very tight for babu Umut... So yeah i hated the real end
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6/10
Devastating
niafenila23 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Everything is great, unless the plot.

It breaks my heart how Cemre memorize Nedim's number instead of her husband. I didn't even know they have each other's number, since the first call Nedim has made was for Cenk. At least it will make sense if Cemre gave Ceren's number, she's her sister anyway.

Also the final end for Cenk was really devastating. I even have think many possibilities plot for him, but not die.
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1/10
Not worth watching!
hellena_person23 June 2020
Not even worth mentioning that the whole scenario was full of holes. Some of them were bearable but other were so big that you could fall into them unintentionally and yet, the love of the characters makes you close your eyes and move further just for their sake but the last three episodes have nothing related with the rest of the episodes or with the story itself. All the hard work and the development of the characters is ruin or intentionally forgotten in these last episodes.
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9/10
Ozan dolunay was the best
abeertauheed25 June 2021
Only gave 9 for ozan. As he made us fell in love with him. Otherwise totally trash after episode 32.i don't understand cenk character was buildup but then he didn't ended up with cemre. Cemre never cared about him. She was always mean. She never gave him the chance. They both had such a great chemistry and nedim and cemre emotions were just platonic. How can she fall in love with him? Such a good series but they ruined the series with their own hands. Ozan dolunay was the best. Only watched till episode 33 because of him.
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7/10
Recommended
kayedres12 December 2020
Good one, but sometimes you will feel it is boring as well
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3/10
Not recommended
sepideajorloo22 June 2020
During the whole episodes, audiences watch kind of a love triangle which seems that the girl loves both of the guys, so you can't understand what is happening till the last 2 episodes which are really unbearable and you may think that maybe the scriptwriter was a child who just wanted to write something to finish the story!so don't waste your time cuz at the end you're gonna regret it
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10/10
BERKER GUVEN IS AMAZING! EXCELLENT DRAMA!
bryonybedford29 November 2021
Zalim Istanbul is absolutely amazing! Excellent acting from the majority of the cast especially from Berker Guven who plays Nedim who has cerebral palsy after an accident with his cousin. His performance is Oscar worthy! It reminds me of Daniel Day Lewis's Oscar winning performance in the movie, 'MY LEFT FOOT'! It's that Brilliant! There is love, betrayal, backstabbing, EVIL women who are just want money and power no matter who gets hurt. You find yourself rooting for the good characters to take over the baddies!

Ignore the negative reviews and watch it for yourself how good it is! Be open minded.
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7/10
Why it have sad story
meenaanurag26 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
As we know that the story came to many sad scenes and some main character died i mean like the nedim uncle also died he was a good person 🙄why he have to die.so the answer is they want to do something different so people not forget it if it had good ending then it would make no difference so they make sad ending. Even i didn't like the fact that some died at a point where they recognised their mistakes i know if you are here you also don't like this facts and some anxiety or depression u got if u really watched all episodes with intrest bt it is all frictional so no worries and i really like jhaan sister.
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1/10
Totally disappointed
rubiahasin23 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Though started with a very critical and interesting way but failed to develope the story properly. Specially last 3 episodes were completely different from the rest, like a new story. All the characteristics of the characters ware gone. They killed four leading characters just to give justice a character called Nedim who once was disable and victim. At the end of the show u may feel misleaded by the writers as all the romantic scenes were given to the couple who did not get a happy ending. Only strong chracter is Cenk and most ruined character is Cemre. If u like Nedim very much then you can tolerate till the end.
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1/10
Worst ending ever! Stay away - save your brain cells
GlorianaHer12 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The last 3 episodes were completely different than the rest of the series. They show started of very well but for some reason that I will never understand, they ruined it in only 3 episodes!! Such horrible writting!!! Cenk was the lead character and he suffered throughout the series non-stop. His only light in his dreadfull life was his love for cemre (who's character was ruined as well) and how they repay his sorrows and goodness? By taking everything from him and giving him a horrible death! I swear, I could feel my blood pressure rising! And don't get me started on the so called "love" between nedim and cemre. Their chemistry was non-existent and they also looked like brother and sister, which was sickening to watch at least. The true love story of this series was between cemre and cenk. Undoubtedly and absolutely one of the best chemistries I've seen between actors and characters! They did them and us extremelly dirty.

The actor who played Cenk is absolutely masterful and mesmerising. I wish I could say the same for the rest, especially for the actor who played nedim. I expected much more but I was heavily dissapointed.

In other words, stay away from this show, it will only make you want to burn down your tv/laptop.
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10/10
Berker Guven was fantastic
hadleyjs28 November 2021
I don't understand why people trash this show. Yes there's a lot of drama and certainly isn't reality but I thought the acting was excellent. I would watch it again if I could find it with consistent English subtitles, with spotty subtitles I missed so much dialogue.
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6/10
not so bad not so good
chapathi15 April 2022
The series was well started but later on the series become more complicated. The acting was phenomenal all the characters both the good ones and the not so good ones were amazing. I recommend you to watch it and then decide for yourself as many find the ending disappointing. Its worth a try.
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1/10
I definitely don't recommend it
claudiaglavan23 June 2020
I spent precious time from my life on the worst serial ever. I won't even talk about the final because what they showed us can't be called a decent final... The story had a very good begging but they lost the track of any chronological order and with that they lost any sens of logic, common sens and coherence.
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10/10
very good except the ending
ahmedeffat-1269810 November 2020
Very good except the ending is not logical because the exchange the writer at last eposides so it was astrong series except last six eposides
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7/10
Contains some beautiful moments and caracters !, but can be frustrating too.
amissan7 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This série really is confusing, it countains some wonderful moments, and some extremly frustrating évents...

At first i though nedim was the main caracter, but The focus was a bit more on cenk and his réactions (fascinating caracter by the way, really)..., i expected to hate him, but he just carried the show, Dolunay's acting make u quickly realise he is just as disabled as Nedim...,

But then why this ending ?, the moment he finaly gets to recieve his father's love, both die ?

Ceren losing all her caracter developpement instead of completing it... (brilliant performance tho)

And cemre... the scriptwriters wanted to make her so perfect that they didn't realise she was taking advantage of another disabled man without ever apologizing (when cenk accepted to divorce and she refused she just lost his consent for playing that game, especialy as at that moment he didn't know the reason why she choose to stay married = making nedim more angry about their mariage which would help him recover, yes, couldn't be more stupid but that's what we got) she just saw how tourmented and unbalanced cenk was, and thought "yes why not, let's use him", she was supposed to be the most noble person out there and she didn't realise people don't marry for these kind of things ? She knew the biggest secrets of senise and she though that mariage was the only solution ? She literally had all her family living there, they could have helped her uncover the truth, instead nah, let's make my sister hâte me even more by marrying her crush ..., and they always portray her as so perfect, so pure... So humble...

the triangle love, is the worst thing by far..., no wonder why the big majority wanted cenk and cemre to end up together, obviously their chemistry was much bigger, With nedim it was just... Giving brother sister vibe... But even if it HAD to be nedim/cemre, why to make cenk fall in love with her then ?... Is she the only girl in the world ? Couldn't she not just help him and both would move on?, it should have been either full romance between them or no romance at all

We all waited the moment nedim would recover, and boy wasn't i disappointed, he didn't stop talking about his plan of revenge, but it was just and excuse from the script to cover senise... As obviosuly it was agah who did all the punishements without nedim's help..., his caracter was going no where, he was entering and leaving his vilain arc again and again, it was really like the scriptwriters didn't know what to do with him, except making him endgame with cemre...

As i Said before the show really contains some beautiful moments, the révélations of the big secrets are on point (agah++) so for me it's worth watching, especially for cenk and agah... But don't expect it to be perfect... I think the script was never about satisfying us anyway...
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1/10
Amazing actors - TERRIBLE ending / Not reccommended
Jasmine458214 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
First off, the good things. Ozan Dolunay blew me away with his performance! I was pleasantly surprised by his versatile acting, so way to go for this young and very promising actor! The rest were good as well (with some exceptions), but he stood out by miles.

Now, what on earth we witnessed at the last 3 episodes, I still cannot wrap my head around. It looked as if the writers had given their jobs to primary school students! They excecuted all Cemre's character development in 3 episodes and ruined one of the best love stories and chemistries I've ever watch in television series! And trust me, I've watch too many.

So, in 3 episodes, they wanted us to believe that Cemre who stood by Cenk through thick and thin would not care to check on him after his father's death and after finding out his whole life was a lie. They wanted us to believe that she didn't love Cenk, even though it has been crystal clear throughout the series. They wanted us to believe that Nedim left Cenk (a sick man with weeks to live) drive for hundreds of miles alone with his baby and did not pursue him further to get the treatment that would save his life. They gave us such empty and non-important scenes to make us believe that Cemre and Nedim loved each other and that Nedim suddenly became a hero who saves peoples lives from the street (for the love of goodness). They gave Cenk a horrible ending only to justify the new couple, who had no chemistry and also were not in love with one another.

A lot of people in here seem to understand that as well, which only means that we were played and somehow they changed the script to suit some stupid and childish ending. The last minutes of this series were actually disgusting to watch, trully stomach-upsetting and I'm not even kidding. As someone else wrote, they took everything from Cenk, even though he had the best character development, became a wonderful man and father and healed his darkness with love. It's still upsetting me because he was so good in this role that swept you in and made you invested on his story.

One last thing about the people who will say that Nedim "deserved" this ending. Just because someone is handicapped, doesn't mean that they're good people. And Nedim proved this throughout the series, by being a stalking selfish child who thinks he deserves and owns a woman just because and who thought he could run a company with no knowledge. And he also cooperated with Ceren who was pure evil, only to hurt Cemre because she chose Cenk over him.

I really hope the writers and channel face a backlash for their actions, because they clearly played with our intelligence.
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9/10
Most reviews were shallow; hopefully true love wins
diannazadeh18 May 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I am very disappointed with the reviews written (except for one). I believe most of these reviewers wrote out of disappointment that the main girl (nurse) did not fall in love with the cute playboy hunk Cenk but from the beginning was attracted to the handicapped Nadim...and had even kidnapped him to save him.. to me this was a beautiful love. And I hope they end up together. This series was nominated for several awards. Great acting... I am not to the end yet but the spoilers didn't bother me just the shallowness of those wanting her to end up with Cenk. I say watch it... make your own judgments.
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1/10
Same Sh.t Different Name
levorotatori29 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This series is about between a rich and a poor family. Contains too much cliche with zero difference. Too much happening but nothing changes, everything returns to same situation always. They don't even care basic details : in one scene Seniz went to camera turned it off threatened kid then turned the camera on, when her husband asked she just said '' it's malfunctipning sometimes ''. Her head was in front of the camera she turned it off manually not even remotely. Bad acting, nothing changes, just empty talks, waste of time.
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1/10
Despicable ending! A disgrace to the characters and the people who watched it!
ottmansilver26 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
What a horrible ending to this drama! A child could have written a better one that what the writers did! Extremely and unbelievably bad!!! The last 3 episodes didn't have anything to do with the rest of the show!

A child stuck in a mans body, who belittled and declared that he owned a woman like she is an object. A child who instead of chasing the real bad guy -Seniz-, took revenge on Cemre just because she DARED to have a life of her own and marry whoever she wants (even though she married Cenk to save his life), a woman who went to jail for him and who was treated like trash from her own family so that she can keep helping him. And he became the hero of the hour in 1 episode, so that they can justify that horrible ending of him taking from Cenk everything that he had.

And Cenk, who became a wonderful man because of love, who only treated her with love and respect and whom she was in love with but could not admit to herself, gets the absolutely worst ending they could write, like he was the evil character of the story, but Neriman who made 40% of the mess and who was pure evil, stayed alive of course!

What a great example to give to viewers, especially those of younger age, right? Shame on them!!
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8/10
Good new turkye serries
nickjackobs4 May 2019
This is classic turkye serries with good well known actors, cool view of Istambul and if course contrast of Istambul modern live and small cities tradition. I recomend this serries for everyone who enjoy new turkye modern TV movie.
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