The Valley of the Wolves (2003–2005)
9/10
Unforgettable!
14 February 2021
This series is one of the best cult series in Turkish television history. It has a potential to be watched by a wider audience around the world with a good English version of it.

The story begins with a classical mafia story. An agent (Polat Alemdar), who is trained by the deep state of Turkey, is sneaking into the dark Turkish mafia by saving the life of one of the mafia leaders (Suleyman Cakir). Although we see Suleyman Cakir as a strong mafia leader in the beginning we later understand that he is like a pawn in this mafia world. The strongest person in this world is Karahanli or Baron. All the media know him as a businessman but actually, he manages all the mafia world in Turkey. He has a council which controls as much money as half of the national income of Turkey. The council plays quite an active role in the politics of Turkey and the Middle East. Each council member is a strong mafia leader and they all have interesting stories which shape their personality. Until episode 74, we see the crucial face of this mafia world, how the government treats the mafia, the rise of Polat Alemdar in this world, the development of different emotional stories by different characters, and a love story between a lawyer, Elif and the main cast Polat Alemdar who needs to decide whether he was a mafia leader or an agent or a normal person who loves his country. In episode 74, in the eyes of Polat, we are starting to get to know the people or another council which is more powerful and decides the political issues, wars, rebels around the world. Until this point, we understand that all the mafia world and the baron Karahanli are also pawns in this whole chess game. Finally, we turn our faces into a new war between Polat Alemdar and this strong council. Between Episode 74 and 98 (Final), we see the structure of this council, how they can easily create a war in the Middle East and benefit from it. At this point, the series focuses more on the agent side of Polat Alemdar not the mafia leader side of him. A surprise in the final episode is that Andy Garcia and Sharon Stone are cast as the leaders of this council.

Valley of the Wolves is definitely a classical series which deserves to be watched by people all around the world. Maybe it is not so professional. We can not see a high budget here but once you start to watch it from the first episode it will take you into its captivating world and give you an unforgettable experience.
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