📺 Set in the ‘70s and ‘80s in Istanbul, The Museum of Innocence is a nine-episode Turkish series based on Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk’s 2008 hit eponymous novel. The series chronicles the lives of a wealthy, older “gentleman” and his younger, poorer relative as they find themselves entangled in an affair that would see both their lives utterly upended.

Kemal (Selahattin Paşalı) has it all — a successful business, the perfect fiancée, dashing looks. When he comes across a shopgirl, Fuşun (Eylül Kandemir) — who happens to be a distant relative — he becomes obsessed with her. A full-fledged love affair takes root, just weeks before Kemal’s engagement party to Sibel (Oya Unustası), leaving him in a precarious situation. The series hops back and forth in timelines to decades later, where we are introduced to Kemal’s “museum of innocence,” where the affair is immortalized in physical memorabilia.

The show is daring, shocking, and fresh. A sense of mystery prevails, keeping us on the edge of our seats, with morally gray characters. Infidelity, gender roles, and class struggles are all put under the spotlight, and the show does an incredible job of encouraging the viewer to draw their own conclusions and judgments. The soundtrack adds depth, and the entire cast — bar none — delivers noteworthy performances. Although it’s available in English dubbing, we’d recommend watching the show in its original Turkish, so nothing gets lost in translation.

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WHERE TO WATCH- You can stream the show on Netflix. Watch the trailer on YouTube (watch, runtime: 1:59).

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