Canned Adaptations and International Success of Turkish TV

This article examines Turkish TV series’ recent success as canned programming primarily in newly developed and developing countries in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and South America through close textual analysis of a particularly popular Turkish adaptation, Bizim Hikaye (Our Story) (2017–2019) in comparison with its original, Shameless (2011–). I argue that Turkish series’ emphasis on nostalgic and melancholic narrative frames make them particularly appealing in these regions, as they deal with relatable circumstances of swift and traumatic changes under neoliberalism. However, female protagonists are allowed only a limited range of roles because of the reliance on nostalgia, thus, ultimately serving to re-legitimize patriarchal relations of domination.

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