The Turkish dramedy Another Self became a hit for Netflix in 2022 mainly because of the chemistry its three main actors had with each other. But it was also because the characters were working towards something when one of them was diagnosed with cancer. The second season takes places a number of months after the first took place, and the friend with cancer isn’t out of the woods yet but is looking forward to what’s next. So are her friends, and therein lies the problem with the second season’s stories.
ANOTHER SELF SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Women are picking cotton in a field, with one singing a song in honor of a fellow worker who is pregnant. The pregnant woman goes into labor and quickly has her baby, though she falls ill. The year is 1980, and a narrator talks about how a person might grow up if they don’t get that first contact with their mother when they are born.
The Gist: Ada (Tuba Büyüküstün), Sevgi (Boncuk Yilmaz) and Leyla (Seda Bakan) are all now living in the seaside town of Ayvalik, but their circumstances have all changed since they moved there. Ada is now divorced and dating her old flame Toprak (Murat Boz), though she seems to be frustrated by his indecision over what he wants from his life. Leyla is pregnant but has to face raising the baby alone because her husband Erdem (Umut Kurt) is in prison. Sevgi is married to Fikret (Rıza Kocaoğlu), but as she finishes up her cancer treatments hoping for a good outcome, she finds everything he does unnecessary and annoying.
But they have plans. Leyla recruits Fiko to renovate and run an old tavern that she took out a loan for and bought on a whim. She wants to get her dream business established before she gets bogged down in parenting the new baby; she has a lot to deal with with her son Sarp (Mehmet Aybars Kaya), who misses his father and doesn’t know the truth about why he’s away.
Ada still goes to Zaman (Firat Tanis), the spiritualist. She’s curious about how traumas that happen to a child from birth on get internalized and passed on if the person chooses not to have children. Zaman tells her that she needs to find her answers internally by asking the right questions.
Fiko, who also still sees Zaman (he’s the baby that was born in the cotton field), is perplexed by Sevgi’s current disdain for him, and he decides to give her space by bunking in Toprak’s RV. Oh, and he’s also lost his job on a tourist boat because he’s constantly late. Toprak, for his part, isn’t sure why Ana is on him for spending time with his ex Eva (Seren Deniz Yalçin) while he visits with his daughter Flor (Nadia Hamzeh).
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Another Self is a friendship drama, sort of like Run The World or Sex And The City, but taking place in Turkey.
Our Take: Like we mentioned during the first season of Another Self, the show revolves around the chemistry between Büyüküstün, Bakan and Yilmaz, and when the three of them are on screen at the same time, as they are at the end of the first episode, the show is enjoyable to watch. Even when two of the three are together in a scene, the chemistry between those two actors carries things. When only one of them (or none) of them are on screen? The show drags a bit.
Why does it drag? Mostly because Ada seems to equate her issues with the real problems her other friends are facing. She probably feels she has the right perspective, but she doesn’t. Leyla is putting herself in debt while her husband is in prison and a second child is on the way, and Sevgi is still fighting cancer, for heaven’s sake. Ada has some real-world problems — she recently lost her mother and got divorced — but her current struggles with Toprak pale in comparison to her friends’ issues.
Ada is seeking something, to be sure, but her quest just doesn’t register compared to her friends’ more urgent difficulties. It’s pretty telling that she’s the only one of the three still going to Zaman. Perhaps this will connect with the greater difficulties her friends are navigating, or something more significant will happen in Ada’s life to bring her back down to earth, but while we watched the first episode, we were much more interested in Leyla’s and Sevgi’s stories.
Sex and Skin: Nothing overt in the first episode, but there may be some later in the season.
Parting Shot: While hanging out with Ada and Sevgi, Leyla’s water breaks. As she gets wheeled through the emergency room to where she’s going to have her baby, Ada sees a man wheeled in who is sporting a vaguely familiar tattoo.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Rıza Kocaoğlu, who plays Fiko, mainly because he’s essentially the Steve Brady of this series; always seems loyal and attentive, but gets the short end of the marital stick, anyway.
Most Pilot-y Line: Sevgi wears an orange wig to her visit with Leyla and Ada, and when Leyla’s water breaks, Ada tells her that the wig isn’t appropriate for the hospital. Who cares?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Again, Another Self works because of the chemistry its three stars have with each other. But the stories are starting to split them apart too much; let’s hope that’s corrected by the end of the season.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Another Self’ Season 2 On Netflix, Where Three Friends Navigate Love, Tragedy And Illness In A Turkish Seaside Town appeared first on Decider.
