Stream It Or Skip It?
The new Turkish series Old Money is a good old-fashioned soapy romance drama, with rivalries, twists and turns, sexual tension and high emotional stakes. There’s also some lush visuals and lots of shots of boats. What more can you want from a show?
OLD MONEY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: We see a bridge over Istanbul’s harbor at night. The camera pans slowly to a mansion that’s right on the harbor.
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The Gist: Nihal (Aslı Enver) is coming back from France to her family’s mansion in Istanbul, and she essentially tells her friend Engin (Serkan Altunorak) that she’s there to sell the house to the Bulut family. Engin, another old money scion of the region, wishes she wouldn’t.
He gives her the lowdown on the self-made Bulut family: Oldest sister and family matriarch Songül (Dolunay Soysert), oldest brother/adrenaline junkie Mahir (İsmail Demirci), and youngest brother/party animal Arda (Taro Emir Tekin). The one to watch out for, though, is Osman (Engin Akyürek), who runs the family’s business interests; he is ruthless, three steps ahead of his opponents, and stays quiet until he’s got all the information he needs to attack.
We flash back to 1999 and see that the Bulut family literally came from nothing; the four of them are the only survivors after an earthquake destroyed their apartment building, which was called Bulut. Songül, a young teacher at the time, more or less adopted Mahir, Arda and Osman; Osman, a financial genius, is the one who built their company by taking risks.
Nihal is selling the mansion to settle her father’s debt to the Buluts; when she finds out that they ordered her father to build them a mega-yacht, and he used their 70% down payment to pay off old debts, she realized that the yacht was a Trojan horse, designed to get him to default in order for the Buluts to take over their mansion. She decides to go ahead and actually build the yacht in order to save the house.
When Nihal meets with the family to propose her plan to actually build the yacht, she finds an adversary in Osman, who agrees to the plan but then has doubts when he receives her plans. He’s challenging, for sure, not giving her a direct contact for him and being frank about how old money people like her look down on new money people like him. Of course, there’s also an attraction there. The one thing Osman doesn’t tell, Nihal, is the real reason why he wants her family’s mansion to begin with.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Old Money, written by Meriç Acemi and directed by Uluç Bayraktar, has the soapy feel of shows like Sirens.
Our Take: You can certainly see where the story of Old Money is going during the first episode. It’s definitely the story of two strong-willed people who come from very different backgrounds becoming attracted to each other, even if they are on the opposite sides of a business transaction that’s fraught with family implications on both sides.
Yes, there will be twists along the way, with Nihal and Osman likely connecting romantically and butting heads because of their business connection. But where this show will succeed or fail is the chemistry between the actors who play them. Thankfully, there is a ton of chemistry between Akyürek and Enver.
At least at the outset, we’re enjoying Enver’s character, Nihal, more than we are Akyürek’s character Osman. While Osmanseems like yet another dark, brooding type, Nihal is a woman who doesn’t stand on ceremony, despite having an upper-crust family heritage. The first thing she does when she reopens the mansion is go to the speedboat docked outside and try to get it going. She’s just as comfortable with her hands dirty, wearing sneakers and jeans, as she is wearing designer business suits. And she has no problem confronting Osman, telling him basically everything she’s thinking, short of her knowing that the ship is a ploy to get him the mansion.
What we hope we see going forward, though, is more flashbacks going over the interesting history of the Buluts. Noe of them are blood related to each other, but they’ve spent the past 26 years overcoming the tragedies that struck each of them to become a wealthy, mostly-cohesive family unit. Some scenes of how Osman built the business while Songül kept them all together will certainly inform Osman’s character as well as shape the characters of the rest of the Buluts a little more.
Sex and Skin: There’s plenty of sexual tension, but no sex in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Osman tells someone on the phone, after getting a passive-aggressive text from Nihal, that the deal is off. “I want the mansion.”
Sleeper Star: Sedef Avcı plays Pınar and Zeynep Oymak plays Berna, two old friends of Nihal and Engin. Berna works for the Buluts as their CFO, and it seems that Engin has a crush on Nihal, but we’re not sure what role Pinar is going to play in this story.
Most Pilot-y Line: Nihal imgaines that Osman fixes watches, and when he sees his shadow on the wall, it becomes vaguely werewolf-like.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Old Money would be a bit over the top if it weren’t for the chemistry between its stars. Their performances make the show a fun watch.
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.
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