shadowclarys

At its surface, AM is about a city girl who falls for a small town boy, and all the clichés that entails, and that is the core of the story. I think that's part of why it's so good--bc this story had a premise and it's kept that premise solid. City girl moves to small town and falls in love with a local and everyone learns lessons along the way.

But AM takes the tropes and clichés and does them well. I've written before about how they take the basics and give them just enough "oomph" to make them special. I'll quote myself here, if I may:

Haziran and Poyraz both seem to fit into pretty typical roles: gruff, silent man and bubbly, talkative woman. But they’ve given each character enough nuance to move them out of the typical mold. Yes, Haziran is bubbly and talkative and a little overly loud, but she has a reason for it–silence in her childhood meant anger and fighting with her mother, and she learned how to fill the silence with talking. She is also very competent at her job, genuinely kind, smart, and driven. Poyraz is the “strong, silent” type, but he manages to subvert the “asshole” which far too often comes with the role. Like Haziran, he has some difficulties in his past, but he also seems well adjusted, smart, genuinely kind, focused, and again, competent. He and Haziran are true equals in this show, which is rare in romcom couples, particularly Turkish ones. They both are in similar financial situations, they both seem to have similar philosophies and outlooks, and, perhaps most importantly, they are both head over heels for each other and they both know it, even if they are unable to say it out loud just yet.

At the time when I wrote the above piece, I believe we were just before episode 6 or 7, so the secret hadn't been revealed yet, and at the time I speculated that it was likely to drop before their relationship started, and I was correct. This show continues to take the obvious and turn it on its head.

Poyraz and Haziran are one of the few dizi couples, and certainly the only romcom couple, I've seen where they have entered into a relationship that isn't built on a fragile house of cards held together by mutual attraction. This couple is completely and totally all in, and it makes sense. They've had conversation upon conversation about their parents, their past, their fears, their insecurities, their concerns. They've seen each other vulnerable and hurting and scared and been there for each other at their lowest. They have complete and total trust in each other, in their love for each other, in their relationship.

There is attraction yes, certainly, god is there ever, but there is also a deep affection. They like each other, which may seem a silly thing to fixate on, but so many times with couples I ask myself "okay, but do they even like each other though?" and in this case, they genuinely do. Poyraz loves her rambling and her overreactions and the way she hops from one idea to the other but somehow always manages to make it work. He loves that she works hard and never pawns off the hard jobs and he loves how genuinely kind and caring she is. He memorizes everything because he liked her before he loved her, and that's huge. And same for her. She loves his kindness and his empathy, his ability to fix broken electronics and his stubbornness when it comes to getting his way. She loves his honesty and his pride and the way he can't ever really say no to her. I think she also really loves that he doesn't let his past affect who he is. There's a connection between them that started with a spark but grew into something actually real.

The best bit, though, is that this is the first romcom couple I've seen (there may be more) that enter the relationship on completely equal terms, no secrets, and no uncertainties. All their secrets from each other were cleared up long before they ever said I love you. They are both in a similar place life wise--financially they are both probably around equal in terms of overall assets, they both have equal romantic histories (probably a series of short term relationships but nothing big or long lasting), they both value hard work and honesty and kindness, they are both mature adults who have been "out" of their parents house so to speak (yes, both still live with their respective parents, but neither play the typical "kid" role--they both are honestly more in the caretaker role), they are both college educated with business acumen. They both have had difficulties in their past, but neither allow those issues to hurt others--they both possess enough self-awareness to know how their issues effect them personally and they both work to ensure their issues don't become someone else's burden. Poyraz helping her with her fear of water or Haziran talking him through his mother are not them burdening each other, or using their issues as a reason to avoid a relationship--on the contrary, they build their bond by supporting each other through their pain. And, and this one is perhaps most important, they both love each other equally, and they both knew it before it was ever said outloud. That Poyraz could say "I love you" and Haziran could say it right back, no hesitation, speaks volumes to where they are both individually and as a couple.

Perhaps what's been the most refreshing is them communicating, constantly. When these two fight, they share their issues, their anger, their irritation, and then they work through it. The way they talk through their issues, every time, is honestly stunning for how completely refreshing it is. When they get mad at each other, they don't act like everything is fine while actively treating the other like crap--they explain the reasons behind their anger/irritation, they listen, they talk. The scene this episode of their banter after their fight on the first date was incredibly refreshing--bc it wasn't actually fighting. Haz was upset bc Poyraz ruined their first date--which he acknowledges, apologizes for, and then makes up to her, and she accepts. Their playful flirting in the kitchen the next day is just that--fun and playful and both of them are in on it. It's not Haz treating him like shit under the guise of "comedy", it's not him purposely being an obnoxious pain in the ass. It's them being cute and flirty and light after their fight the night before, which they already solved with a text conversation.

What I love most about their relationship is that I buy it. Completely. These are two people who aren't going to run when things get tough, who aren't going to play coy about their feelings, who aren't going to fight just to fight. We've seen them be honest and straightforward in their feelings, good, bad or otherwise. We've seen them fight for each other and their relationship. We've seen them encounter problems (whether in their relationship or in life) and work through them, together. And perhaps the greatest part of their relationship is that they allow each other to be exactly who they are. They are both allowed to feel the things they feel, and the other lets them. They are given a safe space to be themselves, and to know that they will always have the support and love of the other person, no matter what.

I said I thought this show was about love, at it's core, and all the ways love manifests, and I still think that's true. But I think this show is also about happiness--and about the idea that we can't always know exactly what is going to make us happy. True happiness can't always be predicted--what you think might make you happy isn't always what actually does, and sometimes that's a hard thing to accept. All of the characters on this show have a view of the world and what will bring them joy, and one by one I think we are seeing that change. Sometimes what makes you happy is the thing you didn't expect.

This show is hardly perfect. It's a dizi, and it has it's flaws. And without knowing how long it's set to run, the chances of it losing focus is not an impossibility. But this show continues to delight and surprise--from introducing new characters like Batu who are far more than they appear, to continuing to keep us guessing with old ones, I think AM has the chance to be a romcom people remember as being special. I'm hoping right now for between 20-25 episodes, which would allow us to explore their island and it's story in the detail I think it deserves, without leaving too much room for nonsense to creep in.

i love how haziran’s talkative joyful personality has a solid background. and i love that poyraz loves that about her.

haziran lived in silence for most of her life after her dad died, because so many things between her and her mother were left unsaid, and they all came back when her mother decided to stay in the island and had her mind on taking haz back to the city.

haz kept all her feelings from her teenage years locked inside her until she couldn’t hold them anymore.

life molds you, but the way it shapes you is up to you. and haziran and poyraz have not let their past destroy their kindness, empathy, and the good in them. in fact, both still saw the good in people. ie when haz thought her boss was actually doing something good for the island and their people, and when poyraz never even for a minute suspected of haziran, even if some things pointed to her… because he saw her for what she truly is.

(for comparison, when things started to make sense in pointing to hakan as responsible for the financial situation of poyraz, he went on that direction, even if he wanted to believe it was all a misunderstanding)

poyraz past with his mom and dad also contributed to his quiet but honest personality. i’m still on 1x12 or so (1x39 of the international version), but from what i’ve known of his mother’s past, he probably saw a lot of loud talking, fighting, and chaos happening between her and her husband. and after the accident and the angry life he lived afterwards, it must have been a really troubled time of his life. so when he met alper and melisa, obviously he wanted to keep that peace and adapted into that guy of few words. but that hasn’t kept him from saying what he truly thinks and feels.

and then he met haz and saw that talkative could be good. that noise didn’t necessarily mean bad. bc she had come from a loud noisy city and she still was a good person.

but i also think that a part of him wanted to shout for the world that he loved haziran but was afraid of turning into a bad thing. because his love for his mother led him to istanbul and he only got violence, dissapointment and pain out of that.

i love that haz is joyful, talkative, and so emotion-driven, and that poyraz is calm, gentle, reasonable at the same time he has a heart of gold, so caring about others and so sweet. i absolutely love how their dynamic play out and how one is able to take care of the other’s vulnerabilities and heal their heart and soul. i love to see that pure love between them manifesting so many good things in each of them and bringing so much happiness to them.

and what makes their feelings for each other so genuine is that all was built bit by bit, with no rush, no need to push anything. as strangers, they still opened up about tiny things about them, and little by little confidence was growing and each one of them let the other see their heart and soul, their dreams, hopes, secrets and vulnerabilities. every moment together was an opportunity to know something else about each other, and everything came out naturally, sincerely. they had so many moments together and shared so many things that had never been shared with anyone else (either bc others didn’t care or bc there never was a moment or someone that they could be so honest about them and feel understood or be comforted).

and all that just created this beautiful friendship with something else blooming in the back, a romance sparking up every time they got deeper and closer.

they got to know each other thoroughly before they could fall in love. and that was what made them fall for each other. they fell in love for every tiny part of the other’s soul and heart. by the time they were in love, they had already fallen in love with everything about the other. they never even got time to aknowledge their feelings growing until they came to realize they were deeply in love with each other.

god, this show really knows how to make you get envolved with their love story and feel every frustration, excitement, anxiety and everything else that poyhaz felt around each other.

haziran is so afraid of the sea, because it’s so beautiful and calm but then it can turn into this wild furious thing. and poyraz was kind of that when she was living in fear of him finding out about her secret. bc poyraz was beautiful and calm, but when he found out about it he would turn into this feral man losing control out of anger.

and i think that it’s so poetic that they finally get together after poyraz helps haz overcome her fear of the sea.

and at the same time, poyraz is so afraid of losing the ones he loves. and haziran represented the abandonment of a loved one just like his mother did, bc when she arrived at the island all she kept saying was that she wanted to leave and go back to istanbul. and then he helped haz overcome her fear of the sea, which could make her leave now that she’s not afraid of the sea anymore. but she decided to stay. and that’s when he realized she would never abandon him. so he finally gave in to his feelings for her.

now that they’re together, they’re enjoying every tiny moment with each other, living their love at its fullest. caring for each other as they always wanted to. giving love to each other as they always dreamed of. and showing all their feelings for each other as they always eagered for.

poyraz is like the sea and haziran is like the wind.

poyraz is calm, gentle, beautiful. but has a force that can make him wild when furious.

haziran is free, always going everywhere and never staying anywhere. always in motion.

but the sea needs the wind to be alive, to move its tides. and the wind needs the sea to bring it to life, to allow it to move.

i absolutely love how fierce haziran is. after poyraz found out, he crushed her heart everyday multiple times. he told her he wanted her to leave the island so angrily and so many times. she was fallen apart. yet she responded him in the same way: “I AM GOING TO STAY. I WILL STAY BECAUSE I WANT TO STAY. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, I’M NOT GONNA LEAVE THE ISLAND.”

I FUCKING LOVE how she fought so much for their love. she hoped he’d forgive her but she thought that would never happen. but she decided to face all the bad things that came in her way. the hardest of them having to see poyraz so cold and distant.

i love that she didn’t let any of this get in her way.

(i actually think that poyraz destroying everything out of rage was more of a scene to make her give up. he was angry, yes, but i think that he tried to do everything as hard as possible for her to stay in the island just for her to leave. i don’t think he actually was that angry to burst out in flames and destroy everything, imo he was more sad and disappointed than furious.)

and i love that he forgave her slowly, giving time to see that she really loves him and to let the past in the past. i love that he first forgave her for only then to get together with her. it made everything heal before they started a relationship. now they can embrace their love for each other completely and care for each other as boyfriend and girlfriend, love each other as a couple and enjoy that beautiful and pure love and their relationship.

and i absolutely love how they still keep fighting for their love even being together because they know people wanna separate them.

i love that poyraz put all the pieces together and saw that idil was faking about her illness. SUCH A HANDSOME SMART MAN!

i love that haziran said to her mother that nothing is gonna get between her and poyraz.

i love that poyraz told his grandma not to do anything to separate them.

I LOVE that they promised to each other that they’re gonna be together and nothing nor no one is gonna tear them apart.

AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE that they kept that promise.

batu (mostly) did disgusting things to separate them, but poyhaz remained together. poyhaz has always been aware everything bad going on has been plotted by their enemies to separate them and THANK GOD THEY KNOW!

the scene of haziran comforting poyraz after he tells about his angry past and telling him how much she’s proud of the man he’s become and how much she admires the man he is, telling him how much she loves his heart and soul. poyraz seeing that and being relieved the love of his life did not step away after hearing about his past. MY HEART MELTED SO MUCH WHEN I SAW HIS FACE OF RELIEF AND HAPPINESS. i got so proud of my girl for doing all that for him, i wanted to hug them both and thank haziran for all she’s done to make sure poyraz is truly loved. I APPRECIATE MY BABIES SO MUCH UGH!!!!

they’re so soft and sweet to each other

and when they need to they fight others bravely for each other and for their love… god, they’re so strong.

At its surface, AM is about a city girl who falls for a small town boy, and all the clichés that entails, and that is the core of the story. I think that's part of why it's so good--bc this story had a premise and it's kept that premise solid. City girl moves to small town and falls in love with a local and everyone learns lessons along the way.

But AM takes the tropes and clichés and does them well. I've written before about how they take the basics and give them just enough "oomph" to make them special. I'll quote myself here, if I may:

Haziran and Poyraz both seem to fit into pretty typical roles: gruff, silent man and bubbly, talkative woman. But they’ve given each character enough nuance to move them out of the typical mold. Yes, Haziran is bubbly and talkative and a little overly loud, but she has a reason for it–silence in her childhood meant anger and fighting with her mother, and she learned how to fill the silence with talking. She is also very competent at her job, genuinely kind, smart, and driven. Poyraz is the “strong, silent” type, but he manages to subvert the “asshole” which far too often comes with the role. Like Haziran, he has some difficulties in his past, but he also seems well adjusted, smart, genuinely kind, focused, and again, competent. He and Haziran are true equals in this show, which is rare in romcom couples, particularly Turkish ones. They both are in similar financial situations, they both seem to have similar philosophies and outlooks, and, perhaps most importantly, they are both head over heels for each other and they both know it, even if they are unable to say it out loud just yet.

At the time when I wrote the above piece, I believe we were just before episode 6 or 7, so the secret hadn't been revealed yet, and at the time I speculated that it was likely to drop before their relationship started, and I was correct. This show continues to take the obvious and turn it on its head.

Poyraz and Haziran are one of the few dizi couples, and certainly the only romcom couple, I've seen where they have entered into a relationship that isn't built on a fragile house of cards held together by mutual attraction. This couple is completely and totally all in, and it makes sense. They've had conversation upon conversation about their parents, their past, their fears, their insecurities, their concerns. They've seen each other vulnerable and hurting and scared and been there for each other at their lowest. They have complete and total trust in each other, in their love for each other, in their relationship.

There is attraction yes, certainly, god is there ever, but there is also a deep affection. They like each other, which may seem a silly thing to fixate on, but so many times with couples I ask myself "okay, but do they even like each other though?" and in this case, they genuinely do. Poyraz loves her rambling and her overreactions and the way she hops from one idea to the other but somehow always manages to make it work. He loves that she works hard and never pawns off the hard jobs and he loves how genuinely kind and caring she is. He memorizes everything because he liked her before he loved her, and that's huge. And same for her. She loves his kindness and his empathy, his ability to fix broken electronics and his stubbornness when it comes to getting his way. She loves his honesty and his pride and the way he can't ever really say no to her. I think she also really loves that he doesn't let his past affect who he is. There's a connection between them that started with a spark but grew into something actually real.

The best bit, though, is that this is the first romcom couple I've seen (there may be more) that enter the relationship on completely equal terms, no secrets, and no uncertainties. All their secrets from each other were cleared up long before they ever said I love you. They are both in a similar place life wise--financially they are both probably around equal in terms of overall assets, they both have equal romantic histories (probably a series of short term relationships but nothing big or long lasting), they both value hard work and honesty and kindness, they are both mature adults who have been "out" of their parents house so to speak (yes, both still live with their respective parents, but neither play the typical "kid" role--they both are honestly more in the caretaker role), they are both college educated with business acumen. They both have had difficulties in their past, but neither allow those issues to hurt others--they both possess enough self-awareness to know how their issues effect them personally and they both work to ensure their issues don't become someone else's burden. Poyraz helping her with her fear of water or Haziran talking him through his mother are not them burdening each other, or using their issues as a reason to avoid a relationship--on the contrary, they build their bond by supporting each other through their pain. And, and this one is perhaps most important, they both love each other equally, and they both knew it before it was ever said outloud. That Poyraz could say "I love you" and Haziran could say it right back, no hesitation, speaks volumes to where they are both individually and as a couple.

Perhaps what's been the most refreshing is them communicating, constantly. When these two fight, they share their issues, their anger, their irritation, and then they work through it. The way they talk through their issues, every time, is honestly stunning for how completely refreshing it is. When they get mad at each other, they don't act like everything is fine while actively treating the other like crap--they explain the reasons behind their anger/irritation, they listen, they talk. The scene this episode of their banter after their fight on the first date was incredibly refreshing--bc it wasn't actually fighting. Haz was upset bc Poyraz ruined their first date--which he acknowledges, apologizes for, and then makes up to her, and she accepts. Their playful flirting in the kitchen the next day is just that--fun and playful and both of them are in on it. It's not Haz treating him like shit under the guise of "comedy", it's not him purposely being an obnoxious pain in the ass. It's them being cute and flirty and light after their fight the night before, which they already solved with a text conversation.

What I love most about their relationship is that I buy it. Completely. These are two people who aren't going to run when things get tough, who aren't going to play coy about their feelings, who aren't going to fight just to fight. We've seen them be honest and straightforward in their feelings, good, bad or otherwise. We've seen them fight for each other and their relationship. We've seen them encounter problems (whether in their relationship or in life) and work through them, together. And perhaps the greatest part of their relationship is that they allow each other to be exactly who they are. They are both allowed to feel the things they feel, and the other lets them. They are given a safe space to be themselves, and to know that they will always have the support and love of the other person, no matter what.

I said I thought this show was about love, at it's core, and all the ways love manifests, and I still think that's true. But I think this show is also about happiness--and about the idea that we can't always know exactly what is going to make us happy. True happiness can't always be predicted--what you think might make you happy isn't always what actually does, and sometimes that's a hard thing to accept. All of the characters on this show have a view of the world and what will bring them joy, and one by one I think we are seeing that change. Sometimes what makes you happy is the thing you didn't expect.

This show is hardly perfect. It's a dizi, and it has it's flaws. And without knowing how long it's set to run, the chances of it losing focus is not an impossibility. But this show continues to delight and surprise--from introducing new characters like Batu who are far more than they appear, to continuing to keep us guessing with old ones, I think AM has the chance to be a romcom people remember as being special. I'm hoping right now for between 20-25 episodes, which would allow us to explore their island and it's story in the detail I think it deserves, without leaving too much room for nonsense to creep in.

i love how haziran’s talkative joyful personality has a solid background. and i love that poyraz loves that about her.

haziran lived in silence for most of her life after her dad died, because so many things between her and her mother were left unsaid, and they all came back when her mother decided to stay in the island and had her mind on taking haz back to the city.

haz kept all her feelings from her teenage years locked inside her until she couldn’t hold them anymore.

life molds you, but the way it shapes you is up to you. and haziran and poyraz have not let their past destroy their kindness, empathy, and the good in them. in fact, both still saw the good in people. ie when haz thought her boss was actually doing something good for the island and their people, and when poyraz never even for a minute suspected of haziran, even if some things pointed to her… because he saw her for what she truly is.

(for comparison, when things started to make sense in pointing to hakan as responsible for the financial situation of poyraz, he went on that direction, even if he wanted to believe it was all a misunderstanding)

poyraz past with his mom and dad also contributed to his quiet but honest personality. i’m still on 1x12 or so (1x39 of the international version), but from what i’ve known of his mother’s past, he probably saw a lot of loud talking, fighting, and chaos happening between her and her husband. and after the accident and the angry life he lived afterwards, it must have been a really troubled time of his life. so when he met alper and melisa, obviously he wanted to keep that peace and adapted into that guy of few words. but that hasn’t kept him from saying what he truly thinks and feels.

and then he met haz and saw that talkative could be good. that noise didn’t necessarily mean bad. bc she had come from a loud noisy city and she still was a good person.

but i also think that a part of him wanted to shout for the world that he loved haziran but was afraid of turning into a bad thing. because his love for his mother led him to istanbul and he only got violence, disappointment and pain out of that.

i love that haz is joyful, talkative, and so emotion-driven, and that poyraz is calm, gentle, reasonable at the same time he has a heart of gold, so caring about others and so sweet. i absolutely love how their dynamic plays out and how one is able to take care of the other’s vulnerabilities and heal their heart and soul. i love to see that pure love between them manifesting so many good things in each of them and bringing so much happiness to them.

and what makes their feelings for each other so genuine is that all was built bit by bit, with no rush, no need to push anything. as strangers, they still opened up about tiny things about them, and little by little confidence was growing and each one of them let the other see their heart and soul, their dreams, hopes, secrets and vulnerabilities. every moment together was an opportunity to know something else about each other, and everything came out naturally, sincerely. they had so many moments together and shared so many things that had never been shared with anyone else (either bc others didn’t care or bc there never was a moment or someone that they could be so honest about them and feel understood or be comforted).

and all that just created this beautiful friendship with something else blooming in the back, a romance sparking up every time they got deeper and closer.

they got to know each other thoroughly before they could fall in love. and that was what made them fall for each other. they fell in love for every tiny part of the other’s soul and heart. by the time they were in love, they had already fallen in love with everything about the other. they never even got time to aknowledge their feelings growing until they came to realize they were deeply in love with each other.

god, this show really knows how to make you get involved with their love story and feel every frustration, excitement, anxiety and everything else that poyhaz felt around each other.

haziran is so afraid of the sea, because it’s so beautiful and calm but then it can turn into this wild furious thing. and poyraz was kind of that when she was living in fear of him finding out about her secret. bc poyraz was beautiful and calm, but when he found out about it he would turn into this feral man losing control out of anger.

and i think that it’s so poetic that they finally get together after poyraz helps haz overcome her fear of the sea.

and at the same time, poyraz is so afraid of losing the ones he loves. and haziran represented the abandonment of a loved one just like his mother did, bc when she arrived at the island all she kept saying was that she wanted to leave and go back to istanbul. and then he helped haz overcome her fear of the sea, which could make her leave now that she’s not afraid of the sea anymore. but she decided to stay. and that’s when he realized she would never abandon him. so he finally gave in to his feelings for her.

now that they’re together, they’re enjoying every tiny moment with each other, living their love at its fullest. caring for each other as they always wanted to. giving love to each other as they always dreamed of. and showing all their feelings for each other as they always eagered for.

poyraz is like the sea and haziran is like the wind.

poyraz is calm, gentle, beautiful. but has a force that can make him wild when furious.

haziran is free, always going everywhere and never staying anywhere. always in motion.

but the sea needs the wind to be alive, to move its tides. and the wind needs the sea to bring it to life, to allow it to move.

JENNA ORTEGA & EMMA MYERS on ‘Wednesday’ & Expanding 'The Addams Family’ Universe

+ bonus

How do you keep a deadpan face while you’re going through all this? — It was something that Tim [Burton] and I established very early on. She [Wednesday] doesn’t blink. He [Tim] likes it when I tilt my chin down, look through my eyebrows, kind of a [Stanley] Kubrick stare. I relax all the muscles in my face, and then you just move your eyebrows and that’s pretty much all your reaction.