What Happened With Duy Beni?

My beloved Turkish school drama Duy Beni has officially come to an end. The final 20th episode aired on November 17th and it`ll certainly take some time for the fandom to get over the cancelation and to even consider another show to replace the hole that this angst-filled show leaves behind. 

However, like all shows, Duy Beni is not without fault. The acting was fantastic, the chemistry was on point, the cinematography was beautiful and compelling, and the episode cliffhangers gripped the fans and had them come back every week. I honestly don`t have a single bad thing to say about the acting, directing, and producing, because all of the talent and the rest of the team did a fantastic job. However, certain choices that the writing team made over the course of the show left me and many other fans scratching our heads and I need to vent or I`ll burst.

Do Bad Things—Reap Great Rewards?

This is a broad statement since not every villain on this show ends up getting a happily-ever-after. For example, Aziz and Kanat`s father gets thrown in jail. He not only physically and emotionally abuses his wife and children throughout the entirety of the show, but to plop a rotten cherry on top of a cake of creepy behavior, he also kidnaps Leyla and abuses other young girls. All in all, the fact that he ends up losing everything, including his family and freedom, is not only just, but also satisfying for the viewers to see.

However, the same can`t be said about all of the “villains” character arcs. From the pilot episode, all the way into the double-digit episodes, the show`s main bullies Melisa and Ozan are keeping busy at school, but schoolwork rarely seems to be on their minds. They dominate every corner of the school, humiliating and torturing whomever they like. This duo is plain relentless and cruel, and they spread that negativity around by poisoning the people they keep around by involving them in all sorts of hazing rituals and day-to-day bullying. Not one peer is safe and neither are the teachers. After all, the pilot episode kicks off with a teacher being forced to drive across the city at insane speeds, running over Leyla, and eventually being murdered on school property. The reason for getting tangled up in this situation? Melisa and Ozan are bored and want to play a game, so they can feel like they have some sort of control over their lives instead of seeking help for their obvious psychological problems.

You`d think that their arcs would end with them begging for forgiveness from those they`ve hurt, seeking treatment, or potentially hanging out in a jail cell next to Aziz and Kanat`s father, right? Not even close…Melisa`s PTSD due to being abandoned by her mother and her manic depression get slowly weaved into the episodes as the show progresses, and the writers end up basing all of Melisa`s behavior on these two issues. Don`t get me wrong, I really like Melisa`s character. She is an exciting villain because you can see the cracks and how hard she has to work to keep her place on the throne. Her confidence is fascinating, as are the moments when she loses control. Under different circumstances, I would`ve wanted her to learn from her mistakes, become a better person in the end, and get her happy ending. But after seeing her emotionally and physically torture Ekim, Duy Beni`s leading lady (at least according to the fandom...), put fear into hoards of innocent students for absolutely no reason, and not only body-shame Emine, but also tell her that she wasted her time jumping off of Ekim`s balcony because she didn’t even manage to end her life as she intended, that`s how useless she is, seeing Melisa become part of the friend group and being in a happy relationship with Ozan seems odd, to say the least.

The Loose Ends 

Speaking of Melisa and Ozan, the rest of the characters seem to have completely forgotten all of the awful things that the duo has done to them. From being tripped with the whole school watching, to being stripped of most of her clothes and photographed against her will, to getting choked out by Ozan in the men`s bathroom, Ekim suffered the most. And yet, towards the end of the show, we see Melisa hanging out at Ekim`s birthday party, having heart-to-hearts with her, and acting as if they`ve never had bad blood between one another. To be completely honest, I would`ve loved to see Ozan and Melisa do something to redeem themselves earlier, so their integration into the friend group would make more sense, but I`ll mention the fact that Ozan chokes Ekim in the men`s bathroom. Redemption, apologies, or none of the above, the show ending with them being civil or even friendly seems far-fetched and jarring.

Also, whatever happened to Leyla wanting justice for being temporarily confined to a wheelchair because of Melisa? Leyla eventually moves in with Melisa and it seems that she`s ready to infiltrate, get Melisa to trust her, and then completely ruin her. The show did get canceled early, so it`s possible that the writers didn’t have enough time to explore all planned subplots, however, this subplot is dropped much earlier in the story, so why did the writers make this choice? Sure, Leyla is in a better, happier place now, but why does an actual crime go completely unpunished?

Crime-related, what happens after the security guard who is obsessed with Ekim runs into the auditorium and points a gun at Ekim and Kanat? Does either of them get shot after the screen fades to black? Does the security guard go to jail? Why are there so many child predators surrounding these students?

And last but not least, the ending scene of the show was so poignant that it gave me chills. However, one question remains - how does time work in Duy Beni that Ayşe was able to become a teacher at a high school in two years?

The Mystery of the Somewhat Forgotten Main Ship 

The finale was filled to the brim with Ekim and Kanat scenes and the fandom rejoiced. However, the phrase too little too late comes to mind when speaking about the show`s ratings downward progression. The biggest crime of all that`s committed by the writers of this otherwise amazing, exciting, suspenseful show with so much potential, is focusing so much of the later episodes on side characters and side plots at the expense of the main couple, Ekim and Kanat. I didn’t go as far as to calculate how much screen time #Ekkan was getting every episode (although I`m sure there`s someone out there who did and I applaud them for their dedication), but with such a large cast and so much time spent on Melisa`s evil shenanigans, Emine`s ghost haunting one of the students, and predatory tennis teachers just to name a few, in the later episodes, Ekkan scenes are few and far between. The scenes that we do get are fantastic because the chemistry between the actors is off the charts. But when Melisa and Ozan get to experience romantic love confession, hold each other while they sleep, and frolic on the beach while our main couple is either having stupid fights or not speaking at all, as a fan, it`s hard to not feel bitter. Especially when Kanat hurts Ekim in a very mean-spirited way at one point in the show and we need to see him groveling and making up for it to feel like Kanat is truly worthy of Ekim`s love. 

The finale is romantic and Ekkan-heavy which I truly appreciate, but it would`ve been nice if the writers took full advantage of the leads` chemistry and spoiled the fans with more quality Ekkan content. 

All in all, Duy Beni is unlike any dizi I`ve ever watched. I`m so glad that I gave it a chance and let it completely take over my Thursdays this fall season. The suspense, the unique shots, the unexpected twists and turns, and the fact that the writers weren’t afraid to touch upon controversial topics made watching this show a unique experience. And while the story did have its shortcomings, at the end of the day it`s nothing that enthusiastic fan-fiction writers can`t tackle.