'The Club' Review: The Turkish series has an intriguing start but an abrupt end
For Season 1 of 'The Club', the word 'intrigue' seems appropriate. A Turkish series, 'The Club' is set against the backdrop of the years 199, where Matilda, a woman convicted of murder finds herself working at Istanbul's most revolutionary nightclub. However, the circumstances due to which she finds herself working here are less than desirable -- she takes up the job to bail her daughter out of jail who broke into the club.
For Matilda, her relationship with her daughter Rasel is just as complicated as well -- Rasel grew up an orphan, with no knowledge of her mother's whereabouts. Between trying to mend her relationship and facing a person from her past, Matilda navigates through a world that is a far cry from the one she left behind. If you're looking for other Netflix series across genres to check out, you might want to consider -- 'Hypnotic', 'More than Blue', 'Insiders' and 'Night Teeth'
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The series sucks you in by creating an air of mystery around Matilda, continuously dropping hints that she comes from a vastly different reality compared to the one she is living. With each passing episode, pieces come together like a puzzle -- Matilda belonged to a wealthy Jewish family that consisted of her father and her brother, as her mother died earlier on. She is expected to be wed soon, like most girls her age, but soon finds out that she is pregnant, by a man named Mumtaz, who works for her father. Mumtaz came from humble beginnings and made his way to the top, and the two fell in love.
It wasn't long before Matilda was pregnant and she was ready to make her family understand that Mumtaz was the one she wanted to be with, despite him being Muslim. However, with Turkey imposing the wealth tax against non-muslims, her father and brother were reported to have not paid the same, even though they had paid their dues. They were taken away to the labour camp in Askale, where they worked until they died. Upon finding out that Mumtaz was the one who betrayed her family, Matilda killed the man she once loved.
While it seems she is now out of prison and is mending her relationship with her estranged daughter, ghosts from her past seem to haunt her, in the form of a man named Celebi. Celebi once worked for Matilda's father and seeing that he was from the same town as Mutaz, takes it upon himself to harass Matilda.
However, his motive isn't as clear, as it remains unknown if he is driven by feelings or hatred for her. While the show has you invested in Matilda's past, the second half gets increasingly hard to watch, mainly because Rasel seems to repeat all of Matilda's mistakes, including getting pregnant. However, Rasel decides to leave with her fiance, who is not the father of her child, leaving Matilda all alone yet again. The end of the season seems a bit too abrupt, and while it seems like it has set up for Season 2, one can argue that it also creates a scenario where each of the characters can leave their past and move on entirely.
You can stream 'The Club' on Netflix from November 5, 2021, onwards.