Hot Skull

"Hot Skull" is definitely better than I expected. It's far from perfect of course, but still quite a solid sci-fi from Turkey. I would not mind a bit more "sci" in it, they did not really go much into the explanation of jabbering throughout the series.

I was disappointed in the last episode, though. It felt rushed, and not so much in the story department, so much as in production. It felt as if actors have lost their edge and their performance got worse for no apparent reason. Although, I was watching it with English dub, so maybe it was the dub problem, and not the actors.

Nevertheless, I would not mind seeing a second season.

Hot Skull is a good Turkish dystopia travelling around contemporary social issues pandemic, state pressure, totalitarianism, resistance, individualism, and search for hope. Presented in a gloomy Istanbul atmosphere portrayed in brown, yellow and green colors, this eight part series tells us the story of Murat Siyavus, a linguist and an intellectual who is immune to the a social-medical pandemic, yet prone to another illness related to (his) bodily reactions. Around social and medical issues, Hot Skull presents a dark future, where the cities are wound round with walls and law enforcement forces. It is a good series since it is a dystopia that is not common in Turkish popular culture and it presents contemporary social-medical issues with good visuals, and credible storytelling. The acting of Osman Sonant, Sevket Coruh, Haluk Bilginer and especially Tilbe Saran are notably good, the rest is unfortunately below average. However, since it is within the boundaries of popular culture (yes Netflix) the series limits itself and almost always stops where it can say something more, and become critical and notable.

Having watched the first episode it is fairly obvious that this is a re-imagination of the 2008 Canadian film Pontypool with a COVID like setting/analogy.

That film had the exact same premise, a diseased state with the same symptoms and spread the exact same way, verbally (speech to hearing). Having said that, the production values are good, and the lead actors are good as well. I haven't watched too much Turkish cinema, but this seems to be a quality production even if the idea is not entirely original. Yes, it is Turkish, but the video I watched had a dual English Audio component and subtitles as well. I'm interested to see where they take this and will continue to watch. BTW, check out the original movie, Pontypool, it is quite good.

It has many similarities from many other series, such as: stranger things, dark, matrix, you etc...

It started with a curiosity but cannot keep that momentum all the way to the end. There is no surprise on any of the episode except that one scene.

Sometimes main character behaved like a really childish, selfish but without any good valid background, therefore you cannot make the connection with him.

Topic is okeyish, but could be way better with a little bit intelligence. It turned out a classic Turkish series, which has long lasting dialogs without any meaning, very very slow scenes, meaningless moments. Especially i really looked for a 2x or 3x fast forward option on Netflix to be able watch it.

Starting off with captivating protagonist and promising story that delivers to some extend but not all. Epidemic, societal decline and government control are main themes. Beautifully shot with grim city scapes. Reasonable realistic character development but it crumbles a little at the 5/6 episode mark where the story takes detours. The biggest fail and why it is not high 8s for this review is the lack of explanation around this epidemic, the mortality and symptoms for example. Without this, it is difficult to feel threat or urgency which also sends other storylines a drift. It feels like the story is searching although the cinematography is excellent.