The Girl I Loved (Bir Çocuk Sevdim)

7.5 | 10

            Welcome to a Turkish love triangle. On one side we have Mine, an intelligent, beautiful, middle-class schoolgirl. On the other side we have Timur, the business man, and Sinan, her first-love. Both of these men are full of money, and full of unconditional love for our main girl Mine (much to the horror of her infinitely jealous older sister, Emine).

            But love ain’t easy for Mine, especially when she has to battle meddling families, kidnappers, sick exes, and her own indecision. This show chronicles Mine’s journey from loving one, to loving the other, to loving the other again, and so forth…

            I will say it is all very entertaining and I will elaborate more on this in a bit. But first, I must reveal the shows most fatal flaw. A flaw so terrible most of you might vow to never watch it…

It is discontinued.

            Yep.

            After 79 episodes the show abruptly ends with no hope of ever coming back. So, us faithful viewers will never know who Mine ends up with or if she ends of with anyone at all. I will say however, for me personally, I do not regret the time I spent watching The Girl I Loved. If you are the type of person who believes the journey is more valuable than the destination, you too might also not regret it. However, it is understandable to be put-off. Most of the points deducted in my rating were due to this fact.

Spoiler Time.

            Characters.

            Characters are the most important faucets of any drama show. Some action shows can get away with having two-dimensional characters. The guns, violence, and high-speed car chases can make you forget that the main character has no personality or life goals. But in the world of long-running TV dramas there is nothing more vital than the characters.

            What makes a good character? Motivation. Emotion. Consequence. Growth. And I would like to take this opportunity to applaud The Girl I Loved for some stellar characters (not all of them, but enough of them).

1. Mine

At the start of show Mine is a youthful girl with bangs and flowery dresses. She is the baby of her family and the apple of her father’s eye. She walks with a spring in her step and an all-consuming smile on her face. Most, if not all, of this happiness can be attributed to LOVE. Mine is in LOVE with boy #1, Sinan.

But this love comes crashing down in two waves. The first wave was when Sinan’s father, quite rudely, labels her as a ghetto girl, and the second wave was when she finds out she is pregnant with Sinan’s child.

Now its time for the meddling family trope to shine. Through a series of unfortunate events, miscommunications, and down-right deception, Mine and Sinan are divided.

Not only that, but Mine and her family are divided. Her father refuses to look at her, her brother has turned into a raging goblin, her sister’s jealousy follows her around like a cloud, and her mother is so overcome with shame all she do is sit with her hands on her lap shaking her head.

Now in comes boy (or I should say much older man) #2 Timur.

He is twice Mine’s age. He is her father’s boss. He is divorced. He has a pre-teen daughter. And Mine hates him, but she marries him. An act of pure desperation. With Sinan seemingly forsaking Mine and the unborn child and moving to America, and with her hopes her father will finally get over the shame and speak to her, Mine marries Timur.

A deal is struck. It will be a marriage only in name. Mine will have her own room with a lock and key, and they will continue more like roommates than husband and wife. Mine’s once flowery wardrobe has turned all black. Her once radiant smile has turned into a permanent scowl.

But things changes when Hasan (the cutest little boy on the face of the planet) is born. Two years pass and Mine has grown to respect Timur, as a man and as a father to her son. Her heart still remains drenched in memories of Sinan, but with multiple episodes left you can sense the love-triangle coming and coming hard.      

That is exactly what happens. When Sinan comes back into town, Mine doesn’t immediately fly into his arms. Let the indecision games begin! Sinan or Timur? Timur or Sinan? All very entertaining stuff filled with the right amount of jealousy and angst. Especially since Hasan (the cutest boy on the face of this planet) is caught in the middle.  

As this show is discontinued, we do not know who Mine chooses.

Overall, Mine is a good main character. In my experience characters are tarnished not when they make wrong decisions but when they make illogical choices for the sake of plot (cough cough The Young and The Restless). Through her inner monologues I understood and sympathized with her indecision, with her flip-flopping between the two men, with her angst. The choices she made were in character, especially when it came to her relationship with her father, sister, and son (the cutest child on the face of the planet).  

• Sinan

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Some viewers love him, some viewers hate him. Personally, I’m not a fan.

Sinan is the son of a wealthy business man, he is a daredevil as the first episode drives home (a little too much on the nose if you ask me) when he jumps out of a helicopter. His most overwhelming character trait is his LOVE for Mine. This boy eats, drinks, and breaths Mine. When he learns of how his family tore the two apart, how they prevented him from being a father to his son, he is pissed. And, rightfully so. Nothing in is more satisfying that seeing Bekir, Sinan’s father, get bullied and put in his place.

However, after 79 episodes of listening to Sinan go on and on and on and on and on and on about his love for Mine it gets annoying. Whenever he would go on his long and repetitive speeches about Mine’s smile, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and think, “Okay. Okay. We get it. Now wrap it up.” This was especially annoying during Mine’s ‘indecision period’ (which lasted essentially the entire show), so it was annoying entire show. It came off as pushy and obsessive, and although I felt sorry for Sinan because nothing was truly his fault, I couldn’t root for him.

Remember when I said above that I understand all of Mine’s decision, well the same thing cannot be said for Sinan, especially his choices concerning his side-girl Derin. Nothing was directly Sinan’s fault, but he didn’t help matters much by being so stupid. IF THE GIRL IS RUINING YOUR LIFE KICK HER TO THE CURB DON’T HOUSE HER! DON’T EMPLOY HER! DON’T INTERACT WITH HER! Stupid boy.

Because of this, whenever Hasan (the cutest child on the face of the planet) would bad mouth Sinan I got more joy out it than I probably should have.

Also, the show ends with Sinan being shot multiple times. We shall never know if he survives (my guess is he does, considering how many times to characters have been put through near-death experiences and have come out pretty alright).

• Timur

Do I like Timur? No, not really.

Does Mine like Timur? No. NO! He’s alright. No. yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. YESSS!

If we’re going to compare Timur with Sinan its only fair to mention that side-by-side Timur is a far worse person. Where Sinan’s flaws are arrogance and immaturity, Timur’s are manipulation, deception, and obsession. Where Sinan’s mistakes stem from his stupidity, Timur’s are premediated.

What they both have in common is love for Mine and Hasan (the cutest child on the face of the planet).

Timur is probably one of the only characters that stays unchanged throughout the entire series. He starts off as manipulative and mysterious and ends that way. He starts off loving Mine and ends that way. He starts off as a good father to Merve, his daughter, and ends that way. He starts off as a good friend to Turan, Mine’s father, and ends that way. 

That is not to say that he has been completely unaffected by the plot. We see his slow decline when he thinks Mine will leave, we see him carry around more regrets, and we see him try out different approaches to get Mine back (his best approach was honesty).

In the end Mine chooses Timur. Or so we think… Right before they are about to sign the marriage certificate Timur’s long lost wife makes an appearance. We shall never know what havoc she will bring to their relationship.

Overall, Timur is a man of many faults. In real life it’d be best to keep this type of man at arms length but in the TV world he’s perfectly fine.

• Turan

Ugh. Was there ever a man more self-righteous and annoying? He’s worse than a stubborn donkey. I will say he does have a believable and compelling character arc, but man is he frustrating. He is not only EXTRAORDINARILY judgemental, he is also stupid, unaware, and holier-than-thou.

In the beginning of the first episode he is chipper. Everything seems to be going smoothly. He has a pleasant wife who agrees with everything he says. His children are obedient and respectful. He sees himself as the most honourable man. That is until his youngest daughter, at just seventeen, comes home pregnant.

Now this would a stressful situation for any father, but Turan manages to make a bad situation so so so much worse with his attitude. Episode upon episode we have him staring into the sea, crying to his wife about how Mine has ruined HIM. How HE will never be seen as an honourable again. How HE is shamed. HE. HE. HE. Everything is about HIM. Yes, I get it. Be mad. Yell at your daughter. Punish her. Give her the silent treatment. But at the end of the day, your family has a problem and you either fix it together or you break together. And of all the talk that Turan is a strong family man, he manages to be the thing that tears his family apart.

During this tumultuous period, Mine tries to commit suicide a number of times. Instead of getting out of his own head, getting over his own shame, to be there for his daughter, he continues being a little bitch and then marries his child off to a grown man.    

Eventually Turan recognizes the error of his ways, but it takes having an affair and thus destroying his 40 years of marriage to Esmahan to realize he ain’t all that.

After his girlfriend dumps him, he tries to win Esmahan back. We will never know if he succeeds.

Overall, Turan sees himself as an honourable man but all he is honourably stupid. He had some redeeming scenes in the end, especially when he teamed up with Merve. But, not enough for me to change my opinion.  

• Emine

Ah yes. Now its time to review the crazy jealous sister. Emine has one of the most interesting character arc.  Emine starts off the show by being one of the main antagonists for Mine and Sinan’s relationship, and thus she is greatly despised by viewers around the world.

At the beginning of the show we think Emine has two problems in her life, firstly she is not Mine, and secondly, she is not married. But as the show progresses, we realize that her problems are a bit more complicated.

She feels ignored and forgotten by her parents, and in all honesty she isn’t wrong. Even when she had a screaming fit, a complete mental breakdown, all Turan managed to do was look surprised and briefly wonder what’s up her, before he goes back to thinking about himself. Her mother’s strategy of ignoring the problem wasn’t much help, although she did take on a much more proactive role in the series (although not all that effective).

She also feels like she lost her childhood to Mine, and desperately longs for those careless years before Mine was born and she was the center of attention. Essential an existential crisis.

And to top it all off she is desperate for affection.

So, what does a forgotten child do to fix her problems? She starts making a scene. Frequenting night clubs, sneaking out, drinking, and becoming Bekir’s mistress (gasp).

After Bekir tries to murder her and she has a miscarriage, Emine becomes trapped in her mind. And although the man she loves only exists in her head she is finally happy.

We will never know if her mental health recovers.  

• Esmahan

Turan’s wife for over 40 years. For the first half of the show this is all she is known for, especially to Turan himself. But if you read between the lines. If you look in-between all of her ‘Yes dear,’ and ‘Whatever you say Turan.’ You will find a woman who is desperately trying to keep her family in harmony and peace. For 40 years Esmahan wasn’t just agreeing with Turan because she thought he knew best and could do no wrong, she was agreeing with him because she wanted harmony. That was the responsibly she took on, and over the years it wearied her down. She lost her spark and, in many ways, her lost identity too.

She told Turan as much when she divorced him after he cheated. A decision which I greatly supported, and her children surprisingly and disappointedly did not support. And her son in particular seemed to blame her for the divorce instead of his cheating father. Ridiculous.

Once the weight of Turan was removed from her, Esmahan really started to come into her own as a character. She got a job. She started to let her hair down and wear make up. She reconnected with old friends.

The shows ends with this old friend of hers proposing to her. How she responds we shall never know.

• Erdal and Funda

Mine’s brother and sister-in-law.

Erdal – annoying and funny. He is lazy, somewhat of an idiot, and also funny. He doesn’t play a particularly big role in the story and as the show progresses takes on a ‘comedic relief’ role.

Funda – sweet and funny. Erdal’s wife is a sweet girl whose role is also comedic light heartedness.

• Surreya and Kerem

Political activists fall in love. Nice. They work well as secondary plot points.

• Bekir and Seda

Sinan’s parents. First and foremost, Bekir is one of the worst characters on the show, next to Derin. He is controlling, arrogant, and murderous. He is a bad man and as the show progresses you grow to feel more and more sorry for Seda and Sinan who have to put up with him.

He breaks Sinan and Mine’s relationship. He lies to his son. He cheats on Seda with Emine. He tries to kill Emine.

His character has no arc and no development. He is just pure antagonist through and through.

1. Merve and Deniz

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Timur’s daughter and Kerem’s son.  

Merve is a very interesting character. After her mother left her, she became immensely attached to her father, so much so that when Mine enters Timur’s life, Merve is furious. She goes full Team Sinan and conspires to unite them with the goal of removing Mine from their lives. Her manipulation doesn’t sour her character though. At this point in the story we want Sinan and Mine to be reunited. And then when the tides turn and Mine begins to warm towards Timur, with Merve character growth and new-found maturity she stops the games. Thus, saving here character once again.

As for the relationship between Merve and Deniz, well, it sprung on late into the series. Not enough happened between the two to fully give an opinion. We will never know if they were meant to be.

1. Derin

By far the worst character on the show. Not because of her devious ways and antagonism but because she is poorly written.

Where the other characters had depth and nuisance. Derin had nothing. Where the other characters had clear goals. Derin had nothing. Where the other characters lived by the general rules of the world. Derin did not.

When we are first introduced to Derin she is a chef at a restaurant. Sinan befriends her and together they work to save his father’s company. All while hooking up once or twice.

But through all this there was a lack of clear motivation. In the beginning it was easy. She wanted to be with Sinan. Then when her money troubles arose it was also easy. She desperately needed money to pay off her debts. But when those story lines came to close it became unclear exactly what Derin wanted.

Did she want to marry Sinan, or did she want revenge? Did she want to care for him, or hurt him? Why did she get a job at the same company as him? Why is she meddling in his life so much? What is the end goal? You can write it all off as obsession. And maybe it is just obsession, but either way it is weak. At the end of the day all she did was make Sinan look stupid and hurt his character arc.

Plus, it doesn’t help that there was already an obsession plotline happening – Emine and Bekir, which was done better.

There is some speculation she was the one who shot Sinan in end, but we will never know.

I know there are other characters that could be mentioned but I’m going to leave it at this.

Some miscellaneous observations:

• All scenes which involved a character singing (Timur, Sebahat) were too long.
• While I like the general layout of Timur’s house there was way too much brown and gray. It looked so bleak and dreary.
• Whenever a taxi was needed one would magically materialize.
• The actor who played Hasan is probably one of the best child actors I have ever watched.
• Too many hospital scenes.
• Mine’s house had a lovely garden.

Overall, the show ends without an ending. Which is upsetting, especially after a 79-episode commitment. Even so I enjoyed it.