"The Fall of Leaves": A Look at Turkish Television Series and Families

Abstract

At the turn of the millennium, Turkish television series became a global phenomenon, requiring comprehension of the broader social and historical context of their production, distribution and reception. The paper considers questions regarding their genre and points to the socioeconomic and political circumstances of their development and transformation into a cultural product with worldwide popularity and an industry with great market value. Particular attention has been given to the question of how these processes have affected the depiction of the family and family values in these series. The second part of the paper presents a case study of the series The Fall of Leaves, in which the concept of the family and family life that is offered through the plot of "the family in crisis" in the present age of changes is examined. The reception of family relationships in the series has been studied through the analysis of an internet forum in which forum members, viewers of this series in Croatia and the region, commented in 2287 posts from 2011 to 2012 on the first TV broadcast of this Turkish series.