Wild Abandon is a Turkish series about a young architect who tries to battle against a mid-life crisis as his family faces their own problems. It is currently streaming on Netflix.
Story
Oktay Uysal (Öner Erkan) is unhappy with his current state of life. Despite a successful career and a happy family, he is regretful about the lack of freedom he has. He reminisces his old days when he was carefree and could be himself. He starts living a double life as a punk.
Meanwhile, his wife Nil (Songül Öden) is obsessed with looking young. She wishes to be independent and support herself financially. She gets rejected from a company just because she looks old.
She meets a guy named Suat (Serkan Altunorak) and is attracted to him. Nil lies about her marital status and tells him that she is working at a company called ORG. The two have an affair. This quickly backfires on Nil.
Olcay (Ugur Yücel), Oktay’s father has secrets of his own. He has an affair with his late wife’s caretaker, Sofia (Biljana Jovanovska). She is also pregnant with his child. They secretly get married and want to start a family together.
The other family members face their own dilemmas, desperately trying to hide something from the rest of the family. But this all backfires, as they are locked together in a room and have to acknowledge their lies.
Performances
Öner Erkanwh, who plays the role of Oktay, has very bold emotions. He fearlessly shows the conflict and misery faced by his character.
Nil, just like her husband, is unhappy with her life. She is upset with the role society has given her and wishes to break free of it. Songül Öden breathes life into this character. She elegantly portrays Nil’s dilemma.
All the supporting actor have their unique styles and do a fascinating job. Some of them, like Haluk Biligner, leave a long-lasting effect on the audience, while others are easily forgettable.
Positives
The series is a commentary on how society sets a role for everyone. This often leads to disappointment and hopelessness. All the characters of the series are direct victims of this.
Despite having a successful career, Oktay is unhappy with it. He doesn’t like what he is doing and starts living a double life. When he is in his Punk persona at night, he looks much happier and careless.
Similarly, Nil, a housewife, who had to leave her job to take care of her family, regrets her decisions. She is miserable with her current role and wants to be independent. Her obsession with looking young is another example of how society has set beauty standards for women and profits from their insecurities.
It shows how the characters could only find joy once they broke free of all the shackles society had tied them in.
The series also lightly touches on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace and how hard it is for victims to get justice. It shows how the power imbalance between the employee and the boss.
Despite a slow start, the episodes gradually become more interesting. All the characters have something important to offer and carry a trait that is very relatable.
Negatives
The series has a prolonged start. It takes time before the plot starts picking up pace. Some scenes are very tedious and can be skipped as they hold no importance to the final climax.
It was hard to watch how out of tune the entire Uysal family is. They are unaware of each other’s problems and are self-centered.
Verdict
Wild Abandon is a fascinating watch. Despite having timely comedic relief, it is not a fun, light-hearted series. It carries depth and does justice to all the social issues it covers.
Rating: 4/5
Also Read: Wild Abandon summary and ending explained