User reviews

Cenk and Mahassine are wonderful couple. Definitely Cenk's oscar winning acting is tremendous.

People only talk about its women violence, too much harsh etc. Yes, agreed. It does, it portray a wonderful change over of Man who was raised without emotions nd cruel manner by his Ice cold Mother Afife Demihran.

Unless people watches the story episodes completely, its difficult to make them understand. U guys prefer Man always chasing girl, say love u, sleep nd end????

We are in 2023's - Its just series. Let's tke it easy. Dont gve negative comments, if u guys dont understand the plot.

Hira changes the BEAST to a Lovely Handsome Man who will make him feel 'LOVE' with her Beauty, Gesture, Attitude, Honesty, Character and will get afraid to loose nd protects until the last episode.

Check out the change over of Orhun Demihran character from Epsiode 1 to 100. U guys will fall in love.

Most of the poor reviews were done at the beginning of this show. Yes, it can be a bit of abuse but that is part of the story. As someone that has watched from ep1 to current episode multiple times, you really need to wait for the story to get better. At least Hira's and Orhun story (Main Characters). You get to learn on why Orhun is so cold hearted and doesn't know limits. He is also in pain for losing his twin sister. But once he gets to learn the truth about Hira, he does everything to make up for what he did to her. He realizes, how much he loves her and can't be without her. He even learns to let his vulnerable side for everyone to see. Now Hira, is an angel. She is the sweetest and most considerate person of all. Even with all the hell that Orhun puts her thru, she always thinks of him. She falls in love but doesn't really know what is feeling (she is very innocent as she didn't get to experience a whole lot due to being a slave). She always tries to make it right to him. Not only for guilt but because Orhun's sister asked her to save him. We are still not sure from what but my theory is from the families curse as they are a "Royal" family. A noble status that the mom has taken way to serious and has ruined their family.

Now Meryem and Kenan. That story is just too sad. No matter how much you try to watch! It's just to sad to keep watching and it also makes you angry. All the bad things that happen is because of Meryem. All her pain and sadness is self created. If she would just be honest with Kenan, all her problems would be resolved. From heartache to being poor. Her dad Rasheed, will piss you off. He is the biggest POS. He just needs to go away.

The actors are pretty good. Of course just like any drama/series, there can be mishaps from the actors. They need to get to know each other more and grow their chemistry as the series keep going.

Seriously, just give this series a try. You will get hooked. So hooked that you will even try to learn Turkish to not wait for CC or someone else to translate it :D.

I struggled if to review this series or not but I think some warnings have to be issued. You should be able to tolerate watching a lot of abuse if you want to watch this one.

This series is all about abuse on women.

We can start with Meryems mother (abusive husband), Meryem herself (abusive husband and abusive father that sells her for money), Meryems daughter (witness to all the abuse going on in the house) and Hira.

Let us focus on the main couple Hira and Orhun.

Orhun thinks, that Hira killed his twin sister and therefore tortures her for 26 episodes now. Here we have the whole package: starving her, intimidating her, forcefully grabbing and hurting her, letting her spend the night in a grave, shooting at her (but not shooting her), putting her in chains, the psychological terror by threatening her to take her honor and so on. Hira is terrified of Orhun and this shows in every single one of their interactions. She cries, she trembles, she backs away, she dares not look at him....watching all of this and thinking, that THIS should develop into a romance turns my stomach. Promoting, that a woman will fall in love with her abuser is wrong on so many levels - Stockholm syndrome and love are not the same thing!

Two stars for the actors.

Never having watched a Turkish series before I am so glad to have started with Esaret!!

It is full of thrilling action and suspense and a lot of tender moments.

The cast is so good (you love the charater's you should love and dislike the charater's you're supposed to, that in my book is great acting) and the story keeps moving along quite well.

Just reached episode 95 I have a long way to go and can't wait!!

It did want me to learn Turkish (like one reviewer wrote too) because my only issue is with the slow translation from Turkish to English captions.

I feel sometimes I am missing something important to the story, but that won't stop me from watching.

Also, the music is fantastic especially the opening melody.

Love love the Esaret series.!!!!!!!!

Few Turkish productions have made me wanted to forcefully castrate the person who wrote it and this is definitely one of them. So how insultingly inaccurate this writer continues to promote her shows in a governmental family channel in Turkey that doesn't allow kissing scenes but violence especially towards women. She never changes her style of writing and needs to be put into mental asylum. Same writer of Emanet (Legacy) & Yemin (The Promise), I wouldn't be surprised that if this one will also will reach success and she and the producers will condemn it!

Whoever is reading this review, don't watch this series and don't expose your child to it either. And definitely do not watch her previous series, Emanet, because it is 5x worse.

Cenk Torun's portrayal of his character Orhun is Oscar winning; equally so is Mahassine Merabet's portrayal of Hira.

Hilal Anay as Meryem and Ali Yagiz Durmus as Kenan also give outstanding performances.

From the opening scene of the first episode to the 100th episode (so far), you will be captivated by the multiple storylines, that weave and develop through the series, and the emotional rollercoaster.

There is intrigue, secrets and webs of lies that slowly unfold and come to light, innocence, pure hearts, strength to stand tall and never to lose faith or hope, remorse and regret when the truth that is sought is revealed, and love.

Friendships and the surprisingly turn of events and emotions, enthralls you into the series.

Just when you wish something will happen or wonder why something hasn't happened or want characters to meet, it happens. The writers have done wonderful storylines. The entire crew and production team are to be congratulated on the setting, the music and the production of this fantastic series.

It's not easy to tell as story of women slavery and human trafficking and hard to believe this still happens in our modern world, but it does and it is absolutely horrific.

My heart goes out to those who have this or worse as their reality and may they find an escapement for them. The story does make a parallelism that we are all slaves to something in our lives or allow our lives to enslave us as well. I have found this a very interesting story and the characters do to great job in portraying their roles such acting is very difficult to do but when done right it looks so realistic. Great actors.

I started watching this show thinking. With the hope that it wouldn't be one of those shows that victimized women but i was wrong. I the moment i saw her sleeping on the floor with rats walking all around her i knew where this was going . He will treat her like dirt and she will fall in love with him and they called it romance or love . But neither romance and love should ever looks like this I hope if any women watched this do think that this is what love should ever looks like. I hope a woman did not write this garbage because she is just setting women back a hundred years. Not positive all.

They are so professional in their acting. A great series with alot of emotional scenes and the love from the man to his wife is so respectful and gorgeous. I enjoy alot from their acting and their conversation is so precious.

I can't stop watching them everyday to know what will gonna happen and how their love will continue till the end.

All the actors are acting very well and easily understand their emotions and their reactions.

Hira is so beautiful and orhun is so handsome They let us to adore them alot alot and so cute together. Is such a perfect couple, series and actors and of course the story.

There already are a few reviews for this title and I agree with all of them.

Therefore I can NOT understand the rating of above 6 here! Did all the women, rating this 10 stars even watch this? Do they think it is normal or even romantic to be treated this way? It is strange, I really wonder how are there so many 10 star ratings??? Hmmm...

Do not underestimate the amount and intensity of the abuse in this drama.

There has been enough said about Hira and Orhun so I would like to focus on Meryem and her family.

Meryems mother, as well as Meryem suffer from violent abuse from her father. Her father sold Meryem to some man and she was forced to marry him. He was abusive as well.

Meryem has a little daughter, that witnessed this abuse her whole life. This little girl was always told, that it wasn´t that bad, that everything was alright....so Meryem is grooming her daughter to be the next victim and be quiet about it, just as her mother did with Meryem.

Meryem has a chance to change her life and that of her daughter, when her husband dies. But she chooses to go back to her father and let her daughter see even more abuse. Meryem has a chance to tell Kenan about it and let him help her, but she prefers to stay in this martyr victim role.

This is really disturbing for me to watch. If she wants to sacrifice herself - so be it! But dragging the little girl into the abyss with her - No! I like Meryems character even less than Orhuns!

On top of all of that, this drama is dragging to the point where you roll your eyes. You have already watched Orhun mistreating Hira for uncountable times and their storyline does not progress. Not one bit. There are more and more people coming in, that want to harm Hira and that is it.

I will not continue to watch.

To put this into one word: depressing.

I liked this drama. All actors are acting good. In season2 add more romance scenes with hero and heroine.sometime camera angle shows that heroine is taller than hero. Kindly avoid. Sometime it goes very slow. I watched all episodes. Few episodes are very slow. Concentrate on some romance portion. The way you carried out the drama is excellent. Director did very well. Sometime face reaction are missing in some characters. We need more twist and turns. Involve more characters in this drama. Increase more expectations in each and every episodes. Recently I watched kam chicikleri.it's a romantic drama. I like the as like that and above. Anyway thank you for the whole cast and crew of esaret.

The leads in this series are both phenomenal. The reviews about the abuse/violence are accurate. However, it is an integral part of the story. It reflects his inner turmoil & how his upbringing deeply damaged him. She is fragile, naive & childlike. Having grown up as a slave/ servant in Africa, she's pure and good and accepts her fate. She is told she is responsible for his twin sister's death and because she's a good person she accepts all the punishments he inflicts on her. Not easy to watch how this story unfolds, but it's well done and as far fetched as the plot sounds about a billionaire & former slave falling in love, it somehow works. Both characters have had traumas in their upbringings and seeing their evolution as the story progressed is beautiful. A story that's beautifully told and will capture your heart.

If you happen to choose the most small country in Africa at least check the facts, the language spoken or the political history in Eritrea, there is no french spoken in Eritrea or such a dessert in Eritrea specially when there are a lot of Eritreans hooked up in Turkish series , what a disgrace , not worth watching. Specially a turkish women been a slave in Eritrea, what Era is the movie supposed to be , you can not turnish a country like that , even thinking all African People look alike is a shame , u could have at least search the features of Eritrean man and Women , this is so wrong , fact check always fact check.

The focus of Esaret's Season 1 and 2 is unrequited love, jealousy and class conflict.

In Season 1, two story lines dwell together: Orhun and Hira / Kenan and Meryem. In Season 2 the story lines reunite. The "vilains" tend to always get away with murder and justice is not served.

The Cast, from Ms. Tümay Özokur, I find excellent for every and each character so far. The chemistry on-screen between Cenk Torun and Mahassine Merabet is unparalleled.

Totally invested for two years in the plot and its characters' development, this series made me to research into Türkiye history right from the Ottoman Empire to the XXI century and to start learning Turkish language.

I have read bad reviews about its slow script. But with all its story lines, Esaret is surely the epithet of Turkish Drama genre and patience. "Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting" (Joyce Meyer). I am eagerly waiting for Season 3 in September 2024.

It's just incredible how the Turkish public can watch something so stupid and like it too.

Bad acting, naive plot, silly dialogue, ridiculous situations, it seems like these people are from another planet. Certainly from another civilization. The screenwriter created such a simpleminded and ludicrous storyline and the director just made it worse. The actors are all good looking but are they even actors? They are not convincing at all. Each of them has just a few facial expressions they repeat again and again no matter what the context. Situations which are supposed to be dramatic are actually laughable. This is just incredible. But the fact that the series has so many seasons and episodes proves the Turkish people love it. How is this possible? It's so sad.

The story is about a billionaire who falls in love at first sight. There many twist and turns to the story, I love how it keeps you guess whats next. Can't wait for season 2. Im about to watch it from the beginning again thats how good it is. The end of the show has me excited for what is coming up next in the season 2. I would love for this to be in spanish or english narrator because i have missed alot what they say on YouTube. But on tiktok some creators put in all the subtitles, in which why I want to watch it again. PLEASE WATCH IF YOU A HOPELESS ROMANTIC. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. Bye.

If you have little bit patience, you will discover Esaret as the most romantic and unique love story in the world. This is an artistic TV show, a depiction of true love. Initial trauma is necessary to understand the outstanding qualities of innocent Hira (perfectly played by beautiful Mahassine Merabet) and how she went about changing the tyrant personality of elite Ottoman royal family heir Orhun Demirhanli (played by best actor in the world Cenk Torun). Esaret is free from vulgar and does not treat women as objects. If you seek true romantic show, this is the one!

Orhun himself had a traumatic upbringing by her strict Royal family mother Afifa. Hira goes about healing Orhun in an unique way.

Great Acting by Lead Actors Cenk and Mahassein. Both has a sensational chemistry. It drives me crazy watching their romantic scenes. If this sjhow was aired in Hollywood, am damn sure, Cenk will take an Oscar Award. What brilliant actor with exceptional emotional, equally compensated by Mahassein Merabat. I LOVE TO WATH THIS SERIES ONLY FOR LEAD ACTOR CENK AND MAHA.

The story had taken its hardship, eventually moving to beautiful Love story. The never give up strong love from Orhun character played by Cenk. I love this couple so much, i wish them to take a new project with other Channel with different story, definitely both as leading couple. I swear they will take millions of audience attention bcz they already been loved.

Am crazily in love with Cenk with his charismatic acting.

This could have been a good story. I over looked some of the hardships, but my Lord Hira doesn't stand a chance and the writers aren't giving her one. Last night was it. I am done. For Orhun to be so smart and run multi million dollar company, he has to be the stupidest man in the world. After all of this abuse, being kidnapped, shot and manipulated so much, with no happiness in sight it's just to depressing to continue to watch. The writers needed to give Orhun and Hira a better chance and torture someone else. I am out, I am done. The only way I'll start watching it again is to change the harsh nasty and manipulative ways. Life is hard enough, bring some happiness, joy and love to the screen.