A Romantic Series Suggestion

For those of you who read my stories, you know I’m quite an old-fashioned girl. My ideal man is very masculine, and in this day of “toxic” masculinity, I rarely see any man who captures the character and demeanor I admire. To find one, understandably I turn to old movies, shows, and books because in these dwell many a manly man.

Now, I don’t like the Hollywood of today and hardly watch modern stuff, but I recently discovered a newish Turkish series that actually had some very good qualities, the main one being that the hero (or rather anti-hero: he’s a hitman) is extremely masculine and my type as far as looks go. And I appreciated that due to Turkish film standards, they don’t show nudity, only imply sex scenes, and keep bad language minimal.

All that said, the actual plot is probably what many would call a toxic love story, and I certainly don’t endorse kidnapping or forced marriage. But the script was so good and the actors moved me so much that I just fell in love with it and wanted to share about this action/drama/romance. If you can, look it up! I cried a few times. And I learned things about communication and devotion in marriage. It was even better because the story revolves around a married couple, so I could enjoy everything intimate that did happen between them, which I can’t fully do when a plot is built on fornication.

The show is called “Siyah Beyaz Aşk,” which translates to Black and White Love, but IMDb’s English title for the show is Price of Passion. All I’ve gathered from the plot comes from clips on YouTube with English subtitles. A hitman named Fehrat is forced to either kill or marry a female surgeon (not sure why; something to do with something she witnessed.) He is lethal and harsh and stealthy and always wears black. The doctor is named Asli, and she is selfless, kind, and brave. She continually spars verbally with her captor-husband, asserting her rights and standing up to him in a way that he actually admires. At one point when he gets aggressive and threatening, she stabs him, but the horror of the moment reveals that she does not want to kill him, nor does he want to lose her. They learn to tolerate each other. She sleeps on the floor and he has the bed, but he transfers her to the bed once she’s asleep, never taking advantage of her.

Once, she gets drunk and he helps her upstairs to their room, where they share their first kiss. She breaks it off in confusion and orders him to never kiss a woman he doesn’t love. For the first time, he apologizes. Asli learns from his brother, who is a prosecutor, that Fehrat had to shoot their father’s murderer at 12 years old, which landed him in juvenile rehabilitation, prison, and then the army. This is why he grew up too fast and is unable to show emotion.

There are other unstable elements to Fehrat’s family, which I don’t fully understand because I only watched it in bits and pieces. He works with his uncle in their underhanded dealings, and he’s trying to stay one step ahead of Asli’s brother, a police officer intent on arresting him. Fehrat is in love with Asli but cannot express it. He fears that he will drag her into his dark existence. So he finally drops her off at the airport and says she is free to go, though they both secretly want to stay together.

She is then kidnapped and nearly killed, but Fehrat saves her. I think it’s around that time that they kiss again and finally make love. There is a lot of bonding, mixed with their banter that jumps from humorous to frustrated. Asli’s own story of loss connects her to him since they share pain over losing family members. They visit this stone cottage by the sea several times and just talk and make meals together. Fehrat admits he is wounded inside. Asli sets out to help heal him.

The story of Beauty and the Beast is frequently referenced as a parallel to their own situation. They are in a car accident at one point, and while recovering in the home of a country family, they both help deliver a young woman’s baby. Fehrat’s reaction is sweet, revealing that he indeed has a soft heart. In another powerful scene, Fehrat admits to Asli that he loves her. But then Asli’s brother is killed, and she loses her position at the hospital. Fehrat feels he is destroying her and decides they will divorce. Yet they continue to parry with each other as they see a little more into each other’s souls.

There is so much more (such as when Asli finds out she’s pregnant, and Fehrat, afraid he can’t be a good father with his past, tells her to get an abortion, which she doesn’t; and the relationship Fehrat has with his brother blossoms and tugs at my heart), but I had to stress the amazing dynamic between the main couple. The feeling that they convey is so powerful. Asli longs to reach him, especially as she softens to him in understanding. And he is madly in love with her, but so broken and brought up in such a harsh reality that he thinks it impossible for them to have happiness together.

Their dialogue is so good too. Fehrat is sometimes acidic, almost funny in his reception of Asli’s bluntness, and Asli never stops talking. I love their story arc. And, frankly, I love Fehrat. He’s a man, dark, strong, brooding, handsome. If you want to watch a dramatic series that captures all the richness of a married couple’s unique struggle toward true love, watch Black and White Love. Forgive a romantic girl’s rambling too!