Son Yaz- Last Summer

First post of 2025 y'all!

I was super excited when I started this page but even though I have a lot of posts already written, I somehow lost my motivation to post them along the way but I promise to post more this year!

Happy new year🎆I hope the new year brings in good luck for you.

Here's a long ass post for you all.

This was the first Turkish show I watched after becoming an adult lol. I came across a reel of a scene from this show and it looked interesting to me, so I checked out the comments for the name of the show, found it and immediately started watching it.

That was my first and the last time watching something without knowing if its ending was happy or sad lol. Thankfully, this one had a happy ending, could've been much better but I was still happy with it.

The reason behind it is that the show ended up being wrapped up a lot earlier before than it was expected to. Apparently, the ratings for this show weren't that good and I am so sad about it because it had the potential of being so much better. Season 1 was amazing but they confused tf outta everyone in season 2. There were so many random new characters that were introduced, and some of the old ones disappeared. Like we loved them, at least show us what happened to them? What are they doing after the time jump?

I mean it was okay, but like we already connected with the old characters, why did you have to change the story line? I didn't even understand where half of the people came from to be honest lol.

But like if you don't think about all that, it was okay with a different storyline which was also unnecessary because why do you like characters in pain? They have suffered enough already. They made all my favourite characters suffer so much in the second season but at least they all got a happy ending.

Show name: Son Yaz (last Summer)

Release date: January 1, 2021

Country of origin: Turkey

Language: Turkish

Total Episodes: 26

Total Seasons: 2

Genre: Action, romance, drama, thriller, crime

IMBD rating- 8/10

Trailer: Son Yaz Trailer (English Subtitles)

CAST

Akgün Gökalp Taskin- Alperen Duymaz

Yağmur Kara- Hafsanur Sancaktutan

Selim Kara- Ali Atay

Canan Kara- Funda Eryiğit

Altay Kara- Ata Nedim Arman

Selçuk Taskin- Arif Piskin

Soner Sancaktar- Halil Babür

Naz Yaman- Yasemin Yazici

Emel Yaman- Sezer Koç

Metin Yaman- Sinan Tuzcu

Ahmet Tunali- Cengiz Okuyucu

Eray Duraner- Yunus Narin

Serap Gök- Sebnem Dönmez

Kaan Gök- Erdem Sanli

Arda Ates- Sarp Ikiler

Fatih Doganay- Emre Karayel

STORYLINE

Idealist Public Prosecutor Selim receives an offer he cannot refuse from organized crime leader Selçuk Taskin, whom he sent to prison. Selçuk will testify in the prosecutor's case, but in return, he asks the prosecutor to protect his son.

-IMBD

MY THOUGHTS

Okay, before I start writing my review I am warning you that this review might contain some possible spoilers but I will try to avoid them as much as I can.

I am someone who likes to know the ending, at least to know if it's sad or happy and love to watch random edits and scenes so I can get excited and wait to reach that part so I don't really care about spoilers, of course the small ones though, not the big ones but I know a lot of people hate even the small ones so I usually avoid writing em on my Bookstagram. I post book reviews and recipes there so if you want, you can check them out @__mividaa__.

But don't worry, if I give out a spoiler, I will put a warning up beforehand so you can skip that paragraph if you want to.

Moving on, the story basically starts with Selim, the prosecutor and Selçuk, the mafia leader who Selim had caught and put in prison a while back. Now, Selim is after another person, Khalil Sadi, who's the head of the mafia family. Selim wants information and evidence on him to catch him and he knows Selçuk has all the information he needs so the scene starts with him sitting in the interrogation room with Selçuk.

Selçuk agrees to help him out but has one condition. He wants Selim to save his 20 year old son, Akgün from going down the same path. He wants him to be far away from the mafia world and have a normal life. Selim agrees to keep him protected in exchange of the information.

Fast forwarding a little, Akgün finds out the reason behind Selim forcing him to stay with him and gets pissed off. After confronting his dad about it, he is forced to go with Selim.

What I really like about Akgün and Selim is that they started out as enemies but ended up bonding over their life problems and loneliness. Though their relationship was still switching between enemies to friends, it was hilarious and lovely to watch them together. I loved how they had each other's backs throughout the show no matter what. This duo was my absolute favourite.

Once Selim finds out that his wife, Canan wants to divorce him, he decides to rent the home right next to hers and goes to stay there with Akgün.

While Canan is pissed about it, Altay, Selim's son is excited about the new move and Yağmur, Selim's daughter, even though shows that she hates that her dad is back, you can see from her expression in some scenes that she doesn't completely hate him. She is also pissed off at Akgün for creating nuisance at the party and fighting with her boyfriend.

Later, while Akgün is trying to escape Çeşme and go back to Istanbul, he ends up meeting Yağmur on the way and tries to make her take him to Istanbul since she was driving her car and refused to let him drive. They end up having an encounter with Soner, Akgün's enemy and Khalil's son. Though Yağmur saves Akgün from him, the scene and Akgün's reaction to her saving him was hilarious af.

Long story short, Yağmur finds out the truth about Akgün being a Mafia leader's son and gets angry at her father for putting his family's life in danger for the sake of his work. She starts despising Akgün even more than before.

But, with time both of them start feeling attracted to each other no matter how much they try to deny their feelings. Same goes with Selim and Canan. Selim doesn't want a divorce and wants to convince Canan to give him another chance so they can go back to being a happy family they once were while Canan is convinced that he will fuck it up again and run away, leaving her alone to take care of the kids.

Despite trying to fight their love and attraction, Selim and Canan fail at it. In between all the drama we see the two relationships turn into something more. Along side these two romantic relationships, we also see Akgün's relationship get better with Canan and Selim. They slowly start to love and trust him as does he with them.

I, in the beginning absolutely hated Canan, she just appeared to be unfair to me, I mean I kind of get her but since we know both the sides of the story, I was a little pissed at the way she treated Selim. I mean I get that she was lonely and stuff but she could at least give Selim a chance to explain everything. But anyway, I started liking her later when she got better.

I loved her relationship with Yağmur, it was a super fun and loving relationship. I loved how she knew Selim wouldn't approve of Yağmur's relationship with Akgün so she snuck both of them around to help them meet each other and hid it from Selim. I also loved how she teased the both of them.

Oh, and then comes Selim and Metin's old friend Fatih and when Selim realized Fatih had become close to his wife and kids in his absence and knew more about them than he did, my heart broke for him watching how hurt he was. Though he said no for divorce, he agreed to it when they all were having a family dinner and he saw that there were no pictures of him in his own home. He knew that his family threw him out of their lives. He felt like there was no use of fighting anymore and my heart broke for him. Thankfully, he despite agreeing for the divorce, kept fighting to get Canan and the kids back.

Fatih is one of the characters that I truly despised. Like Selim knew he had had a crush on Canan for a long time and then always watching him trying to be around her and making excuses to mess things up between these two pissed Selim off but Canan never believed him. This part pissed me off so much. Like okay, you like her but how are you purposefully trying to sabotage their relationship to make her yours? Don't you think if she liked you, she wouldn't still try to be with Selim and focus on you instead? How do you not feel guilty about any of this?

Also, the shit he pulled made me so angry but my friend was like he realizes his mistake later and becomes a good man. Uh no, not for me, not after the stuff he did lol.

I heard from my friend that the Turkish mafia shows are usually brutal, they have the women suffering a lot and have sad endings but this was a show which was the complete opposite of it. The women were loved and respected in this show, it had love, happiness, sadness, drama, character development, humour and so much more. Plus, it also had a happy ending, it wasn't as happy as I wanted it to be but still.

This is the reason it's her favourite show and this show is the reason I connected with her. She also has a Son Yaz fanpage on Instagram and her edits are my favourite.

Update: She changed her page to a crochet page🤪.

Anyway, back to the show, I'm trying to be vague so you can go watch the show without me revealing anything important or explaining the show because if I don't think about y'all, god knows I would have written like a 20k word post explaining the whole story in detail lol.

After a shit ton of drama, Soner, Akgün and Eray become friends and business partners. I absolutely loved this trio as well. Ahmet joins them later and let me tell you, these three men are always brooding and angry so every time you see them on screen together, be assured you will be laughing because they are hilarious when they can't control their anger. Ahmet, supposedly worked for Akgün so he trusted him but when Soner and Akgün became enemies Akgün realized that he had started working for Khalil instead. That's the time I hated him but when the men got closer, he became like the wise man of the group who despite of supporting the three, joining them in their shenanigans and loving them, made sure they were on the right track and didn't make bad decisions.

Though I hated Soner in the beginning, I realized he actually wasn't a bad person. He had been suffering since childhood, he was just lonely and insecure and wanted to be loved and accepted by his father which he later realized wasn't going to happen. When he made a plan with Akgün to take revenge from Selim (I ain't telling you the reason behind it, you gotta watch the show for it hehe), their relationship got better and with time they grew super close to each other. Despite Eray being Akgün's friend and Soner being his enemy, Soner and Akgün's friendship got much stronger, which made Eray jealous for a while but Ahmet helped the three of them to solve the problem between them.

I absolutely love how the four men are still friends in real life, I can absolutely imagine how hilarious their meet ups probably are.

Soner, for the first time in his life felt loved and got closer to Akgün. They became like brothers and were always there for each other after this no matter what and I absolutely loved it. They were willing to die or get in trouble for each other but that's because they had both been so lonely in their own life and when they realized what it felt like to have someone on your side, loving you without judging you, they were willing to do anything for them and this bromance was super strong. This was another one of my favourite duo's that I still can't get over. These two were hilarious too hehe. I also loved how the two couples' (Akgün, Yağmur, Naz and Soner) became like a small group and hung out together. I loved when the girls messed with these two. I love how these two were an absolute simp for their girls that despite being a mafia member and being so tough, they were scared of the girls anger and did anything for them, including getting into fights with their enemies just to save them. I am an absolute sucker for mafia men protecting their girls, showing emotions, crying and turning into a softy when it comes to their partner, hence one of the reasons why I loved Akgün and Soner so much.

Anyway, a lil spoiler (you're free to skip this paragraph if you want) in the beginning, Naz, Yağmur's cousin had started dating Eray but later Naz and Soner fell in love. I honestly didn't think I would've liked them together but despite feeling bad for Eray, I fell for this couple. They were absolutely adorable and I loved their chemistry and connection. They went from being enemies to lovers and loved tf outta each other. I especially loved these two in season 2 when they came across all the problems and solved them together.

For some reason Metin, Naz's dad disappeared in season 2. I honestly loved Metin and Emel in the first few episodes, they were the perfect happy couple and every time Selim and Canan fought on screen, I kept saying, 'be like Emel and Metin' lol. But a few episodes later when Metin got worried about Serap and kept trying to help her without Emel knowing, I got pissed at him and of course later it's revealed that nothing can be perfect and they only pretended to be a perfect couple because despite all the happy moments, Emel was scared about him making the same mistake he made in the past. Things happened and they ended up getting separated. I cannot even tell you how much this pissed me off.

I used to be pissed at Emel because she was a bit controlling and always got into fights with Naz, while Metin always protected his daughter and took her side. They weren't big fights but Emel still pissed me off and I used to love Metin but later it changed and became the complete opposite.

I realized why Emel acted like the way she did. In reality, she was insecure and was living in fear of her husband making the same mistake that he made in the past. Of course, he proved her fears right and I felt so bad for her. I felt like punching him through the screen.

Anyway, so they separated and he disappeared in season 2 but why? This thing really pissed me off. This is one flaw that I don't like about Turkish shows. Maybe it's the writer in me but I get pissed when the character is suddenly gone from the show. Maybe give him an exit instead of him being there in one episode and after that you never see him. If you don't want to show him then like put it in between a conversation somewhere about where he went. Like he just disappeared without any explanation. Okay, he separated with Emel but Naz was still his daughter, couldn't he live somewhere but still be there for her?

Moving on, Emel did not approve of Naz's relationship with Soner because nobody wants their kid to be with a mafia gang member. Soner was in a way being forced by his family to get married to someone else and Soner was quite because he wanted to support them, but in reality he was drowning and didn't know what to do without Naz so he breaks off the engagement and gets married to Naz. It's right after this when you know Soner wasn't a bad person. The way he takes care of Naz and protects her when her mother kicks her out. Everyone needs a man like him. It wasn't just him though, she protected, loved and took care of him in the exact same way. That's how we all know they really loved each other.

*Major Spoiler; skip until I tell y'all if you don't want to read about it*

Okay, so everything is going smoothly, Canan and Selim are back together and so are Akgün and Yağmur. Naz and Soner are trying to fight their feelings for each other and are confused about what to do with all the drama. Everyone including Selim plans a surprise for Canan. I absolutely love how she calls Selim and he lies about not being able to make it on time as he got a call from work and she gets the flashbacks and thinks that he will never change but when she reaches the destination and finds him standing there waiting for him, the smile on her face says it all. She knows he's changed and that he really loves her. He would do anything in his power to protect and love his family.

To her surprise, Canan finds herself surrounded by her loved ones at the location and she realizes that it's not just a normal party, it's actually Selim and her wedding. Their wedding scene was my absolute favourite, everyone, or most of them were happy af, dancing, laughing and enjoying it could've been a perfect end to season 1 but the writer decided to mess with the audience.

*Major spoiler*

I am so pissed at the story taking the turn because literally the next day of their wedding, Selim, Canan and the kids decide to go on a vacation. On the way, they are attacked and Canan dies. Like why? After all they went through, you couldn't give them at least a few happy days together? They didn't deserve this. Canan didn't deserve this. And honestly, I didn't even understand how she died. Like they showed the people shooting at the car and then suddenly Canan's neck was slit from the side. How did only she get hurt and everyone else was safe?

Anyway, that scene broke me. The way all three of them cried and kept calling out her name made me cry as well. With that the season ends.

Season 2 starts with how everything changes after Canan's death, the vibe is super depressing. It's more focused on love, loss, pain and dealing with the pain.

Selim is alone in the woods, barely surviving. He had given up his position as a prosecutor after Canan died. He left everything and everyone, including his kids behind and lives alone in the woods with a dog and I don't know where it came from.

*Spoiler over*

I was laughing typing out these warnings but wasn't sure how to warn y'all💀

The kids are living with Naz and Emel, Metin's gone. Altay has gone from being a sweet innocent kid to an angry and sad teenager who often gets into fights.

Yağmur has gone into depression, not only because her mom was her world, but also because everyone she loved had left her; her mom, her dad and Akgün.

Akgün and his father had been traveling around the world, hiding from their enemies. Not gonna lie, season 2 Akgün hit different but like what was the need of him leaving Yağmur so suddenly? I get it that he felt guilty for something else (not gonna tell ya, go watch it) and felt like he deserved the punishment but he didn't have to leave her when she was suffering so much. But also maybe nothing major would've been left for the story so they made him leave her lol.

But no matter where he went, he always made sure Yağmur was safe and taken care of. Ahmet was secretly keeping an eye on her and also used to send her videos to Akgün and I found it super cute, how after so long, traveling around the world, he did not care about the other girls and still had eyes for Yağmur.

He, though in the beginning was not liked by Canan, they later ended up liking each other and had a wonderful bond, she was like a mother to him who also helped him meet Yağmur secretly despite Selim disapproving his relationship with her. When she left, it affected him deeply too but we don't realize it until Yağmur and him have a huge fight about it and he reveals that he kept a part of her with him so he can always feel that she's with him no matter where he goes and that he loves and misses her too. It was truly beautiful and I absolutely loved the scene where Yağmur found out about it.

I really liked Soner and Naz's relationship in the second season. The way they loved and cared about each other despite what others said to them or tried to break them apart was beautiful.

I also started loving Yağmur and Akgün again when she started tolerating him again.

I know that the show wasn't supposed to end so soon but they had to end it so they might have shortened the story and all but I feel like whatever dreams they had shown to us were not there.

*Spoiler about the ending*

We were shown Akgün and Yağmur married and with two kids in Yağmur's dreams. That's what we all wanted but unfortunately didn't get to see it. I mean don't get me wrong, I loved that Naz and Soner got married and had a kid and everyone else had a happy ending except Selim who was stuck in jail but I really really wanted to see these two have their own family. But it's whatever, at least it was a happy ending lol.

I honestly loved Selim and Akgün's relationship; the way it developed from the beginning and how it ended up being was absolutely perfect. Same with Akgün and Soner, I loved how their relationship developed from the beginning to the end. I think it was all about what they all experienced and how they all willingly changed. The way their relationship evolved with each other was one of the reasons I really liked this show. And I think the friendship trope in this story was pretty strong because most of the cast is still really good friends with each other and keeps hanging out together. I love to follow their Instagram accounts to see them meet each other hehe.

I was halfway through my rewatch when some asshole hacked into Son Yaz's youtube account and removed all the videos. I hope they go to hell for it 😭

Anyway, if you're looking for a mafia show, I definitely recommend this one! No violence on woman and so much romance! I am a sucker for mafia men falling in love so I absolutely loved it hehe.

Let me know your thoughts about it when you're done watching the show. I would love to gossip about it!

Until next time x

See y'all soon with a new post!💛