These days, I feel like a stranger in my own country, but in a good way, and my discoveries concerning the hip and new seems never-ending. Apparently, Turkish drama shows are the latest and the hottest trend that is sweeping the Arab channels recently, and viewers have been watching them religiously and cannot seem to get enough of them.
The other day, I was in my uncle’s house upon receiving a dinner invitation, which I gladly accepted. After dinner, I’ve been asked about my major and my career, and as I passionately rumbled on regarding my interest in the field of Social Psychology, the antique clock in the hallway stroke ten times. Suddenly, my cousin shushed everybody in the room, and she silenced me from talking by shoving a sock in my throat.
Okay, that was a lie but I swear I saw her doing that to me in her eyes.
It didn’t take me too long to figure out that the dubbed show was originally Turkish, but I was confused on the choice the producers made on making them speak Syrian instead of Arabic, which was the default option in Arabic dubbed shows. However, I was morbidly inquisitive on the decision of exchanging the Turkish names of the characters with Arabic ones. I mean, if the Arab viewers are comfortable with Spanish names in dubbed Mexican soap operas, then why abandoning the consistency with the Turkish names? I kinda find it a little bit insulting, but I guess anything that keeps the viewers away from watching “a maid turned into a rich woman after having an amnesia” is finely approved by me.
Posted by 3baid on May 23, 2008 at 6:59 am
People got bored with Mexican and Arabic drama shows; “lets go for Turkish!”.
Posted by Delicately Realitsic on May 23, 2008 at 7:23 am
LOL secret confession ;P
im hooked as well heheheheh
Posted by blasha on May 23, 2008 at 7:40 am
You said: “It didn’t me take too long”
Shouldn’t it be: “It didn’t take me too long”?
Posted by Enigma on May 23, 2008 at 9:55 am
it should be “a maid who is an exact copy of her mother turned into a rich woman after having an amnesia and losing her child”
Posted by Sushi on May 23, 2008 at 11:00 am
They talk lebanese I think. I don’t watch the show but I think the guy in it is incredibly hot. I get glued to the screen.
Posted by Marzouq on May 25, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Its really weird for me, I really don’t like arabic dubbing!
Posted by cesario on May 26, 2008 at 5:06 am
Hey, I thought the same, traditional Arabic is way better than syrian/lebanese accent; as all Arabs can easily understand it. Kudos to the names thought, I agree, they should have kept the Turkish names. Having said that, the show isn’t all that interesting, but I think the girls are attracted to the lead guy, because he has a bit of color to him.Whatever!!
Posted by Angelo on May 28, 2008 at 5:14 am
@3baid
LOL nice! It seems everything is in love with Turkey these days. Al-Jazeera airline has just offered great ticket prices for Istanbul and they were selling like hotcakes.
@Delicately Realitsic
There’s no need to be ashamed for watching it. I’m pretty sure it’s quite good and chances I’d be watching it too if I’ve seen it from the beginning.
@Enigma
LOOOOL. Yes, I believe I’ve seen that one too.
@Blasha
Oppps, now that’s a one bad grammar mistake or a typo or whatever.
From now on, you are my proofreader
@Sushi
It seems everyone is watching it just to gawk at the guy.
Is it really in Lebanese? It seemed Syrian to me. Oh well…
@Marzouq
Arabic dubbing used to be good, but these days, it seems it’s butchering everything.
@Cesario
Exactly! The leading guy is such a babe magnet. Girls cannot seem to get enough of him. Have you seen the way they cheered him on when he came to Dubai?
Posted by dena on June 5, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Does anybody out there know how many episodes is in the “Nour” sitcom
Posted by The M Code on June 6, 2008 at 1:43 am
Gulf countries, we are paying for Turkish drama shows instead of supporting and improving our own shows, down hill bro.
Posted by Angelo on June 18, 2008 at 7:30 am
@Dena
I heard there are 95 episodes or something. I’m not quite sure.
@M.
LOL, our shows were going downhill since the 90s. It’s the same old crap over and over again.
Posted by Isa Dagli on June 18, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I love the new series…as for the language thing i think it’s great, i mean syria did buy the show from turkey and therefore it would seem logical that they’d make it in the syria dialect for even greater emotion than boring and always used egyptian arabic…also the names are the same for example mehmet in turkish is muhannad in arabic and so that’s a mistake on ur part..gumus means nour and tarik is tariq in arabic so correct ur self…aside from that syria decided to buy it in order to once again reestablish the bond and similarities that the turkish and syria cultures share. they had a whole documentary thing on the mbc and cnn turkey on this whole story.
Posted by Ahmet Kaleyahs on June 18, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Yes, I remember watching that on the cnn turkey..you’re right this show helped the syrian and turkish cultures to become one again in showing us how we’re related to eachother. there are about 100 episodes too it does get pretty boring after a while of it being on television though…im turkish and ive seen this drama a few years ago, most turkish soap operas have the same story line.
Posted by something on August 8, 2008 at 1:06 pm
does anyone know an arabic drama show called the waiting?
Posted by Book Review: My Name Is Red « Final Haven on August 11, 2008 at 1:03 pm
[...] that your average Arab has based his facts and intuitions about Turkey through a portal of a TV show, that even though it captivated the hearts of many people, it also agitated many to the extent it [...]
Posted by esra on August 26, 2008 at 8:02 am
Gümüş means ’silver’ in Turkish, not nour. Nour means ‘light’.
Posted by ayan on January 24, 2009 at 5:19 pm
hi nour
Posted by noura on March 17, 2009 at 2:41 pm
halo nouar anad mohanad bizooooooooooo
Posted by Patrick on June 22, 2009 at 5:35 am
Soaps are all about the same nonsense allover the world. Apart from this, I strongly prefer subtitles (though more expensive). And why Syrian ? Because it’s cheaper to do the dubbing in Syria then, for instance, Lebanon.