What a Turkish Series Made Me Remember About My Life | by Persephone | Sep, 2025

When a TV series opened a hole I pretended didn’t exist

Today I need to write, because something inside me broke open and I can’t pretend it didn’t happen.
I’ve been watching a Turkish series called Esaret. To be honest, I don’t have the patience for all the characters… I only follow the main couple, Hira and Orhun. And in the episode where they get married on the beach, something unexpected happened.

I cried.
For the first time in my life, I cried while watching a show, a series, a movie.

I didn’t cry because of their love story, but because of the reflection I saw of myself.
I cried for everything I lost, for the chances I let slip away, for the times life threw me from one side to another. I cried for broken trust, for wounds left by people I believed would stand by me.

It felt like that scene pulled out of me something I had hidden for too long: the feeling of being trapped. Trapped in problems I still carry, both emotional and financial. Trapped in the fear that I’m no longer at an age to start over. Trapped in the idea that love and being loved is no longer for me.

I felt as if there was a huge hole inside me, an emptiness impossible to fill.
And yet, something contradictory happened: I know I’ll keep watching the series.
Even with the pain it caused me, even without knowing if it was good or bad.

Maybe because this pain, uncomfortable as it is, still proves one thing: I can still feel.
And if I can still feel, maybe not everything is lost.

Have you ever felt a story on screen uncovering wounds you thought were gone?