Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Gift’ On Netflix, A Turkish Drama About An Artist Who Explores Her Past Via An Archaeological Find

Netflix has had a lot of good luck with its Turkish series, especially The Protector. Somehow, the producers of these shows have found a sweet spot that involves high-gloss production, and straightforward stories told well. The same team that created The Protector is back with a new series mating a human with the spiritual world. Read on for more…

THE GIFT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A gravesite funeral, where someone cries, “Who could be hurt by Atiye?” Suddenly, the woman they’re supposedly burying stumbles out of the woods in a blood-stained dress.

The Gist: We flash back to some time earlier. Atiye (Beren Saat) is an artist living her best life in Istanbul. Her paintings, variations on the same symbol she’s been painting since childhood, are about to be shown in a gallery for the first time, and her doting boyfriend Ozan (Metin Akdülger) is completely supportive of her career. While she’s getting fitted for her opening night dress by her designer sister Cansu (Melisa Senolsun), she sees the vision of an elderly lady outside her sister’s shop, staring into the window. but when she goes outside to see who it is, the woman is gone.

Meanwhile, at the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe, thought to be the oldest known man-made temple in the world, a new discovery is made in the caverns under the site. It’s a symbol the likes that Erhan (Mehmet Günsür), the professor that’s in charge of the dig, has ever seen before.

During Atiye’s opening night, she sees the old woman again, and follows her out of the gallery into the street, but she disappears again. The night is successful, despite Cansu getting drunk and Atiye arguing with her mother about continuing with her teaching job vs. being an artist full-time. She wakes up to news of the archaeological find and is shocked that it’s the symbol she’s been painting for decades. But she tells her hungover sister that reading the story made her more relaxed than she’s been in years. Feeling a spiritual connection to the find, she decides to go to Göbekli Tepe to get a look for herself.

As she’s driving there, she almost runs over a little shepherd girl with a red star on her forehead. The girl doesn’t speak Turkish, but when Atiye mentions Göbekli Tepe, the girl gets in the car and leads her there, then disappears. When Atiye meets Erhan and asks to see the symbol, he doesn’t believe her story of having some sort of connection to it, even after showing him her art. But when the girl comes to Atiye again in her hotel, then leads her back to the cave where the symbol was found, she goes in and looks, only to be caught and kicked out by Erhan. He doesn’t believe her when she says she followed a girl to the dig site.

When she gets back to Istanbul. Ozan is exasperated by Atiya’s impulsiveness, despite knowing over their six year relationship that she needs to do her own thing. He asks her to marry him, and she says yes. Just then Erhan shows up at her door and tells her they found the girl, she’s relieved. But they didn’t find the girl the way she thinks they did.

Our Take: The Gift (Original title: Atiye) is brought to us by the same team that produced The Protector (including Jason George, Alex Sutherland, Onur Güvenatam and Özge Bağdatlıoğlu); it has a similar feel to that show, which turned out to be one of Netflix’ most popular international series. It’s slickly-produced, showing an artsy and sophisticated side of Istanbul, and it keeps its premise relatively simple.

In the first episode, it seems like there’s a lot going on, but in reality there really isn’t. The symbol is found, Atiye feels a connection to the artifact, and she makes an effort to go see it. In the meantime, she sees spirits that may or may not be connected to that symbol. Everything else is secondary, at least for now, to that story. And that’s just fine with us.

It helps that Saat is a compelling watch as Atiye. She gives off the vibe that she’s that impulsive artist she’s portraying, while maintaining a Claire Danes-ish sense of self-confidence that allows Atiye to be adventurous with at least one foot in reality. In the scenes she has with Günsür, there’s a good chemistry, and we anticipate the two of them connecting on a number of levels as the series goes on. But everyone surrounding Atiye shows enough to make us want to follow how Atiye’s discoveries affect them. We’re especially intrigued by both Atiye’s and Ozan’s families. We already know her family wants her to keep her art as a hobby, but it seems that Ozan’s super-wealthy father is more on board with her career, even if his son isn’t.

Sex and Skin: Before Atiya leaves to get her dress fitted, she and Ozan have a quick kitchen snog, but everyone has their clothes on.

Parting Shot: On the cave wall, above the symbol, is an etching of the little girl with a star on her forehead. Creepy.

Sleeper Star: Melisa Senolsun is fun as Atiye’s sister Cansu, who has a head for business but in a lot of ways is even more of a free spirit than Atiye is.

Most Pilot-y Line: Casting Ozan as the weaselly, jealous boyfriend seems to be a bit cliche. Why can’t he be supportive and realize that the free spirit he wants to marry loves him and only wants to be with him?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Like The Protector, The Gift is a good-looking series about a human’s connection to the mystical, and because it grounds itself in reality, it doesn’t get hokey or overly precious.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream The Gift On Netflix