When you see the last scene of the series finale, I really want your take on that. I thought they left a lot of stuff unresolved.

Patrick McGoohan, Columbo's friend. Something about the expression on his face, he strikes me as someone who could be a prima donna. Certain actors have a reputation for being really hard to work with. Some of them are a bit narcissistic. They have a sense of how they think things should be, and it is all they can see. I think people like that must find it difficult to really act except in particular roles. Or the personality of the characters they play are all similar. They can't take direction well because they think they know better how the character should act. Know what I mean? They have a huge ego, and think their opinion is really the correct one, or the only important one.

I think we might have had that show here. I googled it and saw a photo of him with that damned white ball behind him. Crazy concept. I think I might have seen that before back in the sixties. I was pretty young then but it looked familiar.

I know it is almost 1am in Wales now as I write this, and it is almost 8pm here. Anyway I don't expect you will read these messages til tomorrow. So I may as well take my time now.

Some shows and movies are so bad they get a cult following. You mentioned The Prisoner and when I saw that white ball in a photo I googled I remember seeing it a long time ago. It wasn't something I watched regularly but I think I saw an episode or two.

That got me thinking about a cult classic science fiction movie from 1959 called Plan 9 from Outer Space. It was the baby of some WWII veteran named Ed Wood. The movie was so bad it gained a following. Ed Wood contacted Bella Lugosi to be in the movie. Lugosi was just one year from death at the time. He had struggled with a heroin addiction for years and nobody would hire him. So he agreed to act in the film and wound up being in one scene for a couple of minutes. Some aliens were concerned that Earth was developing a doomsday weapon that threatened the universe so they put Plan 9 into action, "a scheme to resurrect the Earth's dead, referred to as "ghouls". By causing chaos, the aliens hope the crisis will force humanity to listen to them; otherwise the aliens will destroy mankind with armies of the undead." It has been called "The epitome of so-bad-it's-good cinema", and also the "worst film ever made". It's not a comedy, it's just so bad that you have to laugh at it.

I haven't seen this movie but I have heard and read about it. Many years ago my parents bought me a book for Christmas called "The Fifty Worst Movies ever made" and this featured in it !! I love this kind of book because the television would not be safe if I had to watch them!! Other titles that I remember was "Eegah" - "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia" - "The Conqueror" (Genghiz Khan) and "Last year in Marienbad". It was a very entertaining book. You will probably know the history of The Conqueror which was shot on a nuclear test site in Utah which they were told was safe so they brought back sand to the studios to shoot scenes there - ultimately over the next thirty years, 91 of the 220 cast and crew members had developed a form of cancer. Forty-six had died, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz (who shot himself soon after learning he had terminal cancer), Agnes Moorehead, John Hoyt and director Dick Powell. Lee Van Cleef had throat cancer, but died of a heart attack. As far as I recall Ed Wood used to recruit virtually anybody to star in his movies - his brother - in -law - his gardener - people passing by !! Another actor with an ego so massive that nobody could work with him was Nicol Williamson. People hail him as the greatest actor of his generation - sorry - I don't agree. His bio on IMDB is interesting. I think Sergar would rate a mention in a "Fifty Worst Actors" compilation. !! A lot of Sci-fi movies from the fifties are really silly to today's audiences - I remember one scene - can't remember the title - where people had to leave Earth in order for humanity to survive - so they all pile into a "ROCKET" (about fifty of them) and sit down in wooden chairs - and await take off. On arrival at the nearest planet and not a day older they discuss whether it would be safe for them to exit the craft. One big guy decides to be the hero - they open the door (there is no air lock - the door is the door to the outside) he steps outside to a lush and beautiful landscape - he beats his chest - "Best air I ever tasted " he booms. The End. Sorry this is a bit jumbled - I tend to write as the thoughts appear in my head !! I will continue the Ezel saga later today.

In the early 70s TV used to replay a lot of those old sci fi and monster movies and I loved watching them then. Another movie from around the same time period was Forbidden Planet. Leslie Nielson starred in the movie. This was back before he discovered he enjoined doing comedy, back then he did straight roles. It also starred Walter Pidgeon, and it featured a young Earl Holliman also. It was a pretty good story, especially for that time period.

The "horror" films of that time period were not really scary, just interesting. I also loved the old film noir crime films. I am a big Humphry Bogart fan and try to watch his films every chance I get when they are rerun.

I never knew that story about The Conqueror. What a tragedy. My mother's brother worked as a chemist at one of the government research sites on the Manhatten Project. He wasn't allowed to tell his wife what he was working on. He got cancer later in life. He was a gentleman, one of the nicest men I've ever met.

I have some errands to run. I will check back later on

I have just finished "Ezel" If I was a foul mouthed person I would be having a field day right now !! 72 episodes and a cop-out ending. So many unresolved issues - Cengiz - Ali - his mother - know that Ezel is Omer. What about Eysan his father and his brother? Why is Cengiz now free after a murder charge? What on earth persuaded Sebnem to have a hairstyle like that and why did she snub Tefik? !! - where was Sergar. Am I to assume that in exchange for not sending the kill video to the police they have all agreed to work together on a new "game". Was the unseen person at the head of the table the next "mark". Why would they need one - they are acting like a bunch of cheap con-artists rather than people who already own houses hotels and casinos. What is happening between Cengiz Eysan and Can? And worst of all - not one of them has yet told Ezel "Why". They ended it in a manner that suggested they were expecting to make another series. I did enjoy watching it - but the story could have been told in say 15 episodes and resolved in a much more satisfactory manner. They chopped and changed statements too much. One minute Eysan was the mastermind behind it all - the next minute it was Sergar - one minute Ali is a cold blooded murderer - the next he is a soft hearted man tortured by his conscience - then he is a cold blooded killer again. I find it hard to look at these people in the last scene and have any good feelings towards them. Ezel and Sebnem are the only sympathetic characters really. Look at the rest of them - I like Tefik - but he is a killer - I like Ali - but he is a killer also. Ramiz is a mafia don for goodness sake. Eysan - a cold blooded con artist - liar and Judas. Cengiz - a coward without a conscience. Who's to like? The last scene seemed totally removed from the mood of the previous episodes - as if we had just watched a con artist comedy. Very strange and very disappointing.

Agreed. I couldn't believe they copped out like that. Esyan never realized it was Omer. He started to try to tell her a couple of times. The last time he kept letting her interrupt him and never did just spit it out: "I am Omer! And none of this would have happened if you had not lied in court."

After all that time, he never told her? What about in that last scene, the stupid poker table scene? Are we supposed to assume that she knew by then, or not? That was one of the most anticipated confrontations, and it never happened. What a disappointment.

It seems like they decided that it would be "unfair" to punish the guilty for their betrayals and crimes, so instead they had the "super evil" enemies of Ramiz kill Bahar, and made Ezel feel guilty about that, the idea being that now everyone shared guilt. Thus it becomes "you can't criticize me because you're not perfect either". They didn't have to be un-PC and judge their wickedness, because that would be judgmental. Better to compare them to a worse evil group and rehabilitate them after a fashion (well, we're not as bad as them). None of their issues were resolved. For them to all begin working together as gamblers and casino operators they would have to work through those issues, and there was NO way anyone could ever get past what Cengiz did. Ali showed remorse and offered up his life, so perhaps one could forgive him, but trust him? Hell, how could you trust any of them? Esyan had some mitigating circumstances, but she never went to Omer and tried to explain or admit her shame. I was foolish to think they would ever find a way to work it out. Sure, she cried after she lied in court, but that is no consolation. She ruined an innocent man's life. Crying about it is hypocritical.

Serdar never paid for his part, and he was the driving force behind it. Plus he is generally despicable, karma from his everyday life demanded that he face some sort of punishment. What happened to him? Oh yeah, Esyan made him leave her house before she lost it. Yeah, that will show him! I am glad they didn't include him in the last scene at the poker table. I really liked your rolling pin idea. At least they could have done something like that. Ezel never made any attempt to get even with Serdar. That was another huge disappointment.

They couldn't figure out how to resolve their issues, so they threw in a razzle dazzle subplot putting the betrayal team plus Ezel and Ramiz against the super evil Mr. Kenan, the gleeful killer of innocent women. They killed off the super evil guys and then they sat around a poker table: "See, everything is good now, thanks for watching."

They just dodged all the issues. They refused to punish the guilty. Does losing your house and your money pay for that crime? Esyan was hypocritical to place the blame for Bahar on Ezel. If she had not betrayed him and put his life in danger in prison, Omer would never had become a friend to Ramiz. So it all leads straight back to her. But Ezel stood there and let her unload the blame on him, let her interrupt him and stop him speaking, and then sat there in tears, feeling guilty about Bahar. I told you how much I hated that scene.

I agree they could have told the story in one season. I enjoyed watching this show, even though I am critical of it. One of the problems of stretching out the story is that the writers have to make up filler material, and they often just retread the same plot devices over and over again. You pointed out how boring it became listening to Ramiz tell Ezel that it had to happen "tonight". We kept hearing the same urgent comments from Ramiz advising Ezel, we watched Ezel fretting about his family and the suffering they had to endure, we watched Esyan pining over Omer and longing for Ezel, all these scenes were recycled many times in the filler episodes. I was alright with all that; it is standard fare in hit TV shows, but it is really disappointing to find out that the producers and the writers were just stalling, trying to figure out how to end the story. Didn't they have a game plan from the start? Did they lose funding for the show suddenly? Maybe they had more episodes in mind to finish the story but the show got canceled before they expected. That could explain the weird ending.

Why? Ali would never answer that question, and his motivation was never clear. That was a VERY weak part of the plot. The story lacks continuity, it created expectations that justice would finally somehow be served, but it failed to deliver. Since he failed to tell Esyan, he never even asked her directly. He didn't ask Cengiz, but his reasons are more obvious; he wanted Esyan and he wanted to be rich. Cengiz was a piece of crap. That makes the ending all the more absurd. They could not be reconciled.

Another crazy sequence has Ezel tell Ali he is going to kill the bastard who killed Bahar. Then the scene cuts away to show Ali facing off with the blue eyed hitman on a dock, with Azad standing to the side. Seeing they are about to shoot at each other, Azad stupidly moves to stand behind Ali, so she is in the line of fire.

Before shooting can occur, the scene cuts away, back to daytime, and we see another super crowded street, and our main characters are walking side by side down the street.

Then it is night time again and Ezel and Cengiz are playing Russian roulette again. Ezel tells Cengiz to follow the first way. Cengiz asks what it is. Ezel talks about the four of them under the bridge when Cengiz pulled the gun Omer grabbed and put his prints on. Ezel lets him know he is Omer. (So what is the first way? ) Cengiz realizes Ezel is Omer.

Scene changes to Ramiz with the curly haired evil man and has a knife fight with him and kills him.

Scene goes back to Ali and the blue haired killer. Ali kills him.

6 months later

Esyan goes up a tall building and meets Mr. Kenan and asks if she can be useful to him.

Scene changes to Ramiz talking to Azad saying she will change everything. Ali puts Ramiz into a wheelchair and takes him to the poker room. Sebnem calls Cengiz "Boss" .

And we are in the poker room. Tefo asks May I help you? and Sebnem says nothing and walks past him. Is this for the benefit of the guest they are playing poiker with? Is it Mr. Kenan?

That sequence was crazy. Why were they all walking down the crowded street together? It looks like someone in the cutting room just took a bunch of scenes they had shot and scrambled them together.

That crowded street they used so many times was ridiculous - I don't understand the significance of it. Why would Mr Kenan have any use for Cengiz - because he knew Ezel who was close to Ramiz? That was a pretty weak reason. All Ezel had to do at that point was tell the police where Cengiz was. And no explanation given why Ramiz should first "heal" Mr Kenan and then take away everything he had including his wife. (The unseen guy at the table was unlikely to be Mr Kenan because Ramiz was there too and they would have recognised each other) Did I hear them say something along the lines of how did Ramiz spend 20 years in prison and lose everything and get rich and powerful again in 6 months? Lose everything? What about the millions he funded Ezel with to buy the hotels and casinos. How could Azad say Ramiz abandoned her if he was in clink? It took Ezel long enough to realise that Can was his son - even Ali said the boy didn't look like Cengiz - and all that rubbish about asking Ali to look out for Can if anything happened to Ezel - like he did for Omer huh? That is the weakest point in the story for me - Ali's betrayal - even he couldn't answer it when Ezel asked him - probably because the writers couldn't think of a reason either. And for Sergar - the initiator of the whole thing - to get away with it - what passes for justice in Turkey? Did they think we would like all the characters so much we couldn't bear to part with any of them? The thing began as high drama and ended as a comedy. They could have done it differently and more plausibly. Eysan should have told Cengiz that she was taking Can away with her and he would never see him again - whereupon Cenzig would have killed her. Sergar would have witnessed it through the window and run away in his red pyjamas - Cengiz would have followed him and killed him. But Sergar would have already called the police who arrive just in time to see Cengiz kill him - so Cengiz is back in prison for good where he is probably killed by one of Ramiz's men. Thus all the really bad ones are accounted for plausibly. The kill video is then given to the police - Ezel is cleared and free to live with his family after proving via DNA that Can is his son. Ali gives up his criminal activities and lives up to his promise to protect Can. Now why couldn't somebody think of that scenario !! Probably because they were hoping the show would be picked up again - but there was nothing left to say. What would your end scenario be?

Why would Mr Kenan have any use for Cengiz - because he knew Ezel who was close to Ramiz? ---And presumably he knew Ezel was Cengiz's enemy, so the enemy of my enemy....that was my take.

All Ezel had to do at that point was tell the police where Cengiz was. -------- Yeah, but supposedly Mr. Kenan was so powerful he could get the government to ignore Cengiz, according to what they said anyway.

Did I hear them say something along the lines of how did Ramiz spend 20 years in prison and lose everything and get rich and powerful again in 6 months? Lose everything? What about the millions he funded Ezel with to buy the hotels and casinos.-------- I thought they said he lost everything after he got out, maybe because he tied up everything in backing Ezel? It wasn't clear to me either.

How could Azad say Ramiz abandoned her if he was in clink? It took Ezel long enough to realise that Can was his son - even Ali said the boy didn't look like Cengiz - and all that rubbish about asking Ali to look out for Can if anything happened to Ezel - like he did for Omer huh? ------- Ramiz said something once about having to stay away from Azad so Kenan wouldn't know about her. Ramiz told everyone she was dead to protect her. Ezel should have at least wondered if the boy was his, given his date of birth nine months after his one night with Esyan. And why didn't Mehila tell him or anyone else sooner? Cengiz asked Ezel to watch over Can in case something happened to him back when he still thought he was his best friend. I had forgotten about Ezel asking Ali to look after him. I guess he trusted Ali to always defend a child or an innocent woman. Also, Ali had expressed regret and put himself in danger of death for him by that point, I think. But yeah, there should have been better candidates to raise the boy.

Ali's betrayal - even he couldn't answer it when Ezel asked him - probably because the writers couldn't think of a reason either.-------- That is my guess.

And for Sergar - the initiator of the whole thing - to get away with it - what passes for justice in Turkey? Did they think we would like all the characters so much we couldn't bear to part with any of them?-------- I know, that was really disappointing. I think the turning point came when Cengiz and Ezel sat in that office talking about Mr. Kenan's gourp and Cengiz said "They got you too, didn't they?" and "They used you too, didn't they?" Ezel answered yes and yes, and began talking about how he told himself that when he did bad things, they didn't matter, because he was getting revenge.

I think the writers meant that scene to be some kind of epiphany scene where Ezel realizes he went too far or something, and after that they all accepted their own failings and walked down the street in unity or something? It's one thing for a plot to start out shrouded in mystery which is slowly explained, but the reverse is just stupid. Just when it looked as if the story might have reached some kind of logical or moral end point, they threw a bunch of vague, mysterious images and scenes at us. Perhaps they wrote themselves into a corner and couldn't devise a logical ending so they decided to put them together around a poker table and then let the viewers come up with their own explanations. Sometimes viewers who like a show will use all sorts of pretzel logic to defend its deficiencies and contradictions (just listen to Star Trek fanatics).
[But how could any thinking person consider that Cengiz and Ezel were somehow equal in the harm they did others? With Ezel, he simply failed to foresee that Ramiz's enemy might shoot Bahar. And frankly, how could anyone have predicted this? It is a real stretch to tie that back to Ezel. What was his complicity? It was that he was seen as an asset of Ramiz, the man who saved his life in prison. There were unintended consequences of his revenge plot, and Ezel could be blamed for those. But he was deeply troubled by them and tried to rectify his mistakes. Cengiz harmed others without compunction and would do it all again, by his own admission. ]

Your ending sounds pretty good. I would like it. Alternatives: Ezel could have sent a note to Serdar, ostensibly from Esyan, asking him to meet her somewhere. When he showed up he would be met by the people from those countries who wanted revenge on him. "She's my daughter! How could she betray me?" And someone would answer "Betrayed by a loved one, Serdar? God is not mocked; you reap what you sew. Your lifetime of wickedness is now ripe, and you will eat the fruit of it. " That would be too Christian for a Muslim culture TV show. But there must be applicable texts they could have used.

I like your idea of having them devoured by each others' wicked natures. That way it doesn't besmirch Omer with doing murder himself, instead they are done in by their own greed, jealousy, and hypocritical rage over having been betrayed. That has a feel of justice to it.

I would like to have heard Ali break down and tell Omer that he hated himself for having been lead to follow them along that wicked path, to betray his brother, and beg to be killed for what he did. Ali showed great remorse various times in the show, including the time he confessed everything to that investigator just before Cengiz called and told him Omer had been killed in prison. That showed remorse and a willingness to pay for his sins. Also, when Eren found out Ali killed his father and tried to kill him, Ali didn't try to defend himself. He acknowledged his guilt and the justness that he should die for what he did. The show should have treated Ali differently than it did Cengiz, who felt no remorse, and who demonstrated a lack of character at almost every opportunity.

There is the matter of Can. Can loves his parents of course. But allowing Cengiz to have any connection to Can is morally wrong. Cengiz would certainly teach Can to be evil, since it is his nature. One way or another, Cengiz would have to go. With Esyan, the writers showed us a loving mother, an abused and blackmailed daughter, a woman in love who cried bitterly in remorse and shame over what she did to Omer, a devoted sister, etc. So they did show us some redeemable aspects to her personality. There is just no getting around the depravity of someone who could do what she did to someone she apparently really did love. But there could have been some way to deal with that. She could go to jail for perjury and conspiracy to commit robbery. But she could cooperate with law enforcement and get a reduced sentence with visitation from her son. That way the boy would still be able to see his mom, she could feel better about coming clean and repenting, and start her life over again. She may deserve worse than that, but it would rob the boy of both the parents he knew

I don't like the way the show just swept everything under the rug, allowed the guilty to escape punishment, and then show them working together as though it was "all better now". There can't be any rehabilitation of criminals who never confess, repent, try to make restitution, and accept justice. You can't even cut a deal with someone like that.

There is no getting away from it - the ending was utterly stupid, implausible, morally bankrupt and sends out a dreadful message. Such a disappointment. Never mind I enjoyed most of it so now we have to find something else to watch and tear to bits !! Have you found any possibilities whilst I have been catching up? One thing before we leave this show forever - I am not normally a car person - one looks pretty much like another to me - I am not a vehicle snob - but I really took a shine to Ezel's car - what make was it - do you know? Just out of interest.

Update - I have just flicked through Netflix and have come across a series (Russian I think) called The Sniffer. I am pretty sure it is the same guy who was in "Better than Us" I have only just started watching it and wondered if you had seen it and if so - is it worth me continuing!!

I liked it too so I looked it up. It is a 2009 Maserati Quadraporte. Really nice looking automobile.

I can get The Sniffer. I will start watching it today.

I want one and I can't even drive !! Beautiful vehicle. I am on ep 3 of "The Sniffer". I am not sure about it but I figured I would give it five episodes at least because some shows are slow to get into their stride. Be warned - some of his pronouncements are ludicrous - very Sherlock Holmsian - and the stories at the moment are somewhat simplistic and quick to resolve. Once again he has a broken relationship. But I will persevere in the hope of improvement. Let me know if you can't be bothered with it.

It is a novel premise so I give them points for creativity, usually a good thing. It would be nice to have the power of a bloodhound nose, or it might be. This guy must also have an encyclopedic smell memory, the way he picked up on that particular type of explosive. But then they had to make it a bit ridiculous. He could somehow determine how many times the pilot and stewardess had sex. And later he knew that the killer wore a nicotine patch on his RIGHT arm. So that smells different from a patch on your left arm?

But that's OK. They have to give him more than a sensitive nose. He can't simply know that something stinks, he needs to be able to know the chemical composition that gives the smell that particular fetid stench.

His ex wife is a bit of a bitch. I don't know how much of her I would put up with before I had to tell her that her personal hygiene is awful or something.

Naturally they make this guy a kind of a nerdy wimp who cannot tolerate athletic stuff and has nasal allergies. It fits the type I guess. I KNEW it. This guy acts like he doesn't know the first thing about a pistol, almost like he isn't sure where the trigger is. I don't know why they make intelligent people act illiterate regarding firearms. At least he was able to shoot when he had to. [watching episode 2]

What is it with teenagers and parents in TV these days. They have the worst attitudes and talk back to their parents. I don't recall being that bad.

I looked at other year models of that Maserati and didn't like the grill work on them as much as I like the 2009 model.

I've been thinking about winning the lottery. I procrastinate a lot though. If I ever get around to it I may just get that car, that year, and have it factory refurbished.