Review by C.J. Bunce
Sometimes the best TV comes from somewhere you least expect it. This time it’s from Turkey, and it’s the real deal in every way–a Netflix series that is part mystery and part supernatural, with plenty of humor and a dazzling international setting. The series is Bet Your Life, one of the best packages of everything good about TV that has arrived this year. İsa Torabili (Ata Demirer) has all the charm, suave, and slick-talking we saw in early roles featuring Jeremy Piven. He’s a good guy, a newspaper man whose column is about sports betting. But the almost magical skill of choosing winners that was passed to him from his father is failing him of late. Just as it’s time to leave town for a while, an older man appears asking for his help. Only the man asking for help is already dead.
Yes, İsa sees dead people. Surprisingly good like Hulu’s French series Haut Potentiel Intellectuel (reviewed here) and a superb genre-bender that ticks all the boxes like Netflix’s 2022 South Africa series Dead Places (reviewed here), you’re going to love this story from Turkey, with characters and top actors you’ve not likely seen before.
First off, if you haven’t yet embraced Netflix’s many international series dubbed into English, consider that the dubbing for this series is near seamless. It helps that Deniz Katizsik’s script feels American in every way, complete with Americanisms that will have you surprised that they made it around the globe. But you’ll also get exposed to new culture and familiar tropes approached in a new way. The result is light-hearted action equal to American TV’s Monk, complete with sleuthing and drama delivered in a satisfying way.
The dead man that our sad sack hero İsa sees is Refik Argun, played by Uğur Yücel. Refik is a wealthy aristocrat who died via suicide according to the press and police report. Once İsa gets over the shock of communicating with a dead man, Refik insists he was murdered, but he didn’t see who killed him. İsa doesn’t want involved but Refik doesn’t give him any choice. The result is a match-up of good characters not unlike the relationship between Indiana Jones and Sean Connery’s Henry Jones. They share some barbs but ultimately have common interests.
First and foremost among those interests is Refik’s daughter Seda, played with charisma by Esra Bilgiç. It’s easy to see why İsa falls for Seda straightaway. She’s beautiful and despite what seems at first like an unlikely couple, they really hit it off. İsa returns to his hometown of Urla where his aunt, Ayfer Hala, played by Lale Mansur, works for Seda at her vineyard. Seda is headstrong, raising a rifle to İsa in their first encounter. İsa is aces at keeping secret his awareness of Seda’s father as İsa and Seda get closer to each other. But why does Refik vanish every time İsa’s aunt comes around? Adding to the stakes for İsa is a loan shark named Haydar, played by Beyti Engin, always hot on İsa’s tail.
The footage of Urla and the surrounding area by cinematographer Yalçin Avci is like something from a James Bond movie. You’ll walk away wanting to go vacation there. Whodunnit? You’ll want to find out. As a bonus, the finale episode has the perfect set-up for a second season.
This one is going to be hard to top. Come December 2025, count on Bet Your Life to be in the running for the year’s best TV series. It’s fun, funny, fresh, and clever, with a great cast and script–eight hour-long episodes and you’ll wish there were more. Watch Bet Your Life, now streaming on Netflix.
