SERIES REVIEW – In Netflix’s post-apocalyptic series, the crew of a civilian and military submarine attempt to save humanity from a deadly solar flare.

Netflix’s best feature is the quantity and quality of its international content. One of the highlights was Into the Night. The Belgian-produced series followed a group of survivors who fled the dangerous sun to avoid death by daylight radiation.

Although season 3 of Into the Night is still missing, the Yakamoz S-245 is here to fill the void. The Turkish production, a sort of season 1.5 of the series. The spin-off, which is set to coincide with Into the Night season 1, Yakamoz S-245 is directed by Tolga Karaçelik & Umut Aral and written by Jason George, Atasay Koç, Cansu Çoban, Sami Maraçalı and Murat Uyurkulak. The main roles are played by Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ, Özge Özpirinçci, Meriç Aral, Ertan Saban, Jerry Hoffmann, Ece Ceşmioğlu, Onur Ünsal, Ecem Uzun, Jerry Hoffmann, Güven Murat Akpınar, Ersin Arici and Hakan Salınmış.

Chris Hemsworth’s Turkish twin brother

Arman (played by Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ, “the Turkish Chris Hemsworth”) is the lead scientist on a research trip to find a coral once thought to be extinct. However, when an unknown natural disaster threatens the world in the middle of their deep-sea dive, Arman and his scientific crew, Defne (Özge Özpirinçci), Felix (Jerry Hoffmann), Cem (Onur Ünsal) and Rana (Ecem Uzun), must board a military submarine to survive. The captain is forced to go underwater during the day to escape the life-threatening sunlight, and they try to harness their skills and figure out how to survive in a new world as tensions rise between the submarine crew and the Armanes. Not only is mistrust growing between the characters, but over the course of the seven-episode series, more and more questions about the true mission of the Yakamoz are raised.

Slower pace

The Yakamoz S-245 has a much slower pace than its aircraft counterpart, largely due to the submarine being a notch “safer”. Despite this, the third episode of the series kicks into a better gear and never stops. But as the danger grows and the food starts to run out, Arman and Umut (Ertan Saban), the submarine’s leader, start to fall out. Both believing they have everyone’s safety at heart, the two catapult the submarine into chaos as the divisions between the scientists and the submarine crew deepen.

As in Into the Night, Yakamoz S-245 uses global catastrophe and aliens forced to interact in order to survive to explore the theme of humanity and what morality means when the world ends. The secrets lurking beneath the surface give viewers the opportunity to delve deep into the relationships between the characters and watch them slowly emerge. Moreover, the people on Yakamoz are put in even more precarious situations when they meet other survivors who have done terrible things to survive.

Arman vs Umut

Overall, Arman and Umut are the two ends of the spectrum when it comes to leadership, and the actors who bring them to life pull the series and its themes together. Balanced against each other, Arman is driven by both science and emotion, in a way that favours his closest friends above all else, but ultimately offers grace and opportunity to everyone he meets. Umut, on the other hand, is a soldier through and through, and this comes with a kind of ‘devilish’, strict military ‘morality’ that makes everyone Umut doesn’t know to question him as an enemy. Umut seeks evil in everything and everyone, and controls in a tyrannical way, but he maintains his own logic throughout.

When it comes to the acting, the charismatic and extremely good-looking – indeed almost clone-like – Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ – who looks like Chris Hemsworth – clearly “carries” the series as Arman, although the strong resemblance also made me feel a bit like I was watching Hemsworth in an American disaster movie. Maybe that’s why there is sometimes a lot of kitsch and pathos, because Tatlıtuğ plays the same classic, heroic character that we have come to expect from Hemsworth.

As Umut, Ertan Saban plays a much more complex and interesting character and overall, the Turkish actor rises to the challenge. Initially extremely hostile to the scientists, later more camaraderie, but essentially ‘evil’, Saban portrays many layers of the character surprisingly well overall, with only one or two scenes where he lacks credibility in portraying this complex character.

The performances of the other actors are also generally fine – in particular the performance of Onur Ünsal “Cem” (Arman’s brother) is worthy of special mention, who does a great job of portraying the inner drama of a young man struggling with many inner demons, made all the more tragic by the disaster

A great virtue of the series is that, although Yakamoz S-245 is rushing towards the end of Into the Night Season 2, it doesn’t require you to watch that series. In fact, the transition from the series to the first one works extremely well. (Which I will do in hindsight, because I’ve skipped Into the Night so far.)

Humans in the post-apocalypse

Ultimately, Yakamoz S-245 explores a world that presents a unique disaster story, one that focuses as much on interpersonal relationships as it does on the fact that the sun has just killed most of humanity. If you like thrilling, post-apocalyptic series with fair acting and well-timed, unexpected twists and turns, you won’t be disappointed with this Turkish creation.

-BadSector-