As I learned from my time in Central Asia, soap operas are hugely popular in Kazakhstan. When I was first there in 2002, they bought the rights to broadcast Sunset Beach, but when they ran out of episodes, the viewers were annoyed until the network announced more seasons would be available. I was unsure how, considering the series had ceased production. It turned out they merely bought the rights to the soap opera Passions, the one that replaced Sunset Beach after NBC cancelled it, but they retitled it Sunset Beach for distribution in Kazakhstan, and nobody seemed to either notice or care that the series now had different actors and characters... and was nowhere near a beach.
This time around, things have changed. One of the Kazakh networks aired the first season of a popular Turkish soap opera called Элиф (Elif), but for reasons only a network executive can understand, they then chose to bypass buying several hundred episodes, opting instead to televise the most recent season, skipping years of storylines. One of my Kazakh friends posted about it on social media... viewers are unamused. Luckily, the Turkish company that produces the soap opera put all episodes on the Tube of You (with commercials, of course). If you speak Turkish (or read Spanish as several seasons have Spanish subtitles), you can see what all the fuss is about. https://youtu.be/sKN6ZWgZKdU -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.