Review of Midnight at the Pera Palace / Pera Palas'ta Gece Yarısı Season One

If you’re new here and stumbled upon this blog through a search engine like Google, or through the wacky ways of the Internet, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I use this space to review the content I’ve been watching throughout the years. I used to professionally work as a film critic at an online outlet, but recently (at the time of typing this) transitioned more into doing my own thing.

The fall of 2024 I was waiting three months for an opportunity I was told I had, but then it never materialized. I guess the moral of that story is don’t listen to what people tell you and take it as the truth, even when a contract is signed. What an interesting series of events that was.

With my sudden unexpected unemployment, I had a lot of free time. Because my finances were decent, I saw this as an opportunity to slow down a bit and see what would happen, and so I used the time to catch up on my shows, books, and focus more on my life as a creative writer.

I watched Midnight at the Pera Palace during this time. It had been on my Netflix to-watch list for a hot minute, as I was getting into Turkish television while I was still working as a critic, but I never found time for it with the million of other shows and content I needed to get through for work.

With all of this free time, I decided to go for it, and watched both season one and two in one go, as they had been released by the time I got around to this.

Let’s get into the review! I know I don’t want to ramble too much, as we’re here for the review and summary portion of the page.

A woman finds herself time traveling in an Istanbul hotel, which sends her back to 1919.

In this series, our main character is an orphaned journalist named Esra. She lives and works in Istanbul during the modern period, and she has just been given a new beat from her boss: go find something out about the Pera Palace Hotel, which is turning 130 years old during the series.

So Esra wanders over to the hotel and meets its manager Ahmet. He tells her that there is so much history contained within the walls of these hotels, and many famous guests occupied the halls throughout the years. One notable story for Esra, especially as she’s coming in as a journalist, is about Peride.

She’s a woman who helped save Mustafa Kemal in 1919 from an assassination attempt. Kemal was the first president of the Republic of Turkey, which doesn’t exist at this point in time. He would be considered one of the founders of the country, but without Peride’s help, he would not have survived the British.

But when Esra comes into a hotel room in the middle of the night with the right key, she is sent back in time to 1919. Ahmet never said anything about his to her, and she’s pretty confused when she walks out of the room and finds herself in a completely different period, complete with different writing scripts and attitudes.

Esra also happens to be the doppelganger for Peride, which causes some friction, especially when Peride herself manages to go missing. We learn what happens to her later in in the series, but as Esra realizes messing with the past has consequences for the future she lives in, she needs to help fix the problems created by her being there.

Ahmet also realizes what’s going on and helps Esra in her quest, especially when she assumes the identity of Peride. Together, they’re going to come across some suspicious characters, especially when they come into contact with the same Brits that are plotting to gain more control of Turkey.

But that’s not all when it comes to this series. There might not be a ton of episodes packed in per season, but I thought that there was enough drama to sustain the plot line all the way through. Season two did less of a good job when it comes to this, but season one kept me on my toes and wanting to watch more throughout.

Overall Thoughts

I’d say I enjoyed this first season. It isn’t something that is particularly memorable among all of the shows I’ve watched recently, but the storyline is something that feels fresh and new compared to some other Turkish shows I’ve been seeing lately. I thought this was the most original plot, and I did enjoy the protagonists and their plight.

That said, I don’t know how this storyline could sustain itself beyond a first season. At the time of typing this I’ve already watched season two, and if you can’t tell from my earlier comments, I thought that season two was the less strong of the two. I was kind of disappointed by it, even though I finished it.

But season one is fairly solid, even though there are some moments that’ll have you shaking your head. If you’re interested in the show and haven’t watched it yet, I think you should try to fit it in over a weekend or when you have some time.

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