50M2 – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Who Am I?

Episode 1 of 50M2 begins with a man running up an alleyway, frantically trying to get away from a prolific hitman known as Shadow. Shadow is after some photos belonging to Servet but when he comes up short, shoots the man in the thigh and tells him to go home.

In the morning, Shadow comes under fire from Servet when he shows up later. Given Shadow is his secret weapon, he tells the man that he isn’t being very secretive – especially after shooting the man in the leg. While Servet’s attorney is adamant they get rid of Shadow, Servet wants to keep him on the payroll for now.

Shadow is haunted by the past though and sick of living a fake life. He’s driven to find his parents and while Servet has agreed to help, Shadow used his own initiative (and contacts) to speed the investigation along. He tracks down a man named Adem Yilmaz who may just hold the clues he seeks.

He shows Shadow an old photo, one that includes Servet and Shadow’s father together. Adem warns Shadow that if he continues to align himself with Servet it could cause massive problems for him. There are rumours spreading that the orphanage he’s building is going to house guns and if Servet is caught, Shadow will inevitably take the fall for this.

Servet talks to a man named Mumtaz next, who demands he hand over the weapons when he gets them. When Servet asks to think about it, the tension turns hostile. Thankfully, Shadow show’s up and points a gun at the man’s head, ending negotiations.

As we soon find out, Shadow and Servet have been doing this for a long time. This paves way for a flashback to moments with Shadow as a child listening to Servet beat a man in his office.

Back in the present, Shadow feeds back the news to Servet that he may have found his parents. When he walks away, Servet immediately phones his contact, Stain, and asks him to keep an eye on Shadow’s apartment. Of course, this was all a ruse for Shadow to turn his investigation against Servet  himself and uncover the truth. Given he’s been recording this entire time, it doesn’t look good for Servet.

When the man returns to his office later on, he finds his whiskey and photos gone. It turns out Shadow has both of these tucked in his car and races away down the road. Having changed his mind, he hands over the pictures to Adem instead. Unfortunately an assassin arrives and shoots the man in the head.

At the same time, we cut to Muhtar who arrives to work through the documents of a recently deceased man named Adil. Muhtar sifts through a bunch of letters and photos in the office. Among these is an old note from Adil mentioning how he misses “our son”, with a picture of his wife and son.

Well, these two men show up at Adem’s house right on the back of Shadow killing the assassin and seemingly hiding Adem’s body. They believe he’s Adil’s son and hand over keys to his tailor shop. Shadow simply chuckles and tells the men he has no desire to run it.

Unfortunately this momentary distraction sees Shadow blindsided by Servet and his men when Muhtar leaves. With Shadow tied up, Servet shows up and admits that Shadow won’t find his parents. It turns out they were the first murders he was tasked to conduct. It seems Shadow has a case of amnesia and the reasons for him doing this as a child are still unknown right now.

As Shadow struggles to grapple with the ramifications of this, Servet receives a damning call confirming his weapons have been moved. Of course, Shadow is one step ahead of him and plays dumb to this. When Servet leaves, Shadow is left to deal with Stain. Shadow manages to get away and after having his binds cut by a child in the street, he scrambles inside the tailors and hopes for the best.

The Episode Review

Turkish series 50M2 gets off to a pretty good start here, pulling out all the usual crime drama tropes for this first episode. We’ve got the amnesia-stricken, anti-hero main character, complete with a tragic backstory. There’s also a slippery antagonist that’s easy to hate and lots of set-up for an intriguing season to follow.

The acting is okay, although at times some of the lines are over-acted, while the camera work is decent – especially during the sweeping establishing shots. We’ll haver to wait and see if this one shakes off the shackles of its cliched storyline but for now, there’s just enough here to make it worth sticking with for the time being.