In broad terms, the synopsis could have been written by Nora Ephron, beloved screenwriter of When Harry met Sally. After a difficult breakup, an ambitious young lawyer, Leyla, undergoes the new customs of dating. Euphoria of encounters, lame jokes and inevitable disappointments: in eight episodes, the series Thank you, and next time!, broadcast on Netflix, takes up the codes of the American romantic comedy down to the comma. With one exception… The eternal sun which surrounds the heroine’s adventures does not sink into the Atlantic Ocean, but into the Bosphorus.
The time when Erdogan’s Turkey did not support its soft power that on fictions exalting the Ottoman Empire is over. This new production presents a postcard Istanbul, resolutely modern, open to the world. The tribulations of Leyla and her group of friends are very similar to those that young professionals might experience in London, Paris or New York. Watching them evolve, it’s hard not to think of the thoughts of the British journalist David Goodhart, who, in his book The Two Clansopposed “people from anywhere” (anywhere) and “the people from somewhere” (somewhere). “Anywhere“through and through, Leyla is a chemically pure version of what Netflix original series are: standardized productions, anchored in globalization, imbued with American values.
International hub
Since its creation in 2011, the platform has continued to internationalize its content. An estimate from the Ampere Analysis firm projects that in 2024, more than half of its production budget – $7.9 billion out of a total of $15.4 billion – would be spent internationally, outside of South America. North. These series have a double advantage for Netflix. Cheaper to make – the Korean series Squid Game cost $21.4 million when the budget for the final season of Stranger Things exceeds 270 million – they are also increasingly watched by an American public now fond of series in foreign languages. But make no mistake: most of the international creations that occupy the top 10 most viewed content on Netflix fit perfectly into the Anglo-Saxon mold.
In seven seasons, Elitea thriller recounting the setbacks of wealthy Spanish teenagers, shamelessly adopted the codes of its New York predecessor Gossip Girl. Several years later, Blood and Water followed the same recipe, this time in South Africa. Last year, the Belgians imagined their own version, letting the golden youth of Knokke off in the chic neighborhoods of a seaside resort on the border with the Netherlands. Each time, with rare variations, the same format, the same way of filming, the same characters evolving in comfortable settings, embellished with a vague “local color”. A bit as if creation had become a gigantic international hub, heading to New York. We can, depending on our sensitivity, rejoice or be saddened by it. It doesn’t matter that the place of the United States has, in recent years, been increasingly questioned internationally. With Netflix, theAmerican way of life – the American way of life – has won.
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