The Club (2021) Review: Istanbul Nights, a Mother's Debt

Is The Club worth watching?

Yes. The Club is one of the finest Turkish series on Netflix, a glamorous yet heartfelt period drama anchored by Gökçe Bahadır’s commanding performance as a woman trying to reclaim her daughter and her life. It is sumptuously staged, full of music and nightlife, and unusually affectionate in its depiction of Istanbul’s minority communities. The reservation is that its melodrama sometimes tips into soap, with coincidences and secrets that stretch belief.

What is The Club about?

In 1950s Istanbul, Matilda (Gökçe Bahadır) is released after a long prison sentence with nothing but a determination to rebuild her life. She finds work at a glittering nightclub in the heart of the city, a place of music, money and hidden dealings, and sets out to reconnect with Raşel (Asude Kalebek), the daughter she was forced to leave behind and who barely knows her.

Raşel is a teenager with ambitions and resentments of her own, and she is quickly drawn into the club’s intoxicating world. Salih Bademci and Barış Arduç play key figures in the nightclub’s orbit, men whose ambitions and loyalties tie them to Matilda’s fortunes. As mother and daughter circle each other warily, the series builds a wider portrait of a cosmopolitan city in which Jewish, Greek, Armenian and Muslim communities live side by side under mounting pressure.

The Club was created by Zeynep Günay Tan for Netflix. It is a Turkish production, mainly in Turkish. This review covers the complete story, two seasons and 20 episodes released between 2021 and 2023; the series has ended.

Gökçe Bahadır’s remarkable lead

The show belongs to its star. Gökçe Bahadır plays Matilda as a woman hardened by years of loss, capable of great toughness and sudden tenderness, and burdened by guilt she cannot put into words. Her scenes with Asude Kalebek, whose Raşel is spiky, impulsive and deeply hurt, carry the series’ emotional core: two people who share blood but not a history, trying to learn how to be family.

Bahadır grounds even the most dramatic turns in recognisable emotion, and the result is one of the richest lead performances in Turkish television. The supporting cast, particularly Salih Bademci and Barış Arduç, lend charisma and menace to the nightclub’s shifting power games.

A rare portrait of Sephardic Istanbul

What makes The Club distinctive is its subject. Turkish television has rarely centred a Jewish family, and the series depicts the city’s Sephardic community with warmth and detail, from domestic rituals to the Ladino language heard in homes and songs. It also acknowledges the discrimination and political tensions that minorities faced in the period, giving the glamorous setting a darker undercurrent.

The production design is lavish, with costumes, sets and a soundtrack of mid-century music that make the nightclub a vivid, seductive space. The musical performances are a highlight, helping the show capture both the romance and the uncertainty of a city on the cusp of change.

Where the melodrama overflows

The Club is not immune to the excesses of its genre. Secrets, betrayals and conveniently timed revelations pile up, especially in the second season, which leans harder into crime and romantic entanglements. Some subplots feel stretched, and the balance between the intimate family story and the broader nightclub intrigue is not always even. Viewers who prefer restrained historical drama may find the heightened emotions exhausting.

Who should watch The Club?

It suits fans of period drama, family melodrama and stories about immigrant and minority communities. Two seasons of roughly hour-long episodes make a manageable binge. The series deals with prison, violence, discrimination and difficult family relationships, and includes some mature content, so it is best suited to adult viewers.

If you want more in this vein:

• Pachinko for another sweeping historical drama about a minority family trying to survive and belong.
• Ethos, a very different Turkish Netflix series that also explores the divisions within Istanbul’s society.

The verdict

The Club is a beautifully made, emotionally generous period drama that gives voice to a community rarely seen on screen. Its soapier turns keep it from greatness, but Gökçe Bahadır’s powerful performance and the show’s vivid recreation of 1950s Istanbul make it well worth the time.

Rating: 4/5