'Doctor Miracle': curiosities behind the successful Turkish series | The nation

No one escapes the charms of Doctor Miracle. The Turkish TV series has been number 1 in the top of HBO MAX for more than a month, and has been acquired in South America, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico, remaining as an inevitable topic of conversation.

The story shows Ali Vefa, a young man with an autism spectrum disorder and Savant syndrome, who becomes an eminence in pediatric surgery. As a child, Ali was sent to a specialized care facility, where it was discovered that he had great brain capabilities. Some time later, encouraged by a rural doctor, he managed to make a field in a surgical unit at the Berhayat Hospital in Istanbul.

With the boom that the novel has had, some curiosities behind the production have been revealed, which we review below.

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The dream of the leading actor

Taner Ölmez, who plays the protagonist of the series, believed that his dream as an actor was cut short. Before getting the role he worked as a jeweler and electrician, and longed to participate in a production that had a social component.

In an interview for the Argentine portal Infobae, Ölmez assured that his dream was fulfilled in the best possible way. “The novel premiered on a Thursday and everyone saw it. On Friday, the next day, I was going to record and a man came running. He stops me and he tells me: 'Sorry I'm like this, all agitated, I'm running because I'm late for work. You know why? Because last night I was watching the novel and, when it ended, I started to watch it three more times, because I have an autistic daughter and I can't believe I'm seeing this on television,'" the actor said in the interview.

“Stories like this happened to me from the first day and they were constant. So I believe that I will never forget this experience”, he added.

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Effects due to the pandemic

To project verisimilitude into the production, the crew decided to film in an actual medical facility, called the Medical Park and located in Istanbul's Pendik.

The health crisis affected the recordings, to the point where it was suspended for several weeks to avoid contagion. The tension was so great that the actor Frat Altunmee (who played Demir) decided to give up the series due to the panic attacks caused by the pandemic.

Controversy

The soap opera has been criticized for being compared to The Good Doctor, a Sony series that also features a young doctor with an autistic disorder. For many, Doctor Miracle is a plagiarism of this American series, but the production of the Turkish novel has stood up to criticism by clarifying that they were inspired by a 2013 South Korean production, entitled Gut dakteo.

The production did not back down with its end

Many Turkish novels have been known for their length. For example, the novel Elif reached almost a thousand episodes, a reason that made many think that Doctor Miracle would become an equally extensive novel. But the production assured that its interest was a concise story of two seasons and, although many asked for a third installment of chapters, the producers assured that they were satisfied with the final result. In total, Doctor Miracle is made up of 64 episodes.