Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Thank You, Next’ On Netflix, About A Lawyer Taking A High-Profile Divorce Case While On The Rebound

Sometimes rom-com series are pretty straightforward, even when the lives of the people in the romcom aren’t. In a new series, a woman has complex feelings and relationships with three men: Her ex, her current casual squeeze and the husband of a divorcing client. All of this is against the backdrop of the rich and fashionable people in Istanbul.

THANK YOU, NEXT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman drives along a country road in a Mercedes convertible.

The Gist: She stops at a villa, sneaks into a window, pets a dog that she is vary familiar with, and laments as she sees a wedding dress hanging in the room.

We go back to an outdoor club at a resort. Leyla Taylan (Serenay Sarikaya) is there with her friends — all of whom seem to work at the same law firm where she’s an attorney — and she’s talking and dancing with a handsome man named Feyyaz (Boran Kuzum). She writes her number on his chest.

Back in Istanbul, the group is back at work — though they look like they’re dressed barely differently than they were dressed at the resort. Her boss gives her a new divorce case: Tuba Tepelioğlu (Bade İşçil), the third wife of a wealthy real estate magnate named Cem Murathan (Hakan Kurtaş). He’s a “serial killer” as far as Leyla is concerned; in other words, he marries and divorces women fast, as none of his marriages have lasted more than three years.

Leyla is still dealing with the end of her relationship to Ömer (Metin Akdülger); her friends are over to help keep her company, but Ömer shows up to retrieve the rest of his stuff, even though he had the whole weekend to do it when Leyla was away. He tells her that he thinks they can salvage the relationship, but it seems that Leyla has moved on. What she does want is for him to bring back their dog, Buddy.

The next day, the very fit Leyla is on a video chat with her very fit co-workers when she gets a message that Tuba tried to kill herself. She was drinking a lot — Leyla helped — and was on meds. Cem encounters Leyla for the first time and says “are you going to finish the job?”, but when Leyla and her boss talk to Tuba, she wants a long, painful divorce instead of the quick one she intended to have, much to Leyla’s boss’ disappointment.

In the meantime, Feyyaz is back in Istanbul, and asks Leyla to meet him for dinner. It turns out he’s a fantastic chef; he makes a tasting menu for her that blows her away. They spend the night, but a wayward text by one of Leyla’s buddies makes its way to Ömer, who drunkenly returns Buddy to Leyla, waiting for her as she gets out of Feyyaz’s car.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Sex And The City, but everyone is a lawyer.

Our Take: Listen, everything in Thank You, Next looks beautiful. The apartments and houses are beautiful. The office Leyla and her friends work in is beautiful. The scenery is beautiful. The clothes are beautiful. The actors are beautiful. But the story feels about as empty as a wine glass in need of some more Chardonnay.

Leyla is essentially going to be dealing with three men in her life: Ömer, Feyyaz and Cem. While her friends operate as her Greek chorus, all of whom will likely be operating in relation to Leyla, she’ll be trying to make her breakup with Ömer stick, going back and forth with an inconsistent Feyyaz and butting heads — then being attracted to — Cem. We can almost write the entire season ourselves from this paragraph.

But, damn will the show look good while going through all of these story machinations. For some reason, we are enjoying the fact that Serenay Sarikaya can wear cocktail dresses like it’s business wear and hike around rocky terrain in heels; it seems like half her wardrobe is white and flowing. She carries herself like the confident, worldly woman Leyla is. The power of her portrayal of Leyla will really determine if the story is tired or feels at least a little bit fresh.

Sex and Skin: Everything is implied in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Back to the wedding dress and the dog, whom by now we know is Buddy. Could Ömer be the one getting married?

Sleeper Star: This is where we mention Leyla’s friends: Sarp (Ahmet Rıfat Şungar), Funda (Meriç Aral), Esra (Esra Ruşan️️️️) and Murat (Efe Tunçer). Will they have their own stories to tell?

Most Pilot-y Line: We’ve never seen someone depicted rowing casually for exercise. Kayaking, sure. But rowing? Not that we can remember. Yet that’s one of the things Leyla does to stay in shape.

Our Call: STREAM IT, but only because Thank You, Next is quite nice to look at, has a jazzy soundtrack, and its leading actor is such a presence. But don’t expect a new story or anything with more than the usual romantic comedy twists and turns.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.