‘The Museum of Innocence’ (2026) Netflix Series Review - Good Portrayal of an Obsessive Love

Set in 1970s Istanbul, the plot follows the life of Kemal Basmacı, a rich, educated man who belongs to one of the most elite families of the region. He is supposed to marry a woman named Sibel, who fits well in their class and expectations. However, everything changes for the couple when he meets and reunites with Füsun, who is a distant relative of Kemal Basmacı. She works as a shop assistant and is very different from his status. The two begin an affair secretly. What was just a physical relationship soon became part of Kemal Basmacı and turned into an emotional one.  Even though Kemal Basmacı is engaged and is supposed to get married, he becomes fully consumed by Füsun. He knows what he is doing is wrong, yet he convinces himself that his love with Füsun is true and pure. This makes him care less about his social status in society. All this changes when Sibel comes to know about the affair. This leads to a public humiliation, which ends their engagement.  Even Füsun disappears from his life out of nowhere.  This leads to him getting close to becoming paranoid and searching for Füsun. Eventually, he ends up finding her married to someone else. He tries to become a family friend of Füsun and her husband with a plan to take her away from her husband someday.  As a result of personal life, his career and friends disappear, while Füsun continues to get frustrated with his presence in her life. He gets so fixated on her that he even makes a museum in her name. The question is, how far can he go in the name of love?

Strangely enough, I found this series to be intriguing. The obsessive love has been well portrayed in terms of both acting and execution of the plot. Love is always shown to us as something grand. In this show, we saw how even a “grand love has its own repercussions in life.

What is also shown well is how the characters have been displayed.  For example, we see that being madly in love with Kemal Basmacı leads to his own destruction. He loses everything and in the end himself. That portrayal of self-destruction is well developed and presented in layers for us to understand. Other than that, we can also see many shades in the character of Füsun. We can see her falling in love and then falling out of it. She isn’t shown to be as madly in love as Kemal Basmacı. In fact, her annoyance is pretty much self-explanatory towards the end of the series.

The acting done is amazing. Selahattin Paşalı as Kemal is great. His character required a range of emotions that Selahattin Paşalı has given us. Other than that, Eylül Lize Kandemir as Füsun complements her counterparts' acting. I must admit, both these characters aren’t easy to act out, but the star cast makes it very easy. This is another reason why we should watch the show. So all in all, the entire series is worth watching. It is a perfect combination of a love story gone wrong, and it gives us enough thrills to watch it.

Final Score- [8/10]
Reviewed by - Neerja Ch
Follow @NeerjaCH on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times