General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Love 101

Love 101 (Aşk 101) is a Turkish coming-of-age comedy-drama series produced for Netflix, first released on April 24, 2020. It follows four rebellious high school students and a model student who scheme to make their teacher fall in love with the school's basketball coach so that she will not be transferred away, and in the process learn about friendship, love, and the courage to be themselves.¹ The series ran for two seasons and 16 episodes, ending on September 30, 2021.²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Aşk 101; distributed internationally as Love 101³
Premiere / finale	Season 1 on April 24, 2020; season 2 finale on September 30, 2021¹^•²
Format	2 seasons, 16 episodes of roughly 45 minutes; Netflix web channel, 2020–2021²^•⁴
Creator	Meriç Acemi (screenwriter); produced by Ay Yapım⁴^•³
Setting	1998 Istanbul, framed through the adult memories of Işık³
Main cast	Alina Boz (Eda), Mert Yazıcıoğlu (Sinan), Kubilay Aka (Kerem), Selahattin Paşalı (Osman), İpek Filiz Yazıcı (Işık), Pınar Deniz (Burcu), Kaan Urgancıoğlu (Kemal)³
Audience rating	7.4/10 on IMDb from about 20,000 users⁵

Spoilers

Premise and setting

The story is set in 1998 Istanbul and follows Sinan, Kerem, Osman, and Eda, seventeen-year-old students at the same high school who are on the verge of expulsion after a series of pranks and incidents. Their only defender among the staff is the teacher Burcu, who casts the lone vote against their expulsion. When Burcu's transfer to another school goes through, the group devises a plan to keep her in town by making her fall in love with Kemal, the school's new basketball coach.⁶^•⁷ The model student Işık joins the scheme, and the plan brings the five teenagers' own emotional conflicts to the surface.³

The narrative is framed through the memories of the adult Işık, who recalls the group's year and what became of each of them twenty years later.³ Season 1's eight episodes carry titles named after stages of affection, from "The First Moment" through "Admiration," "Lust," "Longing," "Affection," "Fun," "A Turn," and "A Special Moment."⁸

Production

The series was written by Meriç Acemi and produced by Ay Yapım for Netflix.⁴^•³ Directing credits go to Ahmet Katıksız, Deniz Yorulmazer, Umut Aral, and Gönenç Uyanık, with cinematography by Vedat Özdemir and music by Marios Takoushis.⁹ School scenes were filmed in Istanbul, at the Maçka Akif Tuncel vocational high school and the Cihangir Munir Özkul middle school.¹⁰

A thesis timeline of Netflix's operations in Turkey records Love 101's April 24, 2020 release among the early Turkish Netflix Original series.¹¹

Censorship controversy

Before the series premiered, a queer storyline for the character Osman was removed. According to NME, the character was cut from Aşk 101 "upon request from the country's Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK)," whose powers over on-demand streaming services in Turkey had been expanded by a rule passed in August 2019.¹² NME also reported that Mahir Ünal, Deputy Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party, said the party "has respect for gender roles but opposes encouragement of it through popular platforms."¹² Common Sense Media reports that Osman was rumored to have initially been written as a gay character and that, per news reports, the storyline was scrapped before airing due to pressure from the Turkish government; Osman is a main character who develops a romantic relationship with Elif in season 2.⁶^•¹⁷ Reviewers noted the controversy: Jonathon Wilson of Ready Steady Cut wrote that the show "delivers somewhat standard teenage drama that'll satisfy genre fans, but the attendant controversy remains the most noteworthy thing about it."¹³

Reception

On IMDb the series holds a 7.4/10 rating from about 20,000 users, with the most ratings coming from Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Germany.⁵ Critical responses were mixed. Jenny Nixon of Common Sense Media called it "an unexceptional but inoffensive enough coming-of-age drama with touches of romantic comedy that doesn't offer many surprises."⁸ Joel Keller of Decider advised readers to skip it, objecting to characters who are "being manipulative to get their way," while Dhruv Sharma of TheCinemaholic praised its "perfect feel-good vibe" and gave it three stars out of five.¹³

The series has also drawn academic attention. A 2021 study in the Safran Journal of Culture and Tourism Research analyzed the gastronomic elements shown in the series, using the semiotic models of Saussure and Barthes to examine how depictions of Turkish cuisine function within it.¹⁴ A 2024 study of Turkish series and high school audiences identified Aşk 101 among the most popular series among high school students in Turkey, alongside Kurtlar Vadisi, Yasak Elma, and Sadakatsiz, and examined its portrayal of family within Cultivation Theory and Agenda-Setting Theory.¹⁵ A comparative study of Netflix dramas in non-Western countries analyzed Love 101 as articulating "negotiated relationality" in its treatment of gender relations, in contrast to the Chinese and Russian series studied alongside it.¹⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › Turkish, Middle Eastern, and African serials › Contemporary Turkish serial dramas (dizi)

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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