General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Club (2021 TV series)

The Club (Turkish: Kulüp) is a Turkish period drama series produced for Netflix, set in cosmopolitan 1950s Istanbul, in which a mother recently released from prison takes a job at a nightclub to reconnect with the rebellious daughter she was unable to raise. It was created by Zeynep Günay Tan, directed by Günay Tan and Seren Yüce, and produced by O3 Medya; it premiered on November 5, 2021 and ran for two seasons and 20 episodes, concluding on September 15, 2023.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title / network	Kulüp, a Netflix original produced by O3 Medya; Netflix's sixth Turkish original series²^•³
Run	Premiered November 5, 2021; 2 seasons, 20 episodes; final episode September 15, 2023¹
Setting	Istanbul in 1955 and after, centered on a nightclub in Beyoğlu and the city's minority communities²^•⁴
Lead cast	Gökçe Bahadır (Matilda Aseo), Barış Arduç (İsmet Denizer), Asude Kalebek (Raşel Aseo), Salih Bademci (Selim Songür), Fırat Tanış (Çelebi), Metin Akdülger (Orhan Şahin)⁵
Creative team	Creator Zeynep Günay Tan; directors Zeynep Günay Tan and Seren Yüce; writers include Ayşin Akbulut, Rana Denizer, and Necati Şahin²^•⁶
Reception	IMDb 7.8/10; reached Netflix's global Top 10 of non-English series in the second week of November 2021 with over 7 million hours viewed¹^•⁷
Rating	TV-MA; Turkish-language drama⁸

Spoilers

Premise

The story opens in 1955. Matilda Aseo (Gökçe Bahadır) leaves prison after 17 years under a general amnesty and finds that her daughter Raşel (Asude Kalebek), who grew up in a Jewish orphanage without knowing her mother, has been told a different story about her family. When Raşel gets into trouble with Çelebi (Fırat Tanış), the manager of one of the era's prominent nightclubs, Matilda takes work as a laundress at the club in exchange for his withdrawing the complaint. There she meets the club's owner Orhan Şahin (Metin Akdülger), its new star soloist Selim Songür (Salih Bademci), and the Muslim driver Fıstık İsmet (Barış Arduç), with whom Raşel is involved in a relationship kept secret because she hides from İsmet that she is Jewish.⁹^•¹⁰^•¹⁸

Each episode of the first season opens with flashbacks to events seventeen years before the narrative present, tracing how Matilda came to be imprisoned; as Raşel learns the truth from her mother, a solidarity develops between them.⁹ Matilda also works to manage the egos of the club's owner, its jealous manager, and its temperamental star performer, and her arrival gives the club, described as paradise for customers and hell for its staff, a new spirit.²

Release and seasons

Season 1 was released in two parts: six episodes on November 5, 2021 and four more on January 6, 2022.¹¹ Season 2, announced with a teaser in late 2021, arrived in full on September 15, 2023 with ten episodes.¹²^•¹ According to Netflix's logline, the second season moves into the political conjuncture of Turkey around 1960, as the social life and entertainment world of Istanbul stands on the verge of radical change; Raşel is now the mother of a five-year-old daughter, Rana, and Çelebi and Matilda struggle together to keep the Club Istanbul family standing against oppression.¹³ The final episode aired on September 15, 2023, ending the series after 20 episodes.¹

Cultural setting and research

The series is built around the multicultural world of 1950s Beyoğlu and Istanbul's minority communities, particularly the Sephardic Jewish community. The directors have said they found a clear division between "alaturka" and "alafranga" entertainment in the nightlife of the 1950s, and that the shadow of the Varlık Vergisi (the wartime capital tax) falls repeatedly across the story, alongside themes such as Jewish emigration to Israel and internal migration to Istanbul.¹⁴ Reviewers in the Turkish Jewish press singled out the care taken with Shabbat dinners, orphanages, Purim celebrations, synagogues, and the Ladino language and music, noting that the characters' accents and speech had been worked on for months.¹⁵ Commentary on minority representation also credited the series with attention to Ladino usage and historical detail, including the pronunciation of French words with a Ladino accent, while noting remaining gaps in how some groups are portrayed.¹⁶

Reception

The series was a commercial success for Netflix. It reached the global Top 10 of non-English series during the second week of November 2021, just after release, with over 7 million hours of viewing; in Turkey, the first season spent nineteen weeks in the Top 10 in total and the second season eight weeks.⁷ It holds a 7.8/10 rating on IMDb.¹ An academic study of the show noted that the mere fact of a Turkish series telling the story of Istanbul's Jewish community was itself significant.⁷

The series received award nominations and a win at Turkey's Golden Butterfly awards: Best Screenplay nomination in 2022, and a win for Best Child Actor/Actress in 2023; it was also nominated for Best Digital Platform Series at the 2023 Golden Star awards.¹⁷

References

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