Top 13 Turkish Series on YouTube with English Subtitles You’ll Get ADDICTED To!

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Welcome to Turkish Series TV. Today, I bring you something different. A top 13 Turkish series you can watch on YouTube with English subtitles, ranked from worst to best. Some of them you know, others probably not.

[00:00:13]But all of them have something that makes them unique, whether for their stories, their performances, or simply that special something that makes you unable to stop watching. Before we begin the video, it would help me greatly if you took a moment to leave a like and subscribe to the channel. Thank you for your kind support.

[00:00:30]Number 13, Scars of the Soul.

[00:00:35]I'm sorry to inform you that Scars of the Soul from 2024 sits at the bottom of this ranking, not because the idea is bad, but because the execution didn't live up to what it promised. Alaca is a young woman who grows up knowing nothing about her true origins. Her life changes drastically when her wealthy and unscrupulous biological father has her kidnapped to steal a kidney and save his own legitimate daughter. When Alaca wakes up in a hospital missing an organ nobody asked permission to take, a search for truth begins that leads her to question everything, her family, her past, [music] and the man she loves, Kenan, who turns out to be more connected to this story than she ever imagined. The premise of Scars of the Soul has the ingredients for a great Turkish drama, family betrayal, hidden identities, revenge, and complicated love all in one package. And the early episodes work well. The problem is that the series extends far longer than necessary, and the acting quality of several secondary characters leaves a great deal to be desired, something the audience itself pointed out harshly. The honest critique, 120 episodes are too many for this story. After the initial stretch, the plot starts going in circles, and the protagonist doesn't always convince emotionally.

[00:01:50]That imbalance frustrated me. Still, for those looking for something new with English availability on YouTube, there are episodes that hook you.

[00:01:58]If you stick with it from the start, what comes next is worth everything.

[00:02:03]Number 12, The Circle.

[00:02:06]What a shame I must tell you that. The Circle from 2019 is exactly the kind of series that starts with a brilliant and original premise and doesn't quite know how to carry it through to the end, but still deserves more attention than it has received. The Circle is a psychological thriller that breaks completely with the usual patterns of Turkish drama. Instead of period romances or mafia families, this Show TV production puts you in front of a deadly game of identities where participants must free each other to survive. Selma wakes up not knowing where she is or why, trapped in a system that forces her to participate against her will. As the story progresses, the rules of the game grow more complex, revelations pile up, and characters discover that nothing they believed about themselves is completely true.

[00:02:52]The series mixes elements of suspense, psychology, and a touch of the supernatural in a way that few Turkish dramas have dared to attempt. It has a different pace and an atmosphere that genuinely disorients you in an intentional way. For me, that is a merit, not a flaw. The honest critique, 19 episodes with such a complex narrative are difficult to handle, and the series doesn't always find the balance between pleasantly confusing the viewer and simply getting lost. There are moments where I myself didn't know if what I was watching made sense or not. That pulled me out of the story.

[00:03:26]But for those who want something completely different from the usual Turkish drama on YouTube in English, this production is a rarity worth discovering.

[00:03:34]Number 11, Three Sisters.

[00:03:38]Watch out for this series because Three Sisters from 2022 is one of those productions that the English-speaking YouTube audience discovered with enthusiasm and that unfortunately didn't reach its full potential due to narrative decisions that prevented it from being what it could have been.

[00:03:54]In a small Turkish town live three sisters whose lives seem tied to the traditions and expectations of their surroundings. Turkan, the eldest, carries the weight of the family on her shoulders.

[00:04:05]Donus, the middle one, has dreams bigger than the space she's been given. And Ruya, the youngest, still believes that love solves everything. When the outside world starts knocking on their doors, the three face decisions that test both their sisterly bond and their own identities.

[00:04:22]The series honestly explores the tensions between modernity and tradition, between individual freedom and family obligation, in a Turkey that changes faster than its characters can process.

[00:04:33]The best part of Three Sisters is exactly that, the dynamic between the three protagonists. When the series focuses on them, it is genuinely powerful and emotionally honest. The honest critique, the romantic storyline of some secondary characters takes up too much space and ends up diluting the main story. I myself lost the thread during several middle stretches. But the heart of the series, that relationship between sisters, is so solid and so real that it justifies the complete journey.

[00:05:02]The ending of this story will leave you speechless.

[00:05:06]Number 10, Secrets of Pearl.

[00:05:10]Listen to me carefully. Secrets of Pearl from 2024 is one of the most recent series on this list and probably the one that has surprised English-speaking YouTube audiences the most precisely because it steps away from conventional Turkish drama and tells something genuinely different. Azem Yucedag was a literature teacher, a father, and a husband. Then he was convicted of his own wife's murder and spent years in prison for a crime he claims not to have committed. When he finally walks free, he faces a devastating reality. He doesn't know the children he had who were hidden from him throughout his sentence.

[00:05:45]His mission is to rebuild what time and injustice destroyed, collecting one by one the fragments of a life someone stole from him. Along the way, he meets Dilber, a woman with her own pain and her own story, and Peray, who has reasons to keep her distance. The series is built around the question everyone asks, but nobody answers easily. Can a man go back to being who he was after the entire world decided he was guilty?

[00:06:10]Yilmaz Erdogan's work in the role of Azem is absolutely extraordinary, a performance that touches the soul. The honest critique, the measured pace of the early episodes can push away those looking for immediate action. It requires patience, but once the story catches you, there is no way out.

[00:06:28]200 million people can't be wrong.

[00:06:31]Number nine, Hold My Hand.

[00:06:35]I'm not going to lie to you. This one hit me hard. Hold My Hand from 2020 to 2021 is the kind of story that looks simple from the outside, and when you're inside, you realize it has emotional layers you weren't expecting to find.

[00:06:49]Cansu is a young woman who lost her family and carries her grief turned into strength. Music is the only thing left intact after so much pain.

[00:06:57]Kenan is a promising footballer who knows what it means to lose something that seems impossible to recover. When their paths cross, neither was looking for someone, but life has that habit of sending you exactly what you didn't ask for at the least expected moment. What begins as a friendship built on shared losses becomes a love that has to survive jealousy, family secrets, and the ambition of a sports world that has no patience for anyone's heart. Hold My Hand is not revolutionary. It follows many of the rules of classic Turkish drama, but it executes them with a warmth and authenticity that makes its 59 episodes feel justified. The honest critique, the series loses force in its final stretch, and some secondary arcs are resolved too hastily. That disappointed me after so much time invested. But the bond between Cansu and Kenan is so genuine and so well-built that I finished it in 2 weeks. [music] You already know.

[00:07:51]Number eight, The Oath.

[00:07:56]Do you know what the worst part is?

[00:07:58]That The Oath from 2017 to 2019 is one of the most popular Turkish series among English-speaking YouTube audiences, and most people who don't know it miss it simply because they don't associate it with classic Turkish drama. Yavuz Karasu is a lieutenant of the Turkish Special Forces who is in Istanbul with his fiance when a terrorist attack shakes the city. What follows that night marks the rest of his life. Yavuz returns to his base with the mission to protect his country and lead an elite team, while Bahar, the doctor who tried to save his fiance, follows him to Karabiyir with something that belongs to him. What begins as a debt becomes a relationship neither of them expected, while Yavuz's team faces mission after mission that test both their courage and their humanity. The Oath is pure action, but with heart, a rare combination in any television in the world. The cinematography of the military operations and the construction of the camaraderie between the soldiers are genuinely impressive. The honest critique, the 70 hours of this series are too many for some viewers, and there are stretches where the pace drops considerably. I myself dragged through the middle episodes of the second season, but the solidity of the universe it builds and the quality of the action sequences make it worth every minute.

[00:09:13]One of the greats, without question.

[00:09:16]Number seven, What is Fatmagul's Fault?

[00:09:20]I think we all know the weight of what it means when a Turkish series wins international awards, and What is Fatmagul's Fault? from 2010 to 2012 won them all and deserved them all. Fatmagul is a humble young woman living in a coastal Turkish village with modest dreams and a quiet life. One night, four men take all of that from her in the most brutal way possible.

[00:09:44]What follows is not just the story of a woman seeking justice, but the story of a woman who must rebuild her dignity in a society that, instead of protecting her, points at her Mustafa, one of the attackers, is forced by his family to marry Fatmagul to silence the scandal.

[00:10:01]And there, in that forced marriage and in that man who also carries his own guilt, the series weaves one of the most complex and honestly painful stories of redemption in contemporary Turkish drama.

[00:10:13]What is Fatmagul's fault? softens nothing. It doesn't seek to make you comfortable, and that is precisely what makes it a masterpiece.

[00:10:22]The honest critique. 80 episodes of such emotionally dense story are exhausting, and there are moments where the narrative pressure becomes almost unbearable. I myself had to pause on several occasions, but that discomfort is completely intentional and is part of what makes this series great. That can't be faked.

[00:10:41]Number six, Judgment.

[00:10:45]I personally stopped watching it because in the early episodes, the accumulation of subplots overwhelmed me, and today I tell you with complete honesty that it was a mistake I regretted making.

[00:10:55]Judgment from 2021 is the kind of Turkish drama that breaks the usual mold of the genre. No mafia, no wealthy families in mansions, no paternity secrets.

[00:11:05]There are two legal professionals who hate each other and whom life ends up putting on the same side of a court battle that involves them personally.

[00:11:12]Ceylin is a lawyer, brilliant, impulsive, willing to cross any line as long as she wins.

[00:11:18]Ilgaz is a prosecutor, rigid, honest to the bone, with an unshakable faith in the system her colleague despises.

[00:11:26]When Ilgaz's brother appears as the main suspect in a murder case, the prosecutor needs the one lawyer he would never have chosen.

[00:11:34]What follows is 94 episodes of tension, revelations that leave you breathless, and a romance that builds slowly and painfully on the foundation of mutual respect nobody expected. The lead pair has a chemistry that generates conversation throughout the English-speaking world that follows Turkish drama. They are among the best of their generation. The honest critique. The third season loses some of the magic of the first two.

[00:11:59]The series extends when it should have ended. That disappointed me. But the first two seasons are, without question, first-rate television.

[00:12:09]Number five, Magnificent Century.

[00:12:13]Nobody is talking about this, but Magnificent Century, from 2011 to 2014, was the first Turkish drama to massively conquer the English-speaking world on YouTube, and almost 15 years later, it remains one of the most influential series Turkey has ever produced. The Ottoman Empire at its moment of greatest splendor, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the most powerful ruler of his era, meets a young Ukrainian slave named Hurrem who changes absolutely everything. Where other sultans were content with submission, Hurrem offers him intellectual challenge, genuine passion, and a loyalty no previous concubine had dared to demonstrate. In the most powerful harem in the world, Hurrem doesn't just survive, she dominates, rises, and ultimately becomes the first official consort in the empire's history. Around this central story, Magnificent Century builds a political universe of intrigues, alliances, betrayals, and wars that makes each episode impossible to abandon halfway through.

[00:13:13]The production is absolutely magnificent. The costumes, the architecture, the music, everything works with a visual coherence that few historical series in the world have achieved. The honest critique. 139 episodes with harem plots can become repetitive. There are arcs that extend longer than necessary and characters who appear and disappear without enough development. That wore me down in the third season, but the core story of Hurrem and Suleiman is one of the great romances in worldwide television drama.

[00:13:42]I leave that with you.

[00:13:44]Number four, Ezel.

[00:13:48]Despite a promising start that took me several episodes to fully understand, Ezel, from 2009 to 2011, ended up being for me one of the most powerful experiences in Turkish drama of all time. Omer Ucar had a simple life, two childhood friends he trusted blindly, and a woman he loved. One night, all of that became a betrayal that sent him straight to prison for a crime he didn't commit. Years later, that man walks out of prison with a new name, a new face thanks to plastic surgery, and a single mission in life, to destroy one by one those who betrayed him without any of them recognizing him. Ezel Bayraktar returns to his enemy's world as a wolf in sheep's clothing, and each step of his plan reveals layers of corruption, broken loyalties, and a love that survived the worst of betrayals. Ezel is an adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo to the modern Turkish universe, and it executes it with a narrative intelligence that makes Dumas's original look like a draft. It is first-class world television. The honest critique.

[00:14:50]71 episodes of such a calculated revenge plan can become exhausting, and there are moments where the series adds layers of unnecessary complexity just to stretch the story. That frustrated me in the second season, but Kenan Imirzalıoğlu builds an Ezel so magnetic and impenetrable that all the rhythm irregularities become forgivable. That can't be faked.

[00:15:12]Number three, Resurrection: Ertuğrul.

[00:15:17]This series has already conquered the world, and Resurrection: Ertuğrul, from 2014 to 2019, is the greatest cultural phenomenon Turkish drama has ever produced, available complete and free on the official TRT YouTube channel with English subtitles. Ertuğrul Bey is the son of the great warrior Suleiman Shah and the leader of the Kayı, a nomadic Turkish tribe of the 13th century that survives between Mongol pressures from the east and Crusaders from the west. He has no army, no territory of his own, no gold. What he has is an impossible vision, to build a state that protects the weak and defies the powerful.

[00:15:55]Each season expands that world with new enemies, new alliances, and new trials that force Ertuğrul to choose between what he wants and what his people need.

[00:16:05]The series builds on that tension for 150 episodes without ever losing the humanity of its protagonist or the greatness of his purpose.

[00:16:13]Resurrection: Ertuğrul is not just entertainment. It is the kind of production that explains to the world who the Turks are, where they come from, and what they believe in.

[00:16:23]That is why it resonated in more than 150 countries.

[00:16:27]The honest critique. 150 episodes are too many, and the fifth season suffers from filler episodes that slow the momentum. I felt it myself in the final stretch, but the first three seasons are absolutely perfect. One of the greats, without question.

[00:16:42]Number two, Endless Love.

[00:16:45]What a shame. I must tell you that Endless Love, from 2015 to 2017, is the series I struggled most to place in second position on this ranking.

[00:16:55]Because in the heart of any Turkish drama fan, this drama occupies first place on a list that has no name. Kemal Soydere arrives in Istanbul from a humble village with nothing but his hands and his determination. One summer night, he sees Nihan, and from that moment the world divides into before and after. She comes from a well-off family with secrets that suffocate her. He is everything her world does not consider enough.

[00:17:19]And yet what exists between them is so real and so deep that no social distance, no family betrayal, and no manipulation by the powerful can completely erase it. Endless Love is the story of two people that life separates again and again with systematic cruelty, who nonetheless keep choosing each other with a stubbornness that makes 74 episodes feel short. This series won the International Emmy for Best Drama, not by accident. The honest critique. The ending of the series breaks your heart in a way that many viewers never completely forgave. I myself took weeks to recover. For those who cannot tolerate tragic endings, it is an important warning, but the greatness of Endless Love is precisely that. The story owes nothing to the viewer's comfort. 200 million people can't be wrong.

[00:18:09]Number one, The Pit.

[00:18:12]Listen to me carefully because The Pit, from 2017 to 2021, is number one on this list, and there is no possible discussion. It is the absolute pinnacle of Turkish drama available on YouTube with English subtitles and one of the best television series produced anywhere in the world in the last 10 years.

[00:18:32]The Pit is a neighborhood in Istanbul with its own laws. The Koçovali family has controlled it for generations with a code of honor that has a single sacred rule, no drugs, ever. Yamaç is the youngest son, the one who escaped that world, the one who built a life as a chemist and musician far from crime. But the Pit calls you back when you need it most and want it least. When the family is on the verge of losing control of the neighborhood to a rival without principles, Yamaç has to return and become what he always swore he would never be.

[00:19:04]What follows is four seasons of broken loyalties, impossible loves, betrayals that split you in two, brotherhoods forged and destroyed, and a protagonist who grows before your eyes in a way that few television characters manage. The Pit has the best music of any Turkish series, the best urban action sequences, the best villain in Turkish television in its first season, and Aras Bulut İynemli delivers a performance that deserves every award in existence.

[00:19:32]The honest critique. 131 episodes are too many, and the later seasons don't reach the perfection of the first two.

[00:19:39]That is real, and I admit it.

[00:19:41]But the first two seasons of The Pit are, without any exaggeration, among the finest things world television has ever produced. I have never seen a story again with that energy. I finished it in 20 days.

[00:19:53]You already know.

[00:19:56]And so we close this top 13 Turkish series on YouTube with English subtitles from the weakest to the absolutely unmissable. Do you agree with the ranking? Or is there a series you think deserves a higher spot?

[00:20:08]Tell me in the comments. I love that kind of debate. If you enjoyed the video, a like and sharing it always helps more people discover these series.

[00:20:15]Until next time.

[00:20:21]>> [music] >> Harder.