A Round of Applause is an incredibly unique Turkish comedy-drama on Netflix, steeped in metaphors about parenting, relationships, and growing up. Season 1 is essentially a collection of thought-provoking vignettes with only a loose narrative threading through them; each is an exploration of a specific anxiety, or an outgrowth of a bad decision, playing with form and absurdity to make its points. Let’s recap all six episodes and unpack the meaning.
A Round of Applause Season 1 Recap
Episode 1, “Birth”
The first episode of A Round of Applause is largely a metaphor for the anxiety of childbirth, expressed in a few far-out concepts, some of which work better than others.
Mehmet and Zeynep are expecting a son. We see the progression of the pregnancy from excitement to dread; buying supplies and decorating a bedroom to waiting, worrying, and waiting some more. Zeynep being ready to give birth at any moment only prompts further panic and speculation, which is where things get weird.
A good chunk of the episode is a dream sequence wherein Mehmet imagines their irresponsible friends Burak and Sevda as their children, growing up into monsters because of the failures of their parenting. The childlike versions of their friends highlight to Mehmet and Zeynep how the grown-up versions might be terrible influences on their child, which is something they have to consider.
The rest of the premiere takes place from the perspective of the child in utero, depicted as a grown man with a beard and a pot belly who chain smokes and has philosophical debates with Kudret, another unborn man in an adjacent room. The room, a visual metaphor for Zeynep’s internal strife, is a cross between a child’s bedroom and a prison cell. Zeynep’s is crammed full of all the stuff she internalizes and never lets out.
At the end of the episode, the “child”, still longing for his past life as an orange pulp, begins to be born.
Episode 2, “Right at This Moment”
Like the premiere, Episode 2 is also primarily metaphor, this time for the very specific anxiety that new parents feel. Metin is born, and neither Mehmet nor Zeynep knows what to do with him. He won’t stop crying. He won’t sleep. Eventually, he drifts off, giving Mehmet and Zeynep the chance for a nap, and when they wake up Metin is missing.
Both sets of parents assure Mehmet and Zeynep that this is no big deal. Maybe he’s between the car seats? Eventually, they discover the child has wriggled back inside Zeynep’s womb, and they have to weigh up whether this, his first decision as a free-thinking person, should be respected. Should he stay there?
All parents have this sudden rush of confusion. Have they made the right decision? Chosen the right partner? Are they ready to be responsible for another human being? Here, these questions are given voice by an alternate version of Mehmet, who calls Zeynep while she’s debating with the doctors about whether to pull the baby back out or not. They confess their feelings – Zeynep doesn’t love Mehmet; the baby was just an excuse to not get divorced – and agree to keep them bottled up and never speak of them. Truth and openness are written off as a fantasy.
At the end of the episode, Zeynep decides she wants Metin back out.
Episode 3, “First Breakup”
In Episode 3 of A Round of Applause, Metin is five years old, but the gimmick is that he thinks and speaks like a world-weary adult. The episode’s title, “First Breakup”, refers to him breaking things off with his equally precocious girlfriend Ahu, and the first third of the episode is a conversation between the two about the breakdown of their relationship.
What follows is an argument between Mehmet and Zeynep that is ironically much less mature and productive. The implication is clear. They’ve been on the rocks ever since Zeynep had the conversation with the “other” Mehmet in Episode 2 and has kept her feelings hidden. The lack of communication and the subsequent bickering have had a profound effect on Metin. While his parents have acted like children, he has been forced to grow up too fast.
The episode ends with a powerful sequence; Mehmet and Zeynep sit facing one another on the floor, sobbing. They eventually stand hand-in-hand and make their way to Metin’s room, the implication being that they have decided to make the hard decision of a divorce for the betterment of their child.
Episode 4, “66”
Episode 4 reveals that Mehmet and Zeynep didn’t get a divorce, though both of them wish they had. Their relationship has become even more bitter and hostile, and Metin has continued to suffer. Now he’s a friendless shut-in obsessed with music who’s so bad at basic mathematics that he thinks seven multiplied by three is sixty-six (hence the episode’s title.)
Mehmet has grown to deeply resent Metin, but mostly as an extension of what he believes to be Zeynep’s insufficient parenting. She idolizes Metin and wants to baby him, refusing to accept his shortcomings and how they stem from the relationship between his parents.
The highlight – or lowlight, depending on your perspective – is when Metin recites a rap he has written for Zeynep’s birthday that is so insane that even she can’t defend it. Their failures are writ to rhythm, but while Mehmet challenges Metin on his failure in math, Zeynep retreats to the safety of denial. Nobody benefits.
Episode 5, “Plants & Friends”
In Episode 5, Metin has grown into a slovenly DJ, looking exactly how he did in the womb. During a gig, he spots his old flame Ahu in the crowd and asks her out. “Plants & Friends”, the episode’s title, is her business plan, the concept being places where people can go and hang out with their plants. Metin rightly mocks the concept, so Ahu turns things on him, reframing the conversation as a public Q&A in which Metin is interrogated about his views on society.
One of the people in the audience is Zeynep, for whom Metin still carries a tremendous amount of bitterness. She wants to know how far back he can remember, and how much his early experiences shaped him. In other words, she wants to know if he is the person he is because of her and her failings.
The episode ends by breaking the fourth wall. Metin listens from outside the set as his parents discuss him, disappointed that he couldn’t even fill an auditorium for the panel. In tears and increasingly frantic, Metin talks directly to the camera, demanding they stop shooting.
Episode 6, “The Return”
In the season finale, everyone has reached the end of their arcs, more or less. Metin is now a street artist who paints himself orange and pretends to be a levitating, meditative snake charmer; Mehmet has resigned himself to a miserable life of disinterest; and Zeynep is finally ready to tell both men in her life how she feels.
She starts with Mehmet, begging him for a divorce to finally free her from the life she has lived against her will. She confesses what the “other” version of him said to her on the phone, and why she loved that version, not this one. But Mehmet continues to nap. He hears nothing and understands less.
Metin, meanwhile, by chance encounters Kubret, but he claims his name is Serdac. He’s a successful author and doesn’t recognize Metin, who becomes increasingly frantic and volatile in his presence.
Zeynep confesses all of her parental anxieties to Metin on the street while he dutifully continues his act. Nobody pays attention to him, as usual. She laments his unfulfilled potential, how he gave up all his gifts out of spite to panhandle in the street. He hears everything but doesn’t dignify his mother with a response. When she leaves, he cries.
The season ends with Metin’s fake snake coming to life and biting him on the neck. Zeynep looks down and realizes she is pregnant again and begins to laugh and cry at the same time.
That was our recap of A Round of Applause Season 1 (Episodes 1-6). What did you think of the show? Let us know in the comments.
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