Interview | Sema Ergenekon, Screenwriter of ‘Family Secrets’

We interviewed Sema Ergenekon, the screenwriter of the series Family Secrets, which won the “Best Telenovela” award at the International Emmy Awards (IEMMY) in 2023. We discussed the key factors that contributed to the series’ success and her general approach to her work. Ergenekon says that being successful in the TV series industry is related to being courageous about “original and new experiments”. As for her future plans, she intends to leverage her existing credentials wisely and venture into something new.

Family Secrets is in its 3rd season and has received many awards in Turkey in the last three years, from universities, audience awards, etc. But in 2023 you also won “Best Telenovela” award at the IEMMY. Before the ceremony, I looked at Family Secrets’ competitors, the other nominees, and there were some very strong candidates. It is a well-deserved award, but I think I would have been a bit intimidated when I saw the nominees.

Everyone was intimidated. A panel was held before the ceremony and of course, there were very major companies there. Additionally, the other nominees are typically one-hour series, even though they are televised. So the writers and filmmakers have that advantage. And indeed, they choose the best non-American television series. And they do in fact choose the best non-American television series. This year, over 50 productions from 20 countries participated. There were shows from England, Korea and all of the European countries.

Your competitors write 50-minute episodes while you write 130 pages a week. The difference is significant.

This was also mentioned on the panel, there were people from production companies in different countries, professionals in the industry. I said that in our country TV series are broadcast for 140 minutes every week and I write 130 pages every week; the room suddenly went silent, then they all started to applaud. Then they continued to ask questions, such as how many days you spend writing an episode? How many pages do you write in a day? Everyone was really surprised.

I also believe that Family Secrets, a crime-drama winning the Best Telenovela Award at the IEMMY, will pave the way for new directions. Turkish TV series are watched and loved worldwide, but viewers and decision-makers around the globe often expect something similar from Turkish dramas. Being a crime-drama, do you think Family Secrets can change global stereotypes about Turkish TV series?

It will definitely change the perception. At the end of the panel I mentioned, two people who were also on the jury came to congratulate me. One of them was from Greece and he said: “I’m also a screenwriter. I had to watch one episode. And then I continued for four episodes without blinking for a second. I couldn’t believe what a world and a character you’ve built, I admire you”. So they watch and they know. So it really is possible to change the perception.

As you mentioned in our first interview, producers and broadcasters had concerns about crime dramas. However, Family Secrets demonstrated the depth of crime drama, showcasing its excellence and widespread appeal, without being merely classified as a “whodunit”. In the last two years, many TV series have started with a murder or a crime and told the stories of the characters defined by that crime/murder. How do you evaluate this change?

Both channel managers and producers say this. Everyone wants a series “like Family Secrets”. That is the biggest focus right now. “Make like Family Secrets”. I hear that there are some detective series being prepared right now and they are coded as detective-love series. I would be proud to have opened such a door. Of course, for this genre to continue, other examples need to be made. But I think the expression “like Family Secrets” is the wrong one here. I don’t exactly know what they mean by that expression but every series should be unique. It should reflect its own fiction, its own detective sense. If that happens, then this kind of work has a better chance of survival. But if you base it on Family Secrets and try to work mathematically, you’re not going to get very far.

I am now 20 years into my career, we moved to Istanbul in 2004 and Gümüş aired for the first time in 2005. I have seen, in this sector, the brave always win. Ezel was also an example of courage; filling in the missing information with flashbacks was definitely an act of courage for that time. Whoever dared to do something unique and new made their mark in the history of TV series.

Season three started with a very dramatic storyline. You came up with a lot of brilliant ideas to keep the impact in this new season. How did you feel when the decision was made for a third season ?

It was actually quite risky to start with the story of a missing child. Kerem Çatay asked me at the beginning, “Isn’t this too heavy?” I told him that I can handle it. Disappearance of a child is a very difficult subject but there was a state of hope there, the child was alive. In the finale of the second episode, we realised that the child was alive. So we followed the question of whether they would be able to find the child. If we had started in a different way, I don’t know if we could have made the season as popular as it is. There has to be another story; there are millions of stories. I found a story, divided it into eight chapters, rearranged elements, made changes or additions to lines, and reviewed it as a whole to ensure the solidity of the fiction.

I think changing the timeline -like jumping a year ahead- for the third season was also necessary.

Yes, emotions and conflicts get old; even the number of fights or dialogues that can be written between characters decreases because you start to repeat yourself. I thought that by jumping a year, I could place them in different stages of their lives; for example, Tuğçe as a cop and the other as a lawyer… Because situations and topics have to change. If they don’t, you get the feeling that you’ve written something similar, and a lot of changes were necessary to avoid that feeling.

I think what makes you stand out in Family Secrets is that you write in such a way that you almost play a chess match with the audience every week. You set up the detective story in this way by putting yourself on a par with the audience.

I received comments like “you don’t look down at the audience, you act like a friend to them”, as you said. I don’t know how I manage this either, I think it’s all about one’s instincts or character.

I don’t begin by calculating the actions I take to evoke specific emotions. I put myself in their shoes; I take into account what I would want to feel or how I would actually perceive it. Because we have to have a reference point when writing. When discussing the storylines with my colleagues, I think about whether it’s understood or has some kind of catch. I proceed completely intuitively, without thinking that we should go down or go up to the audience’s perception. One of the most important names of Turkish theater, beloved Sevda Şener, was my teacher. In one of her lectures, she said: “if you are putting a bomb under the table, you will show it; a surprise should come a bit prepared.” As an audience, if you don’t know that there is a bomb under the table, when it explodes, it may create a momentary feeling of excitement, but when you know that the bomb is there, the tension increases much more. It’s like the scene in this season where there is a dead body under the table and the whole family is eating dinner together. That’s when you actually feel the tension. There is so much I learnt in school, I can’t describe it, but I know it. I always link it to a mother’s cooking, when a mother cooks, she eyeballs the ingredients but it turns out to be perfect. Just like that. If I can’t absorb, internalise and transform information, I can’t use it; I immediately realise that it looks too awkward, so I immediately eliminate it or try to internalise that information.

Is there any possibility for a fourth season of Family Secrets?

No, there is not, we are coming to the end with this season.

So what kind of a series are you planning to write after Family Secrets?

It can sound a bit arrogant or egoistic, I don’t know but I get this feeling that I did this, it was good but I am likely to repeat this in everything I do from now on. I will try to find what hasn’t been done before and try that. I have this credibility that I have to use properly now. I don’t want to do something similar, thinking that I already know legal language or the police procedures. I want to try something new.

I would still love to watch a detective series where you write eight episodes, one hour each on one of the digital platforms. I think you can play and experiment with much more there.

I want to write for digital platforms. (Showing her notes and notebook on the table) There are dozens of different plots here, things I’m considering. In detective fiction, I think it’s very important to know all nooks and crannies and to be able to look at it from a different POV. This excites me a lot.

I found a story, divided it into eight chapters, moved things around, changed or added lines, looked at it as a whole again to make the fiction as solid as possible… In this sense, if I were writing for a digital platform, I would have the chance to do ten times better than what I did in Family Secrets. Actually, I don’t have a big ambition to write for digital platforms, I’m not one of those writers who find digital cooler or put it in a different place than TV. But I want to see and experience detective fiction all written and completed from beginning to end. So I will do it.

I also have a women’s story that I want to write for a digital platform. It will consist of four episodes and will have a different narrative style. All series are made up of thousands of stories that repeat each other, but when you change the narrative and form of fiction, it becomes something completely different; it’s whole flavour and form transforms. I think I want to try new things because the most important thing is narrative on my end.

There are three options I want to do for television; I don’t know which one I will go for. I also want to use a distinct narrative for them, I want to do something that hasn’t been done. So I think I should use the credibility I have earned in the right direction.

I believe that we all need to try different ways; instead of copying Family Secrets’ formula, it would be better to create different, original and exciting works. I don’t think it would work out if Family Secrets is copied too, Since crime-dramas are still seen as a high-risk genre, they try to copy Family Secrets‘ formula because there is no risk there, it was a hit. But this shouldn’t be accepted. We have to resist. When we resist, we either succeed or we fall. And if we fall, at least we fall with pride.

Is there a show you have watched recently that you really liked?

There is an interrogation series called Criminal. I recently watched an episode from the second season, and I was very impressed. I think it’s very creative. It takes place in a single interrogation room. There is no other room, only the interrogation room, the room where you can watch the interrogation room or the corridor. It successfully gives the audience that feeling and that curiosity in such a limited space. I watch Criminal as if I’m taking a lesson. It is the detective series that I have admired the most recently. Apart from that, I watch almost everything on HBO and I also love Nordic detective series.

This content was published in the Content Americas Edition of Episode