Not a Stranger Review: The way motherhood is sold to women is almost cruel. You are told that it will change your life, but nobody really explains how much of your old life would be surrendered in the process, and when you finally ask for help, there is guilt.
This is where Not a Stranger (Seni Tanıyorum) becomes far more interesting than the psychological thriller it initially presents itself as. There is a mysterious nanny, secrets, suspicious behaviour, a marriage slowly coming apart and the uncomfortable feeling that somebody inside the house knows more than they should. But under all of it, Funda, a new mother, is trying to figure out whether she is still allowed to be a woman with a life of her own.
Not a Stranger Review: Funda Does Not Want to Stop Being a Mother
Funda is a painter who has put her career on hold after giving birth. When she finally finds Nazli, she seems to be the perfect nanny to solve the problem she has been trying to solve.
Funda is caught between motherhood and her career, and the conflict is established from the very beginning of the series, and I like that the show does not make her desire to return to work feel like some grand rejection of motherhood but rather keeps things simple. Her husband is also seen supporting her in finding a nanny; however, her motherly instincts do not approve of any until she meets Nazli.
However, Funda is also seen as guilty for not being able to spend time with her daughter, and the guilt itself becomes almost another character in the room.
Nazli Is Frightening Because Funda Needs Her
Nazli’s arrival is where the thriller begins to breathe. She is not simply an obvious woman walking into the house with a warning sign tattooed on her wrist. She arrives when Funda desperately needs help, and that makes things worse.
The person Funda eventually begins to fear is the person she trusted with her daughter, which becomes a psychological trap itself. However, the more Nazli becomes involved in the family’s life, the more uncomfortable the dependence itself feels. Funda welcomes Nazli, but later episodes bring suspicion, guilt, fear and the secrets surrounding Nazli into sharper focus.
Elcin Sangu makes Funda’s exhaustion feel human as she does not play the character as some perfectly composed thriller movie heroine who magically knows where and when things are wrong. Funda is messy, exhausted, conflicted, makes questionable choices, and feels guilty for wanting things.
But Is Not a Stranger Actually a Thriller?
It technically is a thriller, but emotionally, I feel it is a family drama dressed in thriller costume. There is suspense, but the show is more interested in what happens when trust starts fading. Nazli is not simply frightening because she is “mysterious” but because she has access.
The access transforms the series from a story about hiring a nanny into a story about what happens when the boundaries between help, dependence and intrusion become impossible to distinguish, while your own partner who claims to love you is also cheating.
The Ending Does Not Really End Anything
Not a Stranger does not exactly hand you a neat bow that a thriller this tense unusually promises. The final episode shows Funda seeking help while realising that her mental state has become dangerous to herself and her family, and that is where the series leaves us rather than with perfect closure.
The final frame shows Ilker, Nazli and Mavi in the house while Funda looks at them from outside. The cliffhanger works because the show has spent so much time making us question the difference between fear, guilt, intuition and reality.
Final Verdict
Not a Stranger works best when it is not trying to convince us that Nazli is scary, but when it makes you understand why Funda needed her so much. This is the exact tragedy that rests behind the suspense.
The series, even though a thriller, questions the problems attached to womanhood and motherhood in detail while also knocking on the doors of the past, creating horror in present life, loyalties being questioned, and trust being broken.
Watch Not a Stranger on Netflix.
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