I guess it just goes to show that when 'you're coming from the right place', with pure and more honest intentions, the story kind'a writes itself and those working are more motivated to do long hours. Or, a more mundane explanation is that the Turkish state has thrown a huge amount of money at them. Hopefully the reasons is the former.
I think that it is probably the latter. Even if the end result does contain a lot of positive messages. And it is probably due to what was said earlier:
We are witnessing the results of this pervasive ideology (materialism/post-modernism). As luc said above, ‘it speaks volumes about Western culture that we need a somewhat cheesy Turkish-Muslim TV show to get that level of spiritual depth.’
I already
shared my impressions of Ertugrul, so this time will share something else. Recently I talked to a friend who practically binged on the show. She is a mature and very reasonable Western woman, and she never binged on any show before. According to her this show is absolutely unique and impressive, and she just couldn't stop watching it. It's like she longed for something that was missing in any other Western entertainment.
She also mentioned the fact that all the characters were clothed, and the most "revealing" or "intimate" element was a kiss on a forehead. And yet the actors still managed to express incredible depth of emotion and affection. She said that she had "nudity fatigue" from all the Western shows, even if they were interesting, like "Outlander".
So it seems that this is the reason behind success of such shows. While Western shows rely more and more on shock factors, like unnecessary nudity, gore and "brutal realism", Turkish shows offer historic myths, celebration of traditional values, and higher meaning or goals.
But there is no doubt that Turkey (or specifically Erdogan) has a specific geopolitical reason for creating and distributing such shows.
Here's a video by Al Jazeera's channel, where they discuss the success of Ertugrul in other countries. It appears to be a "soft critique" of Turkey's "soft power", but still provides a good explanation why such shows probably get a lot of funding.
My personal opinion that all of this doesn't take away from the quality of the show. I actually find it amusing that despite Ertugrul's success, it didn't affect or improved Erdogan's image or his megalomaniac idea of "recreating the Ottoman Empire with him as a sultan". But I bet that he probably thinks differently. Just proves that "wishful thinking will get you every time".
And just to add a bit about many traitors in the show. Apparently Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's leader, is a fan of the show. But he wasn't when he only begun watching it. He then remarked that he didn't understand why many of his friends loved the show. He said that it was strange to him that there were so many traitors, because according to him an emphasis should be put on making sure that there are no traitors in the close circle.
But then he continued watching and his opinion changed. He also visited the shooting location, and particularly loved the well-trained horses. Some of the actors (Ertugrul's alps) also visited Chechnya and were treated like royalty. His third son Adam also played a small role in the series.
