Graveyard (Mezarlik) is a police procedural from Türkiye. It’s a series about a woman who is assigned to head a special investigations unit working only on the cases of murdered women.

Graveyard is the title because the patriarchy in the police put her and her tiny team in a grimy storage room in the basement. They thought a woman in charge of anything was a joke. They called their space the graveyard.

The police officer, Önem (Birce Akalay), was better and smarter that most of the men in the department. She was up to the job of bucking the patriarchy while solving crimes with very limited resources.

Season 1 has four episodes, but each one is very long. Ranging from an hour and a half to almost two hours. Season 2 has eight somewhat shorter episodes, but each crime gets two episodes. A season 3 is already approved. I’ve only seen season 1 so far.

Önem is a recent widow with a teenage daugher, Sude (Elif Sevinç). They are both grieving and struggle to connect. Önem’s sister Feriha (Sezgin Uzunbekiroglu) is the coroner. She works closely with the new police unit.

Önem leads a team of outcasts and misfits. Sofia (Berna Öztürk) is a tech whiz/hacker recently out of prison. Önem was the one who sent her to prison, but they are very close now. Hasan (Sehsuvar Aktas) is a 33 year veteran of the police department with a lot of quiet wisdom to offer. Serdar (Olgun Toker) is a young hothead whose father is in line to be the new Istanbul Chief of Police. Berk (Baran Güler) is a very odd guy who is genius at everything, including technology, coffee brewing, and choosing tee shirts.

This team takes on the cases where women are found murdered. There’s one serial killer in their sights. They always get the killer (or killers) and in record time. By the end of season 1 they have earned a tiny bit of respect from the prosecutor and the officers above them. They have gelled as a team and learned to respect each other as well. Önem is a good leader who isn’t afraid to speak up when sexist men try to tell her how to run her department.

I found the series interesting and engaging. Watching how Turkish policing works was interesting. Seeing various places in Istanbul was a treat. But the crimes were gruesome and horrible and all against women.

You can see seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix.