Arka Sıradakiler

Arka Sıradakiler follows a tightknit group of students who sit at the back of class, marginalized by family and school systems and pulled toward risky choices. The show balances the raw realities of youth living on the margins with quieter moments of loyalty, small victories, and tense clashes with authority. Teachers and staff try to maintain order, but their methods and motives vary, and personal histories complicate every relationship. Crime, loyalty, and the pressures of adolescence intersect inside the classroom and beyond, as characters form alliances, clash with each other, and test the limits of forgiveness. Small acts of kindness and sudden violence coexist, highlighting realistic character choices.

Created by Birol Güven, Birol Elginöz, and Aysen Teker, Arka Sıradakiler was directed by Hamdi Alkan and premiered on Fox Turkey on September 30, 2007, airing Sundays, and featured actors such as Bülent Emin Yarar and Barış Atay.

While the series did not collect widely reported national awards in available records, it drew attention in Turkey for confronting school violence and youth marginalization. It maintained a dedicated fanbase, inspired media discussion and reruns, and is still cited in conversations about early 2000s Turkish teen television.

The phrase 'those at the rear desks' entered popular vocabulary to describe overlooked students, and the series helped shift Turkish TV toward grittier teen narratives. Its realistic school settings and troubled protagonists influenced subsequent shows that treated schools as microcosms of social problems, and it fed ongoing debate about youth policy.

Reception varied, with critics noting uneven plotting but praising performances from cast members like Bülent Emin Yarar, while audiences engaged with its moral ambiguity. On one aggregator it holds a 6.0/10 from two votes. Major themes include social neglect, crime, mentorship failures, and institutional failure in schools across Turkey.