A lone woman, a sick child, and a single decision that changed her life forever. The Al-Thaman series — The Price — is no ordinary romance. It poses a genuine moral question: how far can a mother go for her son?
Sara is a young widow struggling to raise her only child, Ibrahim, and give him a decent life. She sets her sights on a job at a major construction firm, but there's a catch — the company won't hire married mothers. So she lies, hiding the fact that she is a mother at all.
The crisis escalates when her son falls gravely ill and needs urgent surgery she cannot afford. She finds herself forced to ask the company's owner, Zein — a hard-nosed businessman who doesn't believe in love — for the money. He agrees, on the condition that she spend a night with him, and Sara has no choice but to accept. After the surgery succeeds and he discovers the truth, a complicated love story full of contradictions begins to unfold between them.
The series raises a question with no easy answer: what can justify a wrong choice when the motive behind it is love?
From Istanbul to Beirut — An Adaptation That Succeeded Where Others Failed
Al-Thaman is adapted from the famous Turkish work And Love Remains, which scored an enormous Arab success when it was dubbed into Arabic more than fifteen years ago. The real challenge lay in offering an Arabic version of a story the audience already knew.
Writer Yam Mashhadi succeeded in reworking the dramatic threads to suit the present moment, lending the characters and atmosphere a distinctly Lebanese and Arab spirit. The Arabic version is not a literal copy but a contemporary treatment that respects the original and adds to it at the same time.
Strengths
- Razane Jammal's performance — among the strongest female roles in Arab drama
- Exceptional chemistry between the two leads
- A successful Arab treatment of the Turkish original
- Yam Mashhadi's realistic, affecting dialogue
- Polished Lebanese production in both image and pacing
Weaknesses
- 89 episodes — far too long, with some scenes that could have been trimmed
- Viewers who saw the Turkish original may find themselves constantly comparing
- A few dramatic turns need more groundwork to land
A Striking Arab Success That Drew Viewers In
Al-Thaman managed to achieve a striking Arab success across the Shahid platform and the MBC channels, even though it is adapted from a Turkish series that had itself already enjoyed major Arab success. From its very first episodes, Arab audiences made no secret of their enthusiasm — especially toward the love story taking shape between Zein and Sara.
The series got the most important thing right: it makes the audience sympathize with Sara even in her most controversial decisions, and that is the true test of the writing.
AMDB rating: 7.5/10
