This study attempts to investigate the semantic apprehension of Turkish series by young audiences in Tabriz and understand their relationship with transnational cultural products. A qualitative grounded theory method was employed utilizing a systematic approach based on Strauss and Corbin. Data were obtained by conducting semi-structured interviews with 23 young people in Tabriz and were analysed using three coding stages: open, axial, and selective coding. First, the findings indicate that audiences view Turkish series not just as entertainment, but as meaning making objects, mediated through prior learning enabling them an interpretive engagement to conceptualise an imagined lifeworld. This led to the core category of "mental construction of imagined lifeworlds as a response to lived disjunctions." Secondly, the findings are arranged in five dimensions of interest: causal (the failings of national media to effectively represent in a realistic manner), transnational cultural-linguistic attachments, and frustrations with urban realities); contextual (lived experiences of borders, identity pluralism in Tabriz, middle-class consumerism); intervening (direct access via film & TV, foreign social networks); strategic (interpretive consumption, modelling identities, and mental comparisons); consequential (reinforcement of a mental utopia, a Turkey-centric identity, a decline in official media authority, increased aspirations to migrate). The study concludes that this multilayered engagement represents a cultural response to semantic gaps and social frustrations, transcending passive consumption to become an active cultural practice and identity reconstruction within a transnational lifeworld, highlighting the need for rethinking Iran's cultural policies.