10 Russian TV shows everyone should watch

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Beautiful historical dramas, funny comedies, detective stories and science fiction about robots.

1. Former

• 2016 - present.
• Drama.
• Duration: 3 seasons.
• IMDb: 6, 9; Film Search: 7, 4.

The main character of the series, Yana, is trying to get rid of drug and alcohol addiction in a rehabilitation clinic. In addition, the girl has serious problems with her corrupt father: it was he who sent her for treatment. At the clinic, Yana visits a consultant psychologist Ilya, who also once suffered from alcoholism. He wants to support the girl on her way to recovery, but Yana is not always ready to accept help.

To reliably convey the state of addiction, the performer of the main role, Lyubov Aksyonova, studied specialized literature, watched thematic films and talked with patients in rehabilitation clinics.

2. Great

• 2015 year.
• Historical drama.
• Duration: 1 season.
• IMDb: 6, 5; Film Search: 7, 6.

Not to be confused with the eponymous English-language TV series starring Elle Fanning. Although they are dedicated to one historical figure - Catherine II - they tell about her in completely different ways. American "Great" is a satire that does not claim to be authentic (the creators declare this at the very beginning). The Russian “Great” is a drama that the creators tried to make historically accurate. The script of the series is based on archival documents - memoirs and diaries, including that of Catherine II herself.

"Great" is very expensive, and therefore a very beautiful series: the creators did not save on costumes or on scenery. The lease of the premises alone cost about 250,000 rubles per shooting day.

3. Kept women

• 2019 - present.
• Thriller, drama.
• Duration: 2 seasons.
• IMDb: 6, 1; Film Search: 6, 6.

"Kept Women" is the film debut of theater director Konstantin Bogomolov. This is a story about an art critic from the Dash province. The girl moves to Moscow for a new life. A friend, who is provided by a married man, helps her to settle in the capital.

In "Kept Women" there is an interesting detective riddle, an intricately woven web of love lines and a beautiful picture. It is also one of the most outspoken Russian TV series: it has a lot of bold bed scenes.

4. Grand

• 2018-2020 years.
• Comedy.
• Duration: 3 seasons.
• IMDb: 7, 1; Film Search: 7, 0.

"Grand" is a continuation of the series "Hotel Eleon", which, in turn, is a spin-off of the sitcom "Kitchen". But you can watch it as an independent project.

"Grand" tells about the crazy everyday life of the team of the Moscow boutique hotel Grand Lion. In the center of the plot is a young employee of the hotel, Ksenia Zavgorodnyaya. The girl was forced to move to Moscow from Barnaul: there, due to the harassment of the rector, she had to quit her studies in the last year of the university of tourism and recreation.

Ksenia dreams of opening her own hotel and working there as a manager, so at Grand Lion she immediately tries to get a more impressive position. She manages to get a porter's place, but not for long. When the hotel finds out that Xenia has no higher education, she is fired. And then they are hired again, but as a laundress.

5. A. L. Zh. I. R

• 2018 year.
• Historical drama.
• Duration: 1 season.
• IMDb: 7, 9; Film Search: 7, 1.

The series is set in the middle of the twentieth century in the Kazakh SSR in the women's Stalinist camp "Akmola Camp of the Wives of Traitors to the Motherland." Abbreviated A. L. Zh. I. R. The main characters of the series - the wife of the aircraft designer Olga Pavlova and the opera singer Sofia Ter-Ashaturova meet on the prison train and go together to the camp, where they will face difficult trials.

The script for the series is based on the memories of prisoners, documents and books. For example, the prototype of Sofia Ter-Ashaturova was the real prisoner A. L. Zh. I. R. actress Elena Ter-Asaturova.

6. Better than people

• 2018 year.
• Fantastic.
• Duration: 1 season.
• IMDb: 7, 4; Film Search: 7, 0.

Russia of the future. Humanoid robots live among humans. Androids were created to work in heavy and dangerous industries, but over time they became full-fledged members of society. The main character of the series, the empathic robot Arisa, tries to understand what it is like to be human, and to understand the concepts of love, care and devotion.

Not everyone is ready to put up with human robots. Opponents of androids unite in a society of "liquidators".

7. Particle of the Universe

• 2017 year.
• Drama.
• Duration: 1 season.
• IMDb: 4, 9; Film Search: 7, 5.

A series about astronauts preparing to fly to the International Space Station. During the mission, they have to complete over a hundred difficult tasks. But first you need to deal with the problems on Earth. One of the cosmonauts of the crew of Andrei Kamanin leaves his wife. This news becomes a shock for him. Kamanin asks his wife to portray a little more family idyll so that his flight into space takes place.

8. Londongrad. Know our

• 2015 year.
• Drama.
• Duration: 1 season.
• IMDb: 5, 8; Film Search: 7, 7.

Mikhail Kulikov is a Russian guy who lives in London. Five years before the start of the events of the series, he left Oxford: a restless character prevented him from getting a diploma. The lack of higher education did not break the protagonist. He opened the Londongrad agency in the capital of Great Britain. The company's task is to solve various problems of the Russian British: from a simple meeting at the airport to settling problems with the police. During one of the assignments, Mikhail meets the oligarch's daughter Alisa Zagorskaya and realizes that she will be an excellent business partner.

The inspiration for the series was the biography of the rapper Oxxxymiron: he also had difficulties while studying at Oxford, and then he was engaged in solving the problems of Russians in London.

9. Free diploma

• 2018 year.
• Historical melodrama.
• Duration: 1 season.
• IMDb: 7, 6; Film Search: 7, 1.

The series is set in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. Polina Lebedeva is a serf who does not live like a peasant at all. From early childhood, the girl was raised as his daughter by Prince Alexei Petrovich Golovin. He was going to sign the girl free, but he constantly postponed the process until later. Golovin failed to complete the re-registration of the papers: the prince suddenly died of a heart attack.

After that, Polina's life turned upside down. The girl, along with the estate of her benefactor, passed into the possession of the cruel Count Andrei Krechetsky.

10.257 reasons to live

• 2020 - present.
• Comedy drama.
• Duration: 1 season.
• IMDb: 7, 0; Film Search: 7, 3.

This life-affirming series was released just before the start of self-isolation - on March 26. The main character of "257 Reasons to Live" Zhenya Korotkova fought cancer for three years. Complex therapy helped the girl to overcome the disease. But the joy of remission was greatly spoiled by the realization that all her loved ones were not ready for miraculous healing. At work, Zhenya has already been replaced, the guy left, the sister continues to collect charitable contributions for the girl's treatment in order to put them in her pocket.

Upset, Zhenya finds a notebook in her belongings, in which at the beginning of her illness she wrote down 256 reasons to live. She adds one more there - to find love. And he begins to implement the items from the diary.

In October, "257 Reasons to Live" will compete for the title of Best TV Series at the Canneseries Festival in Cannes. The main program of the show included only 10 projects - only one of them is Russian. Advertising

All series from our selection can be found in the online cinema "MegaFon TV". And if you want more, the service will offer 1,250 exciting TV series and 6,000 films for every taste. Watch!