No spoilers here - it's revealed very early on that the killer is the local cop who's assisting the Moscow investigator. The grey, drizzly backdrop, corruption, toxic culture of masculine mentoring, and omnipresent alcohol are all brought clearly into play as the reasons for Ivan's devolution into a 50+ victim serial killer. For non-Russians it kind of plays to stereotypes about Russians being emotionally shut-down boozers, but since this is based on fact I'm not sure it's just a stereotype. Nikita Efremov does a really good job of making you both like Ivan AND want him to get caught because he's clearly a closet lunatic. Yulia Snigir is very good as the Moscow investigator and her troubled family background is realistic enough to make you buy the idea that a woman THIS beautiful could be a cop (and a minimally-supervised one at that). Nine episodes might seem long, but it's well worth it for the character and social portraits.
5 Reviews
Slow but compelling
laduqesa3 November 2022
This series was extremely loosely based on the case of serial killer Mikhail Popkov. However, the only real resemblances of the series to the true killer were the way he treated women including at their grisly demises, what he thought of them and that he was a cop.
From these bare bones, a complete new story was constructed whose salient points have been given away in the IMDB storyline. I shan't be as crass in this review. The location was changed to a hick town four hundred kilometers from Moscow instead of Siberia and an invented character, that of Evgenia Klyuchevskaya, brought into the narrative as a solo investigator sent by the capital.
Evgenia finds resistance from the local cops who are corrupt as well as from her assigned local partner.
Back stories for both main characters are expounded with some cod psychology thrown in to "explain" Ivan Krutikhin's motivations.
The final episode diverges just about as far as it possibly can from the real-life case. It was a final victory snatched from the jaws of what looked like it would be a defeat.
I have to just mention that despite what we hear about Russia being a police state and the lack of freedom there, virtually every series or film I see from there openly shows corruption and unpunished criminality as well as mafia figures controlling business and finance. Perhaps a programme not showing this would simply not be accepted as Russians presumably know exactly what is going on around them.
So, for the slowburn progress of the plot, I'll give it a six and a lukewarm recommend.
From these bare bones, a complete new story was constructed whose salient points have been given away in the IMDB storyline. I shan't be as crass in this review. The location was changed to a hick town four hundred kilometers from Moscow instead of Siberia and an invented character, that of Evgenia Klyuchevskaya, brought into the narrative as a solo investigator sent by the capital.
Evgenia finds resistance from the local cops who are corrupt as well as from her assigned local partner.
Back stories for both main characters are expounded with some cod psychology thrown in to "explain" Ivan Krutikhin's motivations.
The final episode diverges just about as far as it possibly can from the real-life case. It was a final victory snatched from the jaws of what looked like it would be a defeat.
I have to just mention that despite what we hear about Russia being a police state and the lack of freedom there, virtually every series or film I see from there openly shows corruption and unpunished criminality as well as mafia figures controlling business and finance. Perhaps a programme not showing this would simply not be accepted as Russians presumably know exactly what is going on around them.
So, for the slowburn progress of the plot, I'll give it a six and a lukewarm recommend.
Thriller? Are you kidding me? Tedious!
t-0974717 October 2020
The show is based on a real story of a maniac. The problem is the maniac in the show doesn't look real at all. Not even close. And this lame villain is acting to a very boring script. No tension, no thrills. Just pure boredom. 9 episodes could easily be reduced to 4-5. There are examples of an ok acting, very bad acting and no acting at all (talking about Sobchak who is not even an actress).
A good man
alemarko-603894 July 2023
Ncredibly boring, uninteresting, slow, bad casting, bad acting, desperate script. An extremely stupid approach to the topic without any filmic creativity, fat, no mystery atmosphere.
The most stupid thing I've seen from Russian series.
Cist score 1/10.
Ncredibly boring, uninteresting, slow, bad casting, bad acting, desperate script. An extremely stupid approach to the topic without any filmic creativity, fat, no mystery atmosphere.
The most stupid thing I've seen from Russian series.
Cist score 1/10 ncredibly boring, uninteresting, slow, bad casting, bad acting, desperate script. An extremely stupid approach to the topic without any filmic creativity, fat, no mystery atmosphere.
The most stupid thing I've seen from Russian series.
Cist score 1/10.
The most stupid thing I've seen from Russian series.
Cist score 1/10.
Ncredibly boring, uninteresting, slow, bad casting, bad acting, desperate script. An extremely stupid approach to the topic without any filmic creativity, fat, no mystery atmosphere.
The most stupid thing I've seen from Russian series.
Cist score 1/10 ncredibly boring, uninteresting, slow, bad casting, bad acting, desperate script. An extremely stupid approach to the topic without any filmic creativity, fat, no mystery atmosphere.
The most stupid thing I've seen from Russian series.
Cist score 1/10.
Great idea but then..
mulberryswirl15 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The initial plot is quite exciting. It was said that the whole story was inspired by the case of the maniac from Angarsk, but the real story is much more exciting than the one presented in the series. It is very disappointing that originally great idea was so poorly realized. The first episodes are interesting, but the further episodes have a way too slow pace and there is not much intrigue about the personality of the killer. The finale is simply an epic fail.
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