“Doctor Preobrazhensky” versus “Lada Gold”: two television premieres divided the audience

Over the past year, federal series and projects on streaming platforms have become even further apart. Despite the fact that streaming hits also get aired, and primetime series are available by subscription, these projects are filmed using different patterns and for different audiences. This contrast is especially noticeable when, at approximately the same time, the continuation of the series “Doctor Preobrazhensky” and “Lada Gold” is shown on different channels.

The two most notable premieres of the beginning of the year can hardly be called hot new products. The series about the behind the scenes of the Soviet Beauty Institute has begun its second season, and the passions surrounding the Soviet car made of pure gold are one of the main youth series of last year that has finally reached the airwaves. Both Doctor Preobrazhensky fans and Lada Gold fans may have noticed some changes.

The first season of The Doctor was defiantly different from what is meant here by period projects. Where the Soviet sixties are in the frame, the director’s desire to play in the style of “July Rain”, “I’m Twenty Years Old” and other local classics of that time predictably appears. However, the directors of the first season, Lyubov Lvova and Sergei Taramaev, went further.

As they themselves told MK, the visual reference point was “The Conformist” by Bernardo Bertolucci, and as a result, retro turned into noir, unusual for federal broadcasting, to the maximum extent of permissibility. The director of the second season, Artem Nasybulin, clearly wanted a more cheerful picture. As a result, everything became brighter, but the mysterious aura instantly dissipated, and now “Doctor Preobrazhensky” is one of many retro series with stars and rich props.

“Lada Gold”, like many TV series where youth prowess, fights, gunfire and romance famously unfold to the hip-hop and disco of the nineties, was slightly combed for broadcast. In official language, this is called the adaptation of the streaming category “18+” to the broadcast category “16+”. It’s hard to imagine what eighteen-year-olds know about this, which those who are sixteen now don’t know, but the rules must be followed and at least get rid of the swearing, which is sometimes more than abundant in such projects. They got rid of the swearing, but alcohol, smoke (not only tobacco) and language that is allowed to be indecent for broadcast remained. Without all this, the series will simply lose its youthfulness, and therefore the expediency of the show.

Both projects, despite all their dissimilarity, can be called typical for the Russian serial industry. They are filming and intend to continue filming various historical series with an older audience in mind. They can turn into very spectacular retro detective stories like “Mosgaz” or “Bison”, or sometimes into a caricatured fashion show of imperial outfits from the era of Catherine. But for the public, who turn on the TV in the evening, such entertainment has become a familiar ritual, and there is no point in destroying it.

In such series, as a rule, high-status actors play (in the second season of Preobrazhensky, Denis Shvedov and Maria Andreeva were joined by Anna Chipovskaya, Yuri Chursin, Leonid Bichevin, Sofia Ernst, Rostislav Bershauer, in general, the federal cream of society), the picture resembles a full-fledged cinema, and the cult of melodrama invariably reigns.

In projects like Lada Gold, everything looks much simpler, but there are a lot of difficulties of a different order. Probably, the race on the golden “four”, which went to two loafers from a grandfather-cop and a grandfather-bandit from the nineties, could become the main youth series of the year. However, after the premiere of “The Boy’s Word,” everything changed.

It is very difficult to accurately formulate the reason why the Kazan TV show suddenly multiplied into viral videos and became famous even among those who had not seen a single episode. Roman Evdokimov and Eldar Kalimulin from “Lada Gold” seemed to be an excellent acting tandem, but Ruzil Minekaev and Leon Kemstach (Marat and Andrey from “The Boy’s Word”), led by Ivan Yankovsky (perhaps the main streaming star at the moment), blew away the potential audience.

It is much more difficult to predict the reaction of younger audiences than the impressions of older ones. On the one hand, young people are a very biased and impulsive people, but at the same time susceptible to herd feelings. Guessing why one attracts and leaves another indifferent given approximately the same input is still beyond the capabilities of even experienced marketers, but the excitement in the market for cool youth action films hints that there will be many such projects.

Of course, it’s not just youth action films that get platforms. The same Ivan Yankovsky starred in the modern version of Crime and Punishment, and Evgeny Stychkin, as a director, is preparing a project about the Moscow Olympics. The new season will feature both thrillers and fantasy. However, the desire to do something in the spirit of “The Boy’s Word” and “Lada Gold” most likely torments many producers.

Conversations about the imminent demise of television and the triumph of the Internet, which were relevant some time ago, have now subsided. Gradually, everyone agrees that at home we still need a device with a screen, and what to attach it to and what films to watch on it is up to the owner. But no matter what the name of this gadget with a screen is, those who want to turn on the series at nine or ten in the evening, and those who want to watch an episode of their favorite project just posted on streaming, still sit in front of it.

However, despite the similarity of intentions, the interests of these people are still at different poles. Anyone who is interested in TV doesn’t really care about the hype on the Internet and vice versa. Fans of “Doctor Preobrazhensky” seem to be getting further and further from fans of “Lada Gold”. Only TV critics know about both.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29191 dated January 10, 2024

Newspaper headline:
“Doctor Preobrazhensky” vs. “Lada Gold”