Return of the Legend: New Voronins with the Same Jokes
The return of TV comedies from the 2000s allowed us to test the audience's love for them for strength. Overall, the game was probably worth the candle, but it's hard to call everything that happened a triumph.
"Daddy's Daughters", "Happy Together", "Univer", now "Voronins"... Rebooting retro hits is becoming the same producer's hobby as historical dramas and social action films. It probably seems from the outside that returning to old territories is easier than starting from scratch. But in fact, pleasing the audience that once watched all these series is quite a task.
In the relatively carefree 2000s, each of the listed projects was something like a background for office routine or homework for their fans. Serial passions lasted for years and, it seemed, would never end. But even Santa Barbara ends, and if the project suddenly returns, then, of course, it will not be the same.
New versions of familiar sitcoms are much more dynamic, there are not so many episodes per season, and, contrary to the traditions of the genre, the action still goes beyond the usual four walls. True, the audience is most often confused not by these modern serial signs, but by the maturation of the heroes. Young ones, of course, are better and certainly funnier.
It is quite possible that fans of the Voronins were afraid that Kostya in his adult version would turn into an infantile and not at all funny blockhead, and Vera would become a stuffy aunt, as happened with the young daddy's girls once. And such fears were justified to some extent, but it is still unfair to reproach the heroes of Ekaterina Volkova and Georgy Dronov for hopelessness.
In general, in the history of "Voronins" many things happened in spite of the circumstances. The first ten seasons were released as an adaptation of the American series "Everybody Loves Raymond". CBS representatives were present from time to time during the filming, and at first their comments were not the friendliest. According to rumors, the Americans categorically did not like our Raymond in the person of Dronov, and the jokes seemed completely unfunny. However, the ratings allowed for the anger to be replaced by mercy rather quickly and local producers and scriptwriters were given the right to do what they considered necessary.
Starting with the eleventh season, "Voronins" became an independent project. For the public, such a change of signboard went completely unnoticed, but there were certainly talks about the series having exhausted its margin of safety. Nevertheless, the TV comedy stayed on the air for twenty-four seasons, not leaving its fans for ten years.
Nowadays, they don't think in such scales, but the first season of the reboot called "Kostya-Vera" should still show how interesting these characters are to the modern audience, and therefore, viable in the future. The burden that was dumped on these characters is, to put it mildly, not easy. In "The Voronins", they were a couple who both suffered from parental oppression and enjoyed it. In the new series, Kostya and Vera, with their heads still in the clouds, must make important parental decisions. That is, be funny as both a struggling couple growing up, and a father and mother teaching their own children wisdom.
There are not many complaints about the main characters so far. Dronov managed to make the henpecked husband more mature, but at the same time even more hopeless, Volkova manages to make a lively face even with monumental makeup. With the children, everything is a little more complicated, because the audience was given not familiar, but completely new characters.
The usual twins have disappeared somewhere. Karina Orlova has replaced Maria Ilyukhina as the daughter (according to the producers, she failed the casting, according to the girl herself, she was not invited to it). The younger daughter, played by Vera Chernyavskaya, is also a new character, and it is as if she was rented from "Daddy's Daughters". In general, the public, inclined to look for illogicality and inconsistency in everything, of course, has reasons to grumble. Only the acting of the newcomers can distract from such grumbling. All of them, including the boyfriend (Nikolay Novoselov) who has settled in the room of the eldest daughter, have settled in well on the territory of the sitcom and cope with their functions quite well.
It is much more complicated with the older generation of Voronins. They decided not to replace Boris Klyuev (the actor died in 2020) with another actor, and according to the plot of the new series, Galina Ivanovna (Anna Frolovtseva) is a widow. This is probably the most correct move in this situation, besides, the death of the elder Voronin is played out in the series very touchingly. However, in the absence of Boris Klyuev, the significance of his character has acquired some incredible obviousness. Theatrical presence, the gloss of the old acting school and “Egyptian strength” now seem almost the main highlight of “Voronins”. And the scriptwriters failed to offer her an alternative.
Otherwise, Kostya-Vera, with moderation of care and moderation of persistence, awakens nostalgia for the carefree times of the heyday of local sitcoms. The revived series are most likely not destined to receive the love that fell on their predecessors. Not because they were great before, but now they are so-so. It is not about the projects themselves, but about the media background surrounding them. In the 2000s and 2010s, sitcoms did not need to fight for the audience with platforms and video hosting sites, and watching TV was a common practice back then, including for young people.
Things are different now; but it's funny in its own way that "Kostya-Vera" and others like them follow the old-fashioned tradition of offering the public something very real and uncomplicated. The daughter hangs out with a suspicious guy, the dad acts like a teenager, the daughter-in-law can't cook. Which of these things is untrue?
Newspaper headline:
It's a family thing for them.
