Stirlitz and memes: “Seventeen Moments of Spring” has become increasingly difficult to watch

Television spoils a popular series

Watching “Seventeen Moments of Spring” from beginning to end, and in the evening prime time, is another adventure. Even those who know what it is about in principle and remember hit phrases can make discoveries for themselves. And quite unexpected.

The main discovery may be that we don’t watch TV the way we used to and some old movies demand. Even people of quite mature age often keep some gadget at hand in order not to lose control (imaginary, of course) over their lives, or quickly google an incomprehensible moment while watching. This number does not work with Tatyana Lioznova’s series. “Seventeen Moments of Spring” requires absolutely excessive attention by the standards of modern television production. Episodes in which nothing seems to really happen are quickly replaced by dialogues, where there is too much information per unit of time. The audience has already lost the habit of this, so it’s easy to miss the plot here.

What seems to be missing there? Even those who are a little over forty should know everything by heart. And this is another misconception. Many can well remember Muller’s jokes, jokes based on the plot, and other details that became the basis for various memes and Internet jokes, well, or the scene of Stirlitz’s date with his wife in the Elephant tavern. However, the detective intrigue here is much more complicated than it seems at first glance, there is a whole crowd of characters, and all of them with their own ambitions and interests. Loyal fans of the series, probably, will not immediately remember what Muller, Bormann and Kaltenbrunner share there. Others sometimes need time to figure out who they are.

For younger people, what is happening on the screen looks like a set of oddities. Why do cars take so long to go somewhere, why are plans so long, and sometimes there are so few assembly glues? Why is there almost no what is now considered to be entertainment: shooting, chases, witticisms, and any, as they say, kringa? There is a suspicion that thirty-year-olds, if they are not cinephiles, simply do not perceive a black and white picture combined with conversations in which there is nothing superfluous.

One gets the feeling that common phrases like “Stirlitz is our everything” and arguments about “Seventeen Moments of Spring” from the perspective of an integral part of the local cultural code are more and more like demagogy. Repeatedly overheard and read how even an educated public complains that they seem to remember a lot from excerpts and even get nostalgic pleasure from individual scenes, and the song is excellent, but the whole thing is no longer interesting. Probably because it requires too much attention, while you need to answer someone in the messenger or participate in a discussion on social networks.

“Seventeen Moments of Spring” is a great series for family viewing with subsequent discussion. But even if you make incredible efforts to gather the household in front of the screen, everything can collapse already at the first commercial break. The benefits of showing some films without advertising have been repeatedly discussed, and on some channels they even understand this. Seventeen Moments of Spring should probably be treated as an art project and try not to spoil the delicate structure of spy noir with a stream of flashy and annoying commercials. This is logical and probably not so difficult. But, apparently, only in words.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29098 dated August 23, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Stirlitz in the era of memes