Netflix has been creating a lot of original content lately (notably the Marvel series and some offbeat comedies and dramas), but they've also been adding content from foreign countries. I majored in Russian and haven't used the language much in 40 years, so I decided to work on my comprehension of the spoken language by watching a couple of Russian TV shows. I also took in a Norwegian series in which Russia has a large role. These are all subtitled, not dubbed.
Nyukhach ("Sniffer")
This is a standard police procedural/cop buddy show that's basically a ripoff of Elementary. The main character is a consulting detective who has a superpowerful sense of smell. He can enter a room and tell how many people were there, how many times a gun was fired, the genders of the room's occupants, their age, their hair color and what they ate for breakfast.
Nyukhach is a cold fish. He wears nose plugs most of the time to avoid the constant assault on his sense of smell. He won't shake your hand. He wears gloves all the time. He's arrogant. He has a terrible relationship with his ex and his son. Whenever he stubs his toe or drops something he says, "tvoyu mat'", which means "your mother," with the same connotation it has in English, though the subtitles usually translate it as "damn."
His buddy is an officer in a special police unit. He's a regular guy and a ladies man. In the first season he's banging every woman he meets. In the second season he can't get any. A cold, hyper-competent female forensic scientist is hired who won't give him the time of day. He hits on a woman who tells him that she will only date rich men. The boss's secretary got married, got pregnant and left. He's all alone now.
Besides the dead body of the week, there's an underlying arc that deals with a secret vigilante group that can somehow control people remotely, forcing them to murder specific targets and then commit suicide.
The most striking aspect of the series is its treatment of women: they are either sex toys, harridans, bitches or victims. The writers tried to redeem themselves in the second season by making the women more independent and sympathetic, but it still comes off as sexist and misogynist.
This was a Ukrainian production set in an unnamed Russian city, presumably Moscow or St. Petersburg. Production quality is similar to any modern American series.
Mazhor (Silver Spoon)
This is another police procedural, cop buddy series with a love triangle thrown in. The main character is the son of a Russian oligarch. The kid is a total screwup. When he gets into a fight with a cop (causing the cop to lose his gun), his father pulls some strings and forces him to make a decision: become a cop or be cut off completely. Naturally, Mazhor is put into the same unit of the cop whose gun he lost.
There are several layers of conspiracies and several arcs in this series: the ongoing love triangle between Mazhor, his boss (a female police captain), and her boyfriend. There's the death of his mother -- she supposedly died in a car accident when he was a kid, but now that he's on the police force he's finding out that it might have suicide or murder. There's strife between Mazhor and his father, other oligarchs, his rich, drug-addled pre-cop pals.
There's even a funny bit where one of Mazhor's cop buddies falls in love with a rich girl whose daddy is a big Putin supporter. He makes the guy sign a marriage contract that includes requirements that the first-born child be a boy and be named after the president.
Once you get past the preposterousness of the premise, the characters in this series are more sympathetic. Mazhor starts out as a despicable rich oligarch brat, but over time he grows into a decent guy and a competent investigator. He slowly wins over his coworkers.
The series makes no bones about the corruption of the oligarchy and the police in Russia. It's right in your face, all the time. The series has comedy, pathos, drama and vengeance, and shows that a certain amount of self-reflection is allowed in Putin's Russia. There are even some pop-culture references to American movies ("I'll be back"). Almost all the songs played during montages are in English.
This is a Russian production set in an unnamed Russian city, presumably Moscow based on the license plates of the cars.
I actually learned something from this show: in recent years there was a huge police reform. The police force was called the "militsia" until 2011, when it was reorganized and renamed the "politsia." Thousands of bad cops were fired and pay was raised in an attempt to eliminate corruption by reducing the need for cops to take bribes. I also learned the slang term for cop: myent, pronounced with great disdain.
This show is more idiomatic and grittier than Nyukach. It's more engaging emotionally and plot-wise. Both are rather predictable, but that's no different than any American series.
Everyone in the cast of these two shows is white, with the exception of a minor character who appears to be Asian -- perhaps Kazakh. Everyone appears to be Russian, with the exception of a few Georgians and Caucasians (Chechens, probably), who are criminals, bums or drunks.
The third season of the show is currently in production, presumably coming to Netflix in the next year or so.
Occupied
This political thriller takes place in Norway. When the Green Party prime minister shuts down North Sea oil production in favor of an all-electricity economy using nuclear power plants fueled by thorium, the Russians kidnap him and give him an ultimatum, occupying Norwegian oil fields and refineries until oil production is resumed. All with the blessing of the EU and the United States.
After an assassination attempt on the Russian ambassador, things quickly go bad. The Norwegians are abandoned by their NATO allies, who are cowardly and venal and just want the oil. A terrorist resistance starts to grow, aided by traitors inside the administration.
The main characters are the prime minister, a reporter, the security minister, the prime minister's bodyguard (who becomes an investigator and is the main action hero), the Russian ambassador, and the bodyguard's and reporter's wives. In contrast with the Russian series, the women characters are basically equal to the men. The main Russian characters are multi-dimensional, some are kind, clearly trying to make the best of a bad situation; the real villains are off in Moscow, never to be seen. One of the main Norwegian characters is of African descent.
This series appears to have been inspired by Russia's invasion of Crimea, viewed through the lens of the German occupation of Norway in WWII. Though never explicitly referenced in the show, the term "Quisling" -- meaning a collaborator or traitor -- immediately came to mind when the prime minister agreed to the occupation. It was coined after Vidkun Quisling became the prime minister after Hitler's 1940 invasion of Norway.
About half the dialog is in Norwegian, with some Russian (mostly non-native Russian accents), and a lot of English. English is used whenever Norwegians speak with the Russians or the Europeans, and when they're watching the BBC. Norway is clearly a bilingual country, with everyone speaking English with native proficiency.
Only the first season of the show is available on Netflix, leaving you in a cliffhanger. The second season will be broadcast later this year, though I'm not sure when it'll come to Netflix.
This show came out in 2015, before Russia's interference in the American election and before Trump started talking about abandoning our NATO allies. If I had seen Occupied before Trump I would have felt slandered as an American by the insinuation that America would let Russia occupy an American ally like Norway.
But it seems the Norwegians know the Americans better than the Americans know themselves.
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