I watched the hype series “The Boy’s Word.” Roskomnadzor has already interested me, but why?

The Wink and Start online cinemas have announced a new series “The Boy’s Word. Blood on the asphalt,” which has already managed to win people’s love.

For two weeks now, the project has been in fourth position in the ranking of the 250 most popular TV series on Kinopoisk. Its rating is off the charts and ranges from 8.9 to 9.3 out of 10, probably consistent on a day-to-day basis.

Against the backdrop of incredible popularity, Roskomnadzor has already announced that it intends to check the series. Reason: Children’s Ombudsman of Tatarstan Irina Volynets expressed concern that the revolution could violate the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation on beyond government policy to protect traditional agreements.

We have already watched the first 4 episodes (half of the season) and are in a hurry to share our impressions. Is the project really associated with such intense attention? Let’s figure it out.

Welcome to the organized crime group from the 80s

The director of the project was Zhora Kryzhovnikov, responsible for “Gorko”, “Ice 2”, “Call DiCaprio!”, “New Christmas Trees” and many other projects. His track record is very unique. But with the new series, the authors were able to truly surprise.

What is the series about?: late 1980s. While the parents are fighting for survival, all the abandoned children gather in street flocks and “fight for the asphalt.” They literally fight to control everything that stands on their land or moves on it. Among the general cruelty are clear rules of life, support and the word of a boy, which is stronger than an oath.

14-year-old Andrey is from an intelligent musical family; he studies in high school and lives with his mother and five-year-old sister. He regularly faces pressure from street teenagers. To protect himself, he makes friends with Gopniks. One of them, 14-year-old Marat, becomes Andrei’s guide and observer of the complex world of the streets.

The Ombudsman’s main complaint about the series was romanticization of banditry, because the whole project is built on this. And yesterday there was even news about the creation of a children’s organized crime group in Tatarstan (however, the news was later denied and they said that the children were playing in the snow, not drama).

The script here includes both Kryzhovnikov himself and Andrei Zolotarev (“Trigger”, “13th Clinical”). Thanks to their efforts, the result so far is a clear story with coverage of certain problems and a normal level of drama.

Each character is the main one – an ordinary person from a not very successful family, which we are constantly reminded of. These people’s fate has been ruined; they have no choice but to earn their own living through illegal methods and protect their classmates.

And although the plot takes place in Tatarstan, the authors were unable to film it in the republic itself. So here we have Yaroslavl, which, thanks to the creators of the project, is not so different from Kazan in its streets and courtyards.

The atmosphere of the late 80s in Europe is simply excellent, which allows you to fully adapt to the events of 30 years ago. And for some it may even contribute to nostalgia. The care and respect for these eras is visible.

And, most importantly, you become truly terrified of what is happening when you realize that this is how it all happened. The series turned out to be very cruel and hyper-realistic, you see the suffering and fear of each character, their bruises, broken noses, and so on.

There is a lot of drama here, characters change according to philosophical laws.

With each new episode, the viewer is immersed more and more into the problems of the boys and made it clear How do they return to normal life?. True, the creators are clearly in no hurry with the last aspect, throwing in only grains of history. And sometimes it’s difficult for you to understand their true motives because of this.

But these are just the first couple of episodes. Then they throw more and more information at us, manipulate the main characters, complicate their family situations – in general, they competently build up the drama. Scale was thought everywhere: from the scene with dragons to the abundance of storylines, the techniques of which are clear and simply described.

However, the actions of the heroes can solve the issues. And their reasons are in organized crime groups too. It seems like they have good intentions, but that’s not the case at all. And at some points, characters can instantly change their personalities.

For example, Andrei’s friend at the very beginning was uptight and cowardly, and later he became prone to influence authority with his gang. Or Marat: at the beginning he was kind and close to Andrei, then suddenly decided that he should cool off, and then again became his best friend. How? What? Why? There are no answers. Nevertheless, for some reason this does not cause any confusion while watching.

The era is conveyed very well here

Mostly thanks to the decorators and directors.

But there is also a pleasant atmosphere from the director: love for handheld photography. The series contains many scenes in closed and dark rooms, basements, schools, and so on. And thanks to this kind of shooting, you get a better feel for what is happening. Organically inserted real video photographs only increase conviction, because members of the Kazan organized crime group work for them.

The only thing that confuses me is the abundance of compositions “Mirage” and “Tender May”. It feels like they were the only ones licensed, and not that many songs. The same “Music has bound us” or “Grey Night” is heard as many as 2-3 times in the first 2 episodes. Further it becomes more diverse, but still not enough.

However, despite such roughness, fairly simple issues are interesting to watch with each new episode. I hope that the authors will be able to extract more material from the initial events of the Kazan Phenomenon in subsequent episodes.

Worth a look

It is unlikely that Roskomnadzor will decide to block “The Boy’s Word. Blood on the asphalt” on online platforms. Today, any news about this series only plays into its hands, constantly increasing the hype and warming up the attention of viewers.

In the first third, it seems that the authors were able to truly penetrate the era and carry out the complete transition of people at that time. They are executed to a high standard, well delivered, not drawn out and not annoying. And I would recommend watching this series.