I watched “Bar One Call” with Danila Kozlovsky. Turned it on in the background, stuck to the end

Okko again made a series not about the afterlife, but about a person.

In the new project “Bar One Call” there are no loud special effects, endless flashbacks and a finale where someone “goes into the world”. Just a bar, an old telephone and people who didn’t have time to make an agreement.

The idea is simple: what if we could talk to the dead? Relatives, friends, comrades. With anyone. The idea is banal and as old as the world, but the new product decides to provide this information.

After many years of controversy about the level of skill of Danila Kozlovsky, there was not much hope for the series.

We have already watched the new product and will hasten to share our impressions. Spoiler: the result was very surprising.

Sad stories that don’t make you feel sorry

What the series is about: Investigator Andrei Morozov is searching for the missing son of his wife, who lies in a coma. All the evidence leads to the mysterious bar “One Call”, which either disappears, then appears in different places, then closes. we are the body of the slain.

The establishment’s bartenders don’t just mix cocktails and make cynical remarks, but also help visit and call the dead. Different people come to the establishment with their own problems: the beautiful Zhanna, who wants to get rid of her wealthy husband; lawyer Max, who with age never managed to separate from his mother; blogger, we still have to understand what kind of deal he has with the outside world.

The main thing that distinguishes “Bar” from most domestic dramas is that it does not put pressure on emotions, does not try to lead the viewer to a difficult feeling.

Yes, they show a story about death and guilt, but they tell it quietly, without “drama for drama’s sake.” There are no theatrical pauses or breaks in the dialogues. Instead of these simple, honest phrases. Sometimes there is complete silence or sudden laughter. And even inappropriate and even denigrating jokes.

This works more than any scene with screams and broken mugs. You sit and watch people say things that we usually leave for later.

And suddenly you catch yourself thinking that this bar is not about the otherworldly – it is about us, about the living. There are many stories and “standard” situations mixed here. Someone didn’t listen to a friend in time, someone had a fight with the implementation, someone is simply deceitful and vile and wants to get a PIN code from a bank card.

All this is ordinary. Stories like this surround us all the time, and that’s what hooks us.

Danila Kozlovsky no longer whispers, but takes on charisma

For the first time in a long time, Kozlovsky here plays not a hero or pseudo-savior, but an observer.

The bartender who has these seems to be talking behind his back. Tired but attentive.
He doesn’t judge, doesn’t interfere, doesn’t give advice – he just listens. And I do everything to ensure that the call takes place.

In this way, oddly enough, he does more than any superhero “rescuer.”

In his views there is sunset and warmth, irony, which worries with endless black humor. Sometimes it seems that he is also waiting for someone. Or maybe not. And I just want to get out of this bar, because he is closely connected with it.

And his eyes change just as much when you understand what really motivates the creepy bartender.

Visual comfort and sound that you want to fix

“Bar One Call” is one of those series where the picture sounds.

Dim light, steam from lonely glasses. It’s as if everything was specially filmed so that you, too, would want to get in. Even the slightest, what could be the result of visiting this establishment.

This is not a cheap “Insta-comfort”, a thoughtful visual language. Even the sound of an old telephone in its traditional manifestations plays here as a theme song. Only in such cases do you become more tense.

What’s especially pleasing is that the authors are not trying to stretch the series out into something endless. The episodes are short (only a minute and a half, or even less) and are not stretched out with unnecessary scenes. They contain important stories and conversations.

There is also a parallel line with the policeman Andrei Morozov performed by Lobanova Alexandra Ilyina.

She is already telling her side of the story from the point of view of a father who “lost” his child. And it is no less interesting and shows a world that lives separately from the bar.

The narration moves so cleverly that you don’t even notice that you’ve already watched the fourth episode in a row.

Where the magic is preserved

But oh well. Not everything is perfect in this series. Several episodes are clearly weaker than the rest – it is clear that the authors do not always limit freedom or press for time on the idea.

For example, the story of the death of our comrade looks dry, as if from another universe. There is mysticism there, but there is less life.

There are few such moments, but they prevent the series from maintaining an even emotional rhythm. The wildest imbalance does not occur, but it simply exists.

Sometimes it feels like the authors are afraid to take a step further and show not only pain, but also madness, confusion and real anger.

So far the series is too polite. It gently leads to catharsis, but does not risk making the viewer truly fall apart inside.

Why is this series still worth watching?

Because it’s rare.

Rare in mood, intonation, and humanity. There is no morality or moralizing in it. Here you just have the opportunity to look at yourself from the outside.

Minor flaws aside, “One Call Bar” is a series about the conversations we didn’t get to have. Not about the dead, but about the living, who still cannot “dial the number.”

It makes you remember who you would call if you could. And it’s scary not because there are dead people out there somewhere.

I’m scared that it might already be too late.