Sometimes the people still have the right to vote

1. Positive. “Island” (Russia) is an absolute event. The concept, character and idea of ​​the film, the reaction of critics and the ambiguous perception of the film needed to be understood and discussed together with the creators, experts and the audience (one “Mirror” with Lungin is not enough). It would not hurt to discuss the screening of “Live” (“First”). “The People Want to Know” (TVC) is a rare show where the people really have the right to vote, and the result of the discussion is unpredictable. In January, there was a new interest in on-screen disputes (the show “Russian View” on Channel 3, “Chapter 30” on NTV, “Baby Riot” on REN TV, programs with Tigran Keosayan on REN TV and with Tatyana Malkina on REN TV are approaching TVC). Either serial fatigue is setting in on the channels, or the fashion for talking is returning, or new platforms are being prepared for election formats. Several January programs of “One Day” with Kirill Nabutov (NTV) are proof that even on this “anti-human” channel in the evenings you can see normal, working, enthusiastic, compassionate, active people. It’s becoming more and more interesting to watch TNT: the characters - both television and documentary - may not always be likable, but they are not hackneyed (for example, the program “Rules for Renting” - an ironic instruction in seduction - a visual and funny impression of the morals and lifestyle of average young residents large Russian city).

2. Negative. Propaganda campaigns (“Russian-Belarusian oil and gas conflict”, “Courchevel incident”, “Litvinenko case”, “fate of monuments”) with all the signs of modeling the “image of the enemy”. The stupidity of beheading Pyotr Mamonov’s speech at the moment of his own triumph (the “Golden Eagle” ceremony at “First”). “Stalin Life” is something outdated in genre, untalented and confused from a historical point of view (NTV). Distortion of facts, shocking details, experiments with doses of cruelty and immorality, an explosive mixture of reality, myths, extreme judgments, pedaling of fear, conspiracy, intrigue, scandals, the use of human weaknesses in the most rated NTV programs - this is now the calling card of the channel associated with gas national treasure. At the same time, a touching response to national projects coexists in one program bottle on NTV - a program about children and mothers on the morning air; and the game “Happy Flight”, in which the main players are not the children, but Deputy Prime Ministers Medvedev and Ivanov, who bestow sports benefits on them; and spectacular shows by Vladimir Solovyov; and remember the rituals of Gleb Pavlovsky; and the criminal-necrophiliac series of “emergency situations”. “Program Maximum” and “Russian Sensations” (the most journalistic in form and effort expended) have a philosophy - to dig and not to disdain. But the omnivorous nature of these new muckrakers is limited by the political fence. NTV programming increasingly makes us suspect the creators of this “television trash” of either mediocrity (selling “base” stuff has always been profitable and safe, and it doesn’t require any special talent), or boundless cynicism, or mental limitation, close to ill health.

Anna Kachkaeva, Radio Liberty