Dreams of peace at war

The juxtaposition of such series as “Apostol” (Channel One) and “Father” (Russia) on the April broadcast highlighted two mutually exclusive tendencies of current television fiction. One is with sharp anti-Soviet motives (“Apostle”), the other is quite late Soviet (“Father”).

The series about a sailor who sailed under contracts in foreign seas and oceans and then became a priest in his native village seems Soviet not in the sense of ideology, but in the style and spirit of films about socialism with a human face. The village priest Roma Malyshev slightly reminded the village detective Fyodor Aniskin.

In appearance, by all external signs, “The Apostle” continued the tradition of the Soviet adventure film based on the material of the Patriotic War. Due to some plot twists, it reminded me of “Seventeen Moments,” but in essence it became a sarcastic paraphrase of this beloved picture by the people. Rodina-Center talks to its agent son, sent behind the front line, in the language of blackmail. And Eustace the son speaks the same language with his homeland. Here the Patriotic War every now and then turns into a Civil War.

Of course, the artistic side of both series with religious overtones leaves much more to be desired, but the general television context makes them significant and symptomatic.

Today, judging by TV, we are in a state of psychological war on two fronts - with an external enemy (NATO, the States) and with an internal enemy - with the pro-Western intelligentsia. At least this is what follows from the propaganda stories of Konstantin Semin (TV channel “Russia”). There was a heated conversation about the same thing about “Cargo 200” in the “Closed Screening” (“Channel One”).

We don't just argue about the past; we are still at war with the past. That’s why Yuri Shevchuk’s song, which sounded for two weeks as an epigraph to “Father” about “dreams about peace in war,” seemed so appropriate. And “Father” himself inspired such a dream.

It was inspired by the even best program of the month - “Theater Chronicle” with Stanislav Lyubshin (“Culture”). The hero of the day told a lot of interesting things about the theater and himself, but most importantly, he did not fake the role of himself . Even very good artists rarely succeed in this.

The best joke of the month is the one that was heard on the First in the KVN show. An excited, cheerful and resourceful player jumps onto the stage shouting that since NTV does not have a toilet, they do everything on air.

Just a joke. Although in fairness one could remark to Channel One and its bosses: “Why should gossips work?” And Channel One has its own latrine. “Let them talk” is called.

Yuri BOGOMOLOV, Rossiyskaya Gazeta