From funny to unfunny

In November, television developed activity on a trajectory between science and humor. The premieres of the humorous programs “The Pinochet Couple” on NTV and “One for All” on Domashny once again indicated the crisis of the modern comic principle on TV. Another actress who has the gift of transformation and farce is Anna Ardova. Another farcical duet - in this case, Evgeny Pisarev and Yuri Chursin. Next to the dream factory there is a humor factory. The factory mode does not contribute to the creation of a piece of cultural product.

“Cartoon Personalities” on “Pervy” look like pale shadows of the former “Dolls”. In the new puppet project there is humor, measured and cut down wherever possible, and there are an order of magnitude more media figures among the characters than there are actual politicians.

The most amusing thing is the design of the studio "The Pinochet Couple" - with portraits of TV stars, stylized as great paintings of the past. And humor itself is finally leaving the sphere of art. Its overwhelming quantity neutralizes the value of the presence of the funny. It is impossible to say anything new about the surrounding life and its problems, because new programs use well-worn paths.

Scientific thought turns out to be more unpredictable. For the entire month, TV has been giving us surprises from big science, that is, it has literally tried to look into the future and see its kitchen.

The Large Hadron Collider has been in the spotlight. TV played the role of a messenger, formally denoting a grandiose event. Along the way, it became clear how Russian TV is not designed to present such information. It either gives the viewer standard factual information that he can get from other media, or it begins to scare and immediately calms down. There was more talk about the consequences than about the essence of the invention. They say that Switzerland may fail. Oh, no, it can’t, sleep well. These emotional messages were especially clearly indicated in the plot of “Postscript”. However, a successful computer “picture” appeared in the frame, making the functioning of the miracle invention relatively clear.

Since the world is changing rapidly, it is difficult for people not involved in science to navigate these changes and even just get an idea about them. I think the film “Dictatorship of the Brain” by Pavel Lobkov on NTV is very timely, connected precisely with a detailed immersion into the world of scientific discoveries. First, humanity creates images, then embodies them, as is known. Nowadays, all mass cinema and animation are obsessed with the idea of ​​influencing the individual’s brain, controlling thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Lobkov's film showed that all this is not just obsessive motives and not just horror for entertainment.

And the project “Give Yourself Life” on RTR killed me morally. It is cynical and primitive to organize a reality show based on the topic of life expectancy, play predictions and, most importantly, choose a pop star for demonstrative salvation from premature death. I hope that the lifespan of this television project will not be too long.

Ekaterina SALNIKOVA, TV observer for Private Correspondent