Topi

I accidentally stumbled upon this series, and, to be honest, I did not expect anything good from it. And I was wrong. First, the plot, the author of which is the famous writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, is extremely intriguing and fascinating at the same time. The series perfectly combines elements of horror, thriller and detective at the same time. At the same time, the ending of the series does not answer all the questions that the viewer will have. Secondly, the cast is excellent, but most of all I was impressed by Maxim Sukhanov. Third, the music perfectly complements the atmosphere of mysticism. In short, this is an unexpectedly good Russian TV series.

Topi will throw you off guard within the first couple of minutes of episode one. It begins as almost a classic slasher movie, its premise being five young people travel to a remote village in an almost dystopian secluded location somewhere deep in rural Russia, and start eerily disappearing. Very soon you are provided with clear hints that the timeline is off, the plot is twisted, and what you see at any given moment may or may not be actually happening.

As an old question gets somewhat answered, three more pop up, leaving you guessing and conjuring theories on how it can all be tied together. The final reveal removes much of the ambiguity to lean very clearly to one side of things, and does not answer every question, with some obviously not requiring a direct answer, while other appearing simply forgotten to discarded. It is for this final episode that I have given the show 7 stars, as well as some of the acting falling flat and a pace that should have most likely been crammed into 5 episodes as opposed to 7. Otherwise, the cast which includes both experienced Russian actors (Sukhanov), trendy new names (Yankovsky) and a whole group of new names, deliver quite a captivating narrative.

Another standout feature of Topi is that the script was written by Dmitry Glukhovsky, a well-known name internationally for his Metro 2033 (34, 35) series of books and games set in a post-apocalyptic Russia. Glukhovsky reportedly worked on bringing his script to screens for at least a decade. The script is rich with twists and turns while staying true to Glukhovsky's strong political stance, reflecting through the zombie-like characters of the rural village the lack of motivation that Russia's society has for change, all but turning a blind eye to the disturbing events going on around them and thus enabling the forces of evil in the series to thrive without any justice or punishment in sight. And while these motives are revealed gradually and almost between the lines at first, the finale reveals the author's social agenda pretty bluntly, making it fall quite flat for yours truly personally and taking away some of the points I had given earlier for subtlety.

Somewhat familiar genre tropes help to get through the first few episodes, while the plot gets going. Unfortunately, the further I went into Topi, the more captivating yet confused everything became.

Some of it feels like allusions to Bulgakov, yet the explicit scenes I still found over the top and not adding much to the story.

The ending left most of the storylines hanging, which was sadly quite predictable (or predetermined, if you will).

Don't regret the time spent watching this, mostly due to compelling performances from the cast (Max, Sonya and the police captain, to name a few) and a great setting.

Surprisingly good story, sometimes slow and repetitive, this little gem of a miniseries can keep you on the edge of your chair for prolonged periods of time. As the promo materials tell us the whole thing set in a remote Russian village and you'd expect it to be one of those werewolf or vampire carnivals with a predictable plot narrative but it goes a little further to unfold into something more far-reaching than just a simple suspense/thriller/horror flick. With limited number of characters the creators did manage to build up the sinister, ominous atmosphere that surrounds this tiny hamlet of Topi. Young talents shine here alongside experienced actors, casting turned out to be very successful. One thing you have to promise yourself is to watch through the entire series, as quite a few things become clear and many questions get answered in the final 60 minutes.

The first couple of episodes are not extremely satisfying and rather confusing, but the remaining parts are amazing. The strongest components of the show are definitely actors and environment setup. Can't name another product which resembles the story or visual approaches of depicting it. However as for me it is slightly similar to the "Survival game" and "Call-center" captured earlier by the "TNT" channel production group. Didn't really liked the music, but fortunately is not played much along the series. The ending is pretty banal and dissatisfying. As for me it could be more explicit, interesting, logical and systemic. A lot of questions remained unanswered and many references as well as eccentric details of plot seem to be hanging without any clear purpose even after the last episode.