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.
