Over the seven years of its existence, Telegram has turned from an ordinary messenger into a colossus with 400 million active users, a promising platform for new media and one big new media in principle.
It is read by, if not all, then very many - from schoolchildren to party functionaries.
Sooner or later, Telegram as a phenomenon was supposed to interest filmmakers.
And Roman Volobuev and other creators of the mini-series “Just imagine what we know” were the first to set foot on this fertile ground.
Moreover, the director was fascinated by the theme of the messenger's “wrong side”, the transformation of channels stuck together on the knee into influential media and the participation of major players in this carnival: oligarchs, media moguls, security officials, politicians.
Volobuev looks at all this not in isolation, but strictly in relation to the state of the Russian media industry.
Therefore, his project is not so much about a specific messenger as about journalism today in general.
The series begins in March, apparently this year: the coronavirus is just beginning to rage in the country, elections are ahead, Telegram is officially blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation.
But even during the blocking period, the messenger is more likely alive than dead, and is rapidly gaining momentum - which cannot be said about the main character played by Evgeny Stychkin.
Evgeny Malyshev is a legend of 2000s journalism.
A new generation has grown up on Eugene's lyrics, and it has come to replace him.
However, "of the old people, Malyshev lasted the longest."
The journalist stops active work when his car takes off.
The bombing was probably organized by an offended oligarch - a person involved in another investigation by Malyshev.
Evgeny moves to London and takes on the modest role of a householder: he sits with the children while his wife, the founder of a charity startup, goes to regattas with investors.
Malyshev's intention to change something appears when he is mistakenly declared dead in his homeland.
While reading obituaries and listening to caustic comments about his “resurrection”, the journalist feels more and more clearly that he is a “dusty yesterday” (this beautiful definition is put into the mouth of the heroine Yulia Snigir).
Stung, he returns to Moscow and takes patronage over the Telegram channel that "buried" him.
© Shot from the series "Just Imagine What We Know" (2020)
Malyshev and three lively girls performed by Anfisa Chernykh, Rina Grishina and Katya Fedina will try to promote the channel even more, find an investor and advertisers, not go to jail and not be eaten by the sharks of the media industry.
The most valuable thing about PPChMZ is the degree of immersion of its creators in the inner kitchen, satire and allusion to the leading media, which will be fully understood, perhaps, only by representatives of the journalistic environment.
The rest will not be able to appreciate even half of the efforts of the filmmakers.
For example, when the hero is described the situation on the market and offered to get a job at Meduza, he is jokingly warned: “True, the editor-in-chief can grab you by the ass there, but nothing will be tolerated”.
In the same context, Malyshev is advised to call RT, since "they always need columnists."
Invisibly present in the Volobuyev universe is a certain Margot, who learns about the decisions made in the "admin panel" earlier than others.
Well, for those who do not read all this, Monetochka and AIGEL are playing in the frame, go-go dancing in neon light (for some reason the Telegram channel's office is located in a strip club), and the heroines quarrel, reconcile and arrange their personal life.
One of the girls, by the way, in the best traditions of the time belongs to sexual minorities.
But this does not affect the plot in any way: it is much more important that our heroine does not listen to her elders, more girlfriends mow and scares away investors from the common cause.
© Shot from the series "Just Imagine What We Know" (2020)
The problem of old and new, "fathers and children" is the second important thing that would be nice to pay attention to when watching the series.
The girls use New Journalism techniques (fetching information by posing as an assistant attorney or armed with a fake press card) without learning the basics — for example, thoroughly double-checking facts.
And in principle, the heroine is at odds with ethics.
Therefore, they are well balanced by Malyshev.
Even though life has thrown the journalist off the ship of modernity, he knows: everything new is a well-forgotten old, any “negative block” from 2020 is an ordinary “stop-list” from the 2000s.
Technology has changed over the years, but human nature has not.
By his mere presence, Stychkin's hero demonstrates how it was and how it became.
A picky viewer, no, no, and the thought will creep in: what happens to the profession, even if such nuggets as Bella (Chernykh) do not understand the industry?
Fear not, the profession is not so bad.
It's just that everyone writes to Telegram, to anyone.
This is what Volobuev reminds of, quoting (apparently, respected by him) Aaron Sorkin.
PPChMZ has a lot of journalism and a lot of politics.
In this regard, the project is not far from the same "Last Minister".
But if in "The Minister" the characters are more comedic than dramatic, then here everything is absolutely the opposite.
The viewer laughs not at people, but at their words.
Not over actions, but over situations.
The world of "PPChMZ", although powdered and artistic, is quite similar to the real one.
And the actors - each in its place.
The biggest drawback of Volobuev's project was the number of episodes per season (four). The action ends abruptly when an intrigue is outlined along one line, but the rest are floundering somewhere in the middle of their development. So, PPChMZ will hardly be able to repeat the unprecedented success of the realistic "Chick", become the main series of the season and unite the entire progressive community in love for itself - it will not have time (especially since "Kinopoisk" made a strategic mistake and posted all episodes at once ). Will fly by as a bright comet and be forgotten in a week. Well, when the time comes for the second season, everything will be completely, completely different for us.