A unique model of the anthropomorphic robot “Arisa” is illegally brought to the Kronos corporation, which sells robots. It will soon become clear that the uniqueness of cyborg, besides having embedded intelligence and empathy, is the tendency to ignore the basic laws of robotics. According to these laws, a robot cannot disobey a person or harm him. But Aris do it.

When trying to escape from Kronos, Aris kills an employee of a corporation, and once outside the organization, he accidentally falls into the family of George and Alla Safronovs. Spouses are at the stage of divorce, and their already difficult relationship aggravates the issue of custody of children.

Georgy Safronov works as a pathologist. According to the plot, the body of an employee of Kronos is brought to him in the morgue, and they are asked to arrange the murder for money as an accident. The death of an employee of Kronos attracts the attention of the investigator Varlamov, who does not like robots.

While the attention of the Safronovs is focused on the divorce process, their son Egor falls into the radical group Liquidators, which advocates the destruction of bots. The situation gets out of control when, after one of the actions, Yegor is arrested.

Ariza mastered in a new family. Soon Safronov, to his surprise, discovers the empathic abilities of Aris. However, its neglect of the laws of robotics scares others. Meanwhile, the owners of the bot from "Kronos" do not leave attempts to return it to their own use.

What critics say

The audience rating “Better than people” at the time of publication of the article on IMDb was 7 out of 10. The viewers who had time to watch the series told about impressions in reviews on specialized sites. In addition, reviews of the project have written a number of media.

Egor Belikov in his article on the website of the TV channel “Moscow 24” indicates that in the film the world of the future is depicted insufficiently “futuristic” (the tape takes place in 2029).

In addition, Belikov notes, the very idea of ​​the project was borrowed from foreign peers. In particular, the Swedish television show "Real People" and the American "People", where we are also talking about robots. To this, the authors of the Russian picture declare that their script is absolutely original, and the events in it do not overlap with foreign projects.

At the same time, some critics note that the project is in many ways unique for Russian television.

“Better than people” is good because, unlike most domestic TV series, he doesn’t just tell a funny story, but includes several real problems in the plot, which is why the events on the screen become unexpected for the genre. What is interesting is not how Aris's robot, a kind of remake of the super-being from the Fifth Element film, will interact with humans, but how stereotypes of modern Russian life are embedded in this meta-plot. Inside this global process, the writers and the director allow themselves to be carried away by the nuances, ”writes Alyona Solntseva for Colta.

Many Internet users have noted a high-quality picture and an unusual plot for the national cinema.

“The first plus is the story about the future that is rarely used in Russian cinema, and this is interesting. The second plus is a very beautiful “picture”. In the best "western" traditions. And this applies to all aspects: interiors, landscapes, the appearance of the characters and the production of the frame as a whole, ”one of the spectators underlined in the comments on the Kinopoisk portal.

Robots and breakdance

A team of cinematographers already familiar to the Russian audience worked on the series. The production of the tape was done by Andrei Dzhunkovsky, known for his work on the TV series “Sweet Life”. Android Arisu played Paulina Andreeva ("Method", "Locust"), and the role of oligarch Viktor Toropov went to Alexander Ustyugov ("28 Panfilovites", "Golden People"). George Safronov played Kirill Kyaro (“Live”).

To reproduce in the film the world of the future with robots and all sorts of futuristic gadgets, the creators had to spend a lot of money on special effects. The budget of the series amounted to 320 million rubles.

Platinum-colored wig and special lenses helped to make Paulina Andreeva look like a robot. At the stage of post-production using computer processing the color of the lenses was made brighter, which gave the eyes an even more artificial look. For human-like machines, special clothing was also developed, different from the one worn by human characters.

  • © Shot from the series “Better than people”

A more complex make-up was needed in scenes where Ariza receives serious damage. To show the insides of the car on the screen, the authors had to spend a week casting parts, creating a layout and taking an impression from the actress’s face. The imposition of such makeup on the set took three hours.

However, even the most complex makeup can not perform for an actor his work. According to Andreeva, she had to work hard to become like an android.

“I tried to exist and delve into the material exactly like a robot. In order for this to work, the maximum concentration at the current time is important. The bot does not think in advance; it has no past and no future. Plus, there should be no breathing and blinking, ”she said. - I learned not to blink for a long time, not to breathe, I went home, imagining myself a robot. I also worked on the voice, changed the timbre, intonation. ”

Present in the film and more primitive robots of old models, which only the shape of the body resemble people. They were created without the help of computer graphics: the actors put on special costumes, and the production of their movements was handled by a guest choreographer, Maxim Yurov. According to him, in the course of the work he was inspired by the top breakdance, and some elements were borrowed from the film “I, the Robot”.

The series was filmed in Moscow from intervals from summer 2016 to autumn 2017. The filming took place, including on the 26th floor of the Moscow-City business center, in the Park Legends complex and Pavilion No. 70 at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements. Total creators scored material for two seasons of eight series each.