"It's just some kind of musical!" In the title, I somewhat changed the legendary phrase of Karabas-Barabas (Etush) from the equally legendary film The Adventures of Buratino (1974). Suddenly, an absolutely incredible connection between legend and modernity was revealed: “Buratino...” was a musical (on which the geniuses Rybnikov and Okudzhava worked), filmed by “Belarusfilm”. "Vocal and criminal ensemble" is also close to the musical (just in it the actors do not explicitly perform songs "to reveal the drama"), and it constantly and a lot of music, songs VIA of those years, and what composers! And, as it turned out, specially written and arranged for the "VIA of those years" compositions of Nikolai Kovalev (seemingly, the brother of the music producer of the series Mikhail Kovalev) "On the edge of the heart", "Soyuz-Apollo" and others, Anton Denev, Vladimir Malenko. All these “new-made” are performed by the leader-vocalist Vladislav Kosarev with the support of the group “Safe”. Finally, the series was filmed in the capital of Belarus Minsk, which Father Lukashenko did not let spoil with advertising and unthinkable skyscrapers, as was done with Moscow and my Voronezh. By the way, if you do not stop this trend, more or less “historical” Russian cinema will be shot entirely on a green / blue rag chromakey or on lousy plastic-cardboard scenery!
And a little bit more about the musical side of this series, because it's ... very important. Especially for me, then a schoolboy and music lover (this is then a singer-songwriter, composer). I recently re-read the curious “as if a story” of the leader of the first Russian-language Leningrad amateur rock band “St. Petersburg” Vladimir Rekshan “The High is Full” (for the first time, in abbreviated form, published in the journal “Neva” (1988); the first edition of the book -1992). Of course, Rekshan tells about the late 60s, early 70s, and about the “informal” party of those years and equally “informal” rock bands, underground antagonists of the then VIA. But, surprisingly, both of them had a lot in common, because they, at best, learned, and at worst, stylized / copied, and just “stripped” and the sound and manner of play from world-famous rock bands (if you don’t believe me – look / listen to “July morning” (1972) “Yurai Hipp” and compare with the subsequent creations of Soviet VIA, especially on the subject of “lay-la-la”!). Last but not least, the “musical” comments. Undoubtedly, the Soviet police also had their own departmental VIA. But with such "hairs" as in the series, only pure opera, working undercover, could play in them (as it happens!). Otherwise, a police cap with an old, curly "hair" looks ridiculous, as in all serial posters - sorry, but like a cow saddle! Yes, by the way, fashionable among the youth of the USSR in the 70s hippist "hair" (yes, just long hair in the guys) by the end of the same years came to naught and traditionally remained only with pop-rock musicians and subsequently with some "informals" (I myself as a stalk-rock bard Red Cucumber wore such a "hair" until 1992!).
.. I don't want any more criticism of our show. I watched it online a few days ago and it didn’t bother me. Of course, I expected something more from Mikhail Kozak, like Chaly in the TV series Legavy and Legavy-2, but he did not jump above the bar raised by the authors of the series ... The rest of the actors are, by and large, of little interest to me. As for the "cinemas", then they are not so much, and those small (thanks meticulous creators of the series). However! Supersinger Zolotolevsky could not be, as reported, a Hero of Socialist Labor! In the position of "music" then awarded people of the level of Shostakovich, Sviridov, Khrennikov, Ulanova, Zykina (and then later). Even Kobzon has not received such an award! And we have some pop star, which is not called in the Kremlin! Next. Out of nowhere, in the 15-16th series there are large musical fragments (or rather, the main musical theme) from the well-known documentary series of the same NTV “The Investigation was ...” with Leonid Kanevsky (started in 2006 and still). Is that -- chavo, axle? Nor is it convenient. The main character played by Nikita Volkov is good for a young actor. I don’t think he’s a good guitarist... That is why the director shoots the “opera” with a guitar in the 5th series because of the “shelters”, so that there were no noticeable worthless “fingers on strings” (nothing shameful, he shot!). It would be good to cut a short episode from the 7th series, in which the VM-12 VCR, produced in Voronezh from about 1982, is noticeable. But then the question arises about the actual Japanese prototype, which could be bought "for a bump" in the late 70s.
In general, the series “Vocal and Criminal Ensemble” deserves the rating “6” But I would add a couple of pluses...
6 out of 10