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Luchshe, Chem Lyudi 6
Better Than Us 6
Russia 2018
produced by Andrey Dzhunkovskiy, Eduard Iloyan, Alexander Kessel, Vitaliy Shlyappo, Ruslan Sorokin, Mikhail Tkachenko, Aleksey Trotsyuk, Denis Zhalinskiy for Yellow, Black & White/Netflix
directed by Andrey Dzhunkovskiy
starring Paulina Andreeva, Kirill Käro, Aleksandr Ustyugov, Olga Lomonosova, Eldar Kalimulin, Vitaliya Kornienko, Vera Panfilova, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Fyodor Lavrov, Sergey Sosnovskiy, Kirill Polukhin, Pavel Vorozhtsov, Irina Tarannik, Viktoriya Korlyakova, Aleksandra Ursulyak, Alexei Zakharov, Denis Burgazliev, Ksenia Kubasova
created by Alexander Kessel, written by Alexander Dagan, Asya Guseva
TV series Better Than Us
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The fact that Georgy (Kirill Käro) and family are the new poster
family for super bot Arisa (Paulina Andreeva) leaves nobody cold, least of
all Svetlana Toropova (Irina Tarannik), wife of Cronos Corporation head
Victor (Aleksandr Ustyugov), as Georgy was the surgeon who
"lost" their son on the operating table a few years back, and
she has held a grudge against him ever since. So she plans to sabotage her
husband's roll-out - with the help of Victor's right-hand man Igor (Pavel
Vorozhtsov). And regarding the roll-out: Due to the screw up at the
presentation to the minister [last
episode], Arisa is no longer the only superbot model the
gouvernment's considering, with the best bot chosen in a talent-show like
TV series. And Svetlana wants to be part of that. Meanwhile Gleb (Fyodor
Lavrov), Victor's muscle, is revealed to be the man behind the
Liquidators, a terrorist organisation fighting all bots, but he has only
created them to marginalize all those who oppose androids. But Bars
(Aleksandr Kuznetsov), leader of the Liquidators, doesn't like to be on
Gleb's leash, and now that Egor (Eldar Kalimulin), Georgy's son, is in the
Arisa TV spot, he lures him back to the Liquidators - using his sister
Jeanne (Vera Panfilova) as bait - to get his hands on Arisa. Alla (Olga
Lononosova), Georgy's ex in the meantime finds it too suffocating to have
to live with him again, but all her attempts to escape are thwarted, at
times also by Arisa, who starts to control the family more and more, so
much so that even Georgy's a bit freaked out. But what freaks him out more
is the information he gets from suspended inspector Varlamov's (Kirill
Polukhin) partner Irina (Viktoriya Korlyakova) about his new employer
Victor ... While the first few episodes of Better Than Us
convinced with brilliant storytelling where each episode had its own
narrative arc and contributed to the whole, this one's a bit of a mess as
it sets up too much and brings hardly anything to an actual end. That's
not to say the episode's a disaster, it still works fine within the
framework of the series, just taken by itself it's an over-convoluted mess
- but one that will keep one wanting for more at least.
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