Following the apparent suicide of a young teacher at a school in St Petersburg policeman Igor Andreevich Kryuko is called into investigate. He soon starts to suspect that all is not as it seems; a student in her class had died in an accident and the school principal, who was the dead student's father, died shortly afterwards. Kryuko becomes certain that the class knows more than they are telling him; particularly the charismatic Michail 'Bark' Barkovskiy, who is their de facto leader. Most of the class are involved in beta testing a new rule-free computer game called 'Sparta' which may be affecting their behaviour. As the series progresses secrets are revealed, concerning students, parents and teachers.
I really enjoyed this Russian series. It set up several good mysteries early on; not only do we have the school deaths there is also the opening flash forward which shows Kryuko being released from prison so are left wondering what will lead to him ending up there. The tone is often dark, especially as we see Bark manipulating his classmates and them turning on their teachers in various ways. That isn't to say there is no humour in the series; notably scenes between Kryuko and his pathologist friend. The cast does a fine job; especially Artyom Tkachenko and Alexander Petrov as Kryuko and Bark respectively. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of a good mystery wanting a different setting.
These comments are based on watching the series in Russian with English subtitles.
