I did not think it possible to come up with a Police procedural drama series with a difference, but Mazhor, (Silver Spoon in English) has done so. A drama with comedy undertones, set in modern Moscow as a wealthy young playboy. Igor, arrested for street racing while on drugs is saved from a lengthy prison sentence by his powerful father who sends him to work in a police department (straight in to the detective bureau, no police academy. His arrival is resented by everyone from the chief down - but what can they do - his father is a very powerful man. The police captain is a beautiful woman who is close to another officer, and the arrival of the rich entitled new boy stirs up jealousy among the working stiffs - need I say more? It does not help that Igor has no idea that other people actually work for a living and cannot buy their way out of every problem.
Some things may surprise viewers raised on cold war tales of severe hardship and privations in Russia. Apartments are large, even for sewer cleaners, no queues for food and necessities, it is always glorious summer (we may see snow later in the series) everyone has a cell phone and I-pad, young people spend their days and nights at the clubs, and many characters drink at least a bottle of whisky or vodka a day straight from the bottle and often in one go! Igor, the main character is played by a handsome permanently tanned actor with a gift for comedy and entitlement swagger. Overall, the series is a welcome change from the routine hard ass feminist policewoman going it her own way, quarreling with her supervisor and all the other officers, yet in many ways it is still formulaic and by the numbers - the Russian setting puts a fresh coat of paint on an old routine. How long before police dramas go the way of the Westerns? ?
