I recently stumbled upon a Soviet TV series called 'Big Change' where a history teacher named Nester Petrovich comes to teach at a night school. When I saw that a new series called 'Night School' was airing on STS, I thought it might be something similar to the Soviet version but with a more modern twist.
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SHORT DESCRIPTION
A patrol officer named Dimon is forced to go back to school to get his high school diploma and keep his job. Along with him, people of different ages and backgrounds come to the night school for various reasons. They relive familiar school experiences: the first bad grade, the first fight, and of course, the first kiss.
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GENERAL INFORMATION
RELEASE DATE: January 12, 2026
GENRE: Comedy
COUNTRY: Russia
DIRECTOR: Zhanna Kadnikova
NUMBER OF EPISODES: 16
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IMPRESSIONS FROM WATCHING
I was immediately struck by the fact that this series doesn't feature any well-known professional actors. It's just a bunch of newcomers and amateur actors.
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The main characters include Deputy Headmaster Nikita Sergeyevich and the head of the night school, Dmitry Sokolov from 'Ural Pelmeni'. To be honest, I don't like 'Ural Pelmeni', but I do know this actor, and he's always the same everywhere. In this film, it feels like he's just reading his lines.
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I'm not sure what Ilya Sobolev was thinking after 'Volshebnyi Uchastok', but he must have thought he was a big-time actor or the people who cast him in this movie thought so too. I'm not seeing much acting from him here. He plays Dimon, a PPP employee who's sent back to school because his boss found out he didn't have the right certification.
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Honestly, the reasons why the characters in this movie are back in school in the 21st century are pretty ridiculous. Like, there's a grandma who wants to help her grandkids with their homework because she remembers the school curriculum from when she was in school. Or a former model who wants to go back to school because she's feeling left out. It's like they took every excuse they could think of and put them all together in one big, messy group.
Vladimir, the model, is played by Natalya Borisova. I've never seen her before, but apparently she's a big deal - she's a host on a comedy show called 'Zhenskii Forum'.
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The bus driver, Kseniya Korneva, is also an actress from 'Ural'skie Pelmenni'.
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Pavel, the ex-con, is played by Ilya Makarov, who's also a comedian and a KVN participant. I'm not really up on my KVN, so this is the first time I've seen him act.
Ilya Andreyevich Makarov, also known as Makar, is a Russian comedian, KVN participant, blogger, and host on the show 'Chto Bylo Dal'she'.
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And, of course, there's a migrant thrown in for good measure.
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I was really disappointed with the decision to cast non-professional actors. The main characters just blend together into an uninteresting, uneducated mess.
As for the teachers, I was underwhelmed by the performance of Anastasia Resnik, the English teacher, and her daughter, who also happens to be the daughter of Nikita Sergeyevich. It's clear that their hobby is making cheese - they love to cook it together.
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I've read that this project is from the creators of 'Real Patsans', but I think they're worlds apart in terms of quality. 'Real Patsans' was actually funny, while this show is just a mess.
The humor level is toilet-like, and even the screenshot of one of the scenes, where Sobolev's character speaks English and there's a translation on the screen, confirms that.
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Each episode is 25 minutes long, which feels like an eternity.
I have no idea who this show is aimed at, but it's definitely not for me. There's no coherent storyline, no decent acting, and I just can't understand the point of this project.
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