“We put together the Jubilee, damn it. Great, like a campaign, we got it, ”the drunk Mikhail“ Pot ”Gorshenev shouts (Konstantin Plotnikov)The soloist of “The King and the Jester” in the middle of the dressing room, which he demolished in the corridors of the St. Petersburg sports complex. Soon, he’ll be vagrantly going to the rain-soaked roof to fill a small need while simultaneously trying to put a bullet in his career. Hallucinatory Hell Jester (Evgeny Tkachuk)the revived logo of the group will encourage the musician to “take this eternity by the horns”, and Andrey “Prince” Knyazev is worried (Vlad Konoplev), the second leader of “Kisha” will take on the role of an angel on the shoulder of a comrade and persuade him to stay a little longer in the world of the living. After that, Pot will live 14 years. In the same place – in Yubileiny, a civil memorial service will be held for him.
During the emotional strife of the rooftop artists, the action of the series will jump randomly on key parts of this strange fairy tale, which is almost a quarter of a century old: the first concert in Moscow, the acquaintance of Gorshk and Prince, the choice of name at the restoration school (the gloomy “Office” no longer suits anyone, in the final there are only two options left) : “King of Jokers” and “King and Jester”). Then another will open in the series – “Kisha” – a fantastic adventure in the universe of scary fairy tales. But this story from the “king’s world” will not be so much the opposite of the “clown” biography. In it, two friends, Pot and Knyaz, will meet the same vicious vampires and junglers, instead of the brutal “aggression”, but the heroes will still dream of the same musical Olympus. By the way, the biography itself does not hesitate to sometimes turn into a fairy tale, and will, for example, try to convince us that the song “Forester” can not only stop the brewing struggle between new Russians in raspberry jackets and bikers in leather jackets. , but also get them started by cuddling in a dance.
This is all understandable and an interesting idea on paper: to convey on the screen not only the history of the group, but also the Gogol-Lovecraftian world that it invented with chilling tales about wizards, goblins, goblins, zombies, mages, ghouls and other people living in gloomy castles and cursed old houses. heroes and villains. However, contrary to the press release, “the fantasy elements <…> A neat touch to the dramatic story of The King and the Jester, the first two episodes of the show leave a rather sloppy impression: as if a playful spirit had entered the TV remote and changed channels according to the mood. One by one, they show a pretty good rock drama adapted to Hollywood standards and strongly reminiscent of Danny Boyle’s recent “Pistol” (onscreen Pot and Prince, onscreen Sex Pistols leaders Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones, respectively). Something else is happening in Kinopoisk, a so-called “punk fairy tale”, a fascinating film adaptation of the “Kisha” texts. I’d really love to see both, but don’t get confused: a product with a 2-in-1 formula rarely turns out well, whether it’s instant coffee or a Russian line.
However, even in such a strange mistake one can find some charm. In the end, the same duality and conflict is already ingrained in the name of the band, which tries to stay itself until the end and reinvent itself, changing the prefixes to the word “punk” like gloves: “horror-” and “folk-” with “hardcore-” and “art”. -” between. In addition, there are still some very successful ones in The King and the Jester (TV series). Plotnikov and Konoplev looks like a big cast win. Especially the first one: this is his first major role and to his credit he just plays and doesn’t parody Gorshenev’s eccentricity. Live performances are filmed in the same way that live performances are filmed – you can feel the producer participation of Igor “Panker” Gudkov, who shot three concert films for “Kisha”. Flashbacks from the ’80s and ’90s are stylized as movies of the ’80s and ’90s, very convincingly. The arrangements of the songs “The King and the Jester” were lovingly adapted into medieval fantasy by the younger brother of the leader of “Kukryniksy” Alexei Gorshenev Gorshka. Finally, the show draws with sincere love: Andrey Knyazev actively participated in the work on the project, so the longing for a departed friend often comes from the screen, and at the end of the credits there is a touching appeal to those who are not. indifferent (“A big THANK YOU to all true fans of Korol i Shut group PUNKY, HOY!”).
“What would Gogol call that?” It is difficult to say what Gorshenev’s response to the TV series “The King and the Jester” will be, but if we are guided by the words of his on-screen incarnation about the essence of anarchism (“Everyone lives, flies, dammit” he cuts wisdom?”), Perhaps too much swearing You can leave some space to hope it doesn’t. “The vagrants, hoy!” – and thanks for that.