Quote Originally Posted by rockzmom
somehow made a t.v. series from that short miniseries.
Well, there almost wasn't such thing as "TV series" in Western sense of the word on the Soviet TV. They tended to view such things as very long movies, rather than a category in itself.

The only non-animated exception I can think of is "Следствие Ведут ЗнаТоКи" but even that show wasn't quite something one would call "TV series" nowadays.

And, to be frank... Seing what they did in the sequels(, I'm glad no one tried to make a real series from this.

( I won't even name them. As far as I'm concerned, the sequels never happened. Of course, it's in part because they take place decades later, so no post-war Moscow, no Zheglov and (although he was in the books series were based on) SPOILER on the "meeting": no General Sharapov, who was replaced by a "generic general." Heck, there goes half the best lines from the books. Why Mosfilm, WHY? And that heavily implied sex scene. That never happened in the books FOR A REASON, not because Vayner brothers were prudes. And speaking of that, where is the "Your gun? In a handbag? How... Weird. Women shall not carry guns in their handbags. No, not that, no one should need a gun ever!" moment? /Says a cop to his partner, whom he secretly loves. Or does he? We're never told, unlike the movies. And sorry for me not remembering and translating the lines exactly. / Actors are overacting as if they're on the stage, not on the movie set all the time. Or they don't act at all.

Ok. Must. Stop. Ranting. It's just that such a good movie had such an uninspired sequels...