2023-10-19 23:42:37
An autistic mathematician with a phenomenal memory and a colossal IQ, Mikhail Alexandrovich (Ilya Malanin from “The Heart of Parma” and “Tobol”) must urgently get rich in order to pay for his son’s treatment. A new acquaintance, a scammer who gets thrown under cars, also gave me a great idea on how to make money without leaving the chalkboard. Sports betting is pure mathematics! Together with the students, Mikhail Aleksandrovich meticulously calculated the likely outcome of the next football match. And he even set up some things – within the law, although in a moral gray area. But the match still ends up going contrary to predictions when an unaccounted variable intervenes in the game – the bookmaker mafia. Mikhail Alexandrovich does not know how to get angry, but he knows how to take revenge. And declares war on the mafia.
The title of the series clearly refers to The Big Bang Theory. The new project from the original line of the video service “Ivy” (all eight episodes are available to subscribers from October 19) is related to the cult sitcom by the main character. Like Sheldon Cooper, Mikhail Aleksandrovich is brilliant, but socially awkward and generally resembles a robot who does not very successfully pass himself off as a person. The question is not only about plasticity and manner of speech, although there are interesting findings here too: Malanin is unemotional, but insinuating and can successfully voice the male version of a smart speaker. The rationality of a machine differs from the rationality of a person – in other words, in standard situations, a character like Sheldon or Mikhail Alexandrovich often behaves in the most non-standard way. This “break of the pattern” is the source of the humor of both “Theories”, although it was the series “Evie” that did not become a pure comedy. More like an ironic detective story.
Actually, the best episode from the point of view of dramaturgy is already in the first episode. Mikhail Alexandrovich learns that his 13-year-old son Kirill (Leonid Basov from Palma) will soon die from a rare genetic disease. A common human reaction is that the father will try to save the child. But the hero reacts differently. Having calculated in his mind the likelihood of Kirill’s recovery (it is quite low), as well as the cost of treatment (extremely high), Mikhail Alexandrovich downloads a dating app and goes on dates. In his grid of coordinates – what is not a way out of the situation? After all, who is the son? Carrier of the genome. But since this particular offspring cannot pass on the genome further, another woman must be convinced to become the mother of the new offspring. Only having suffered a natural fiasco in flirting, Mikhail Alexandrovich switches to ethically acceptable behavior: he decides to save his son and comes up with a plan with stakes.
/press-service «Ivi»
True, in the next seven episodes the patterns are broken less and less often. In addition to the controversial hero, the series also promises a tour behind the scenes of the bookmaking business, but this point of the program is already completed by the end of the third episode. We will learn how sports administration merges with crime and with the help of what simple techniques the results of matches are rigged. And then the usual, hastily staged crime plot about thieves and policemen begins.
“The Theory of Big Money” is the second series of Andrey Zolotarev’s Iney Productions, implemented as part of the first look deal with “Ivy” (this means that the video service had the right of priority in selecting projects developed by Iney Productions; the contract was valid in 2021–2023). The first result of their collaboration was the 2022 hit, the mystical medical drama “Clinical 13.” Zolotarev is one of the most successful screenwriters in the country (his name appears in the credits of “Attraction”, “Ghost”, “Sputnik” and “The Master of the Wind”, which is in cinemas). And in “Big Money Theory” he acted not only as a co-producer, but also as a co-writer of the script. But the streaming fever is taking its toll: the assembly line has simplified complex characters and a potentially interesting plot into the primitiveness of gangster TV series.
It’s especially a pity for the main character, well played by Malanin – after the premiere of the first episode at the “Pilot” festival in June of this year (the series was then called “Head Game”), the actor was noted in almost every review. The gradual “humanization” of Mikhail Alexandrovich, the awakening of elementary feelings – this arc could have easily withstood more than one season, but it was overshadowed by criminal intrigue. The transformation of character is outlined only in strokes – here the mathematician, without a shadow of a doubt, blackmails students in order to get their help, or imitates tears over the grave of his aquarium fish (“cries” not because he suffers, but because “that’s how it’s supposed to be”). And then suddenly, out of the blue, he still begins to have compassion.
In principle, “The Theory of Big Money” is not difficult to imagine on television, if not for the sex scenes, which become more and more numerous as the action progresses. At the end of the season, the viewer will see literally every actress half-naked, with the possible exception of cameos. In a word, “The Theory of Big Money” is the case when you want to see a remake as soon as possible.
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