The spring equinox was three days ago, yet it still feels decidedly wintry on both sides of the pond, so cuddle up with a cuppa and binge-watch the Russian crime thriller Run!.
Over the past several few months I’ve been getting more into dramas from Eastern Europe, particularly Russia, and have found that shows such as The Method and Silver Spoon are as compelling as some of their Western European Euro TV counterparts.
Today I introduce you to another: Run! — an action-filled Russian crime thriller with twists and turns and a female Sherlock-esque detective.
In the four-part miniseries, computer programmer Dima (Pavel Priluchni, Silver Spoon, Freud’s Method) has created an autonomous operating system named Abie, which his brother Artyom is pitching to a potential buyer. The married Dima and friends Pasha (Sergei Kolos, Takaya rabota), an ex-con, and Matvei, a lawyer, are basically broke and need the money from the sale of Abie. Only Artyom decides not to sell, despite the offer of 1.5 million rubles. Then he’s murdered. And the flash drive with the code for the OS is missing.
Arrested for the homicide is Dima, who was found at the scene of the crime with the gun in his hand, but he can’t remember what happened. Did he really kill his brother? In prison thugs beat him up about the flash drive, and an anonymous postcard sender makes a thinly veiled threat against Varya (Svetlana Smirnova-Martsinkevich, Obratnaya storona Luny), Dima’s wife, and the life of the couple’s unborn child, if Dima doesn’t divulge where the flash drive is. Only he doesn’t know.
Now Dima needs to escape prison in order to protect his wife, find the flash drive, and end this nightmare. So he does, with some inside help. Unexpected help comes on the outside from a Captain Markin (Denis Shvedov, Silver Spoon, The Method), as cops pursue Dima. But Markin’s assistance raises more questions than it answers.
Meanwhile, Pasha starts putting the moves on Varya, the woman he loves but lost to Dima. And Lt. Col. Alla Vladimirovna Kirilenko (Ekaterina Rednikova, Archangel, The Thief) and Vaksin (Ivan Zhidkov, Dark World, Chernaya Molniya), her Watson, are investigating a murder at the airport in St. Petersburg when they learn of the prison break and another killing in a village just 20 kilometres away. Coincidence? There are no coincidences.
At roughly three hours total, Run! is an easy, one-evening binge-watch. It’s a worthwhile one, too; it keeps you guessing as it keeps your adrenaline running. And the character of Alla Vladimirovna is fabulous, with her spot-on skills in inductive reasoning and flashes of humor.
Run! is currently streaming on both sides of the pond on Amazon Prime & Instant Video US and Amazon Prime & Instant Video UK.
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