Kriminalnoe — revered: the best Russian dramas and thrillers about the dashing decades

The TV series about Kazan youth groups "The Word of a Kid" in 2024 once set a trend on the theme of dashing decades. The filmmakers responded generously to the audience's request and presented a whole series of crime thrillers and dramas that were different from each other in terms of plot and mood. The audience's reaction confirms that it was not in vain. The projects have found a place in the top 100 Russian TV series ratings for 2025, which was previously published by Medialogia. Based on it, Izvestia selected the top 5 stories about the decline of the USSR and the new Russian Federation.

Outsourcing, 8th place

Directed by Dusan Gligorov. Starring: Ivan Yankovsky, Eldar Kalimulin, Danil Steklov, Vitaly Kovalenko, Dmitry Sumin, Leonid Telezhinsky, Mila Yershova, Karina Alexandrova, Dasha Kotreleva, Daria Savelyeva.

Dusan Gligorov's work thundered even before the premiere in February 2025. The project was first shown in September 2024 at the New Season festival, where Outsourcing won the main prize as the most anticipated series. It is based on Denis Dragunsky's short story "The Daughter of a military pensioner."

Photo: Okko

The action takes place in 1996 in the gloomy scenery of the Far Eastern special purpose prison. A new employee, Kostya, played by Ivan Yankovsky, is being transferred there. A hero with a heightened sense of justice decides to outsource the execution of the death penalty: the victims' loved ones can take revenge on the criminals and execute the sentence for money.

— This is a conversation with the audience. My previous roles were based on the same thing — "Fisher", "The Boy's Word". I have a lot of works that try to pull a sore point out of the viewer and build some kind of dialogue with him on this basis," Ivan Yankovsky, the lead actor, explained to Izvestia during the Moscow premiere of the series.

Where to watch: Okko

Fischer, 10th place

Directed by Alexander Tsoi (second season). Starring: Ivan Yankovsky, Irina Starshenbaum, Alexander Yatsenko, Nikita Khudyakov, Andrey Maksimov, Dasha Vereshchagina, Alexey Agranovich, Alexandra Child.

Another top project with Ivan Yankovsky. In "Fischer," he plays investigator Evgeny Bokov from Rostov-on-Don. The first season is based on the biography of serial killer Sergei Golovkin, who has been operating in the Moscow Region since the late 1980s.

Photo: Art Pictures Vision

In the sequel, released in 2025, Fisher (the nickname of the maniac) finds himself behind bars awaiting the death penalty, and Bokov begins the hunt for a new psychopath.

— Of course, this is a rather complicated spectacle, not an entertaining story. Unfortunately, since this happened recently and there are many people who still have it, both the parents of the victims and the survivors, I would not like to talk about a real criminal case. But this is a story that happened in Russia in 1994. We were advised, as in the previous season, by Valery Kostarev, a serious investigator who led this case, too," Sergei Kalvarsky, producer and screenwriter of the project, told Izvestia.

Where to watch: Wink

"Dashing", 17th place

Directed by Yuri Bykov. Starring: Artem Bystrov, Egor Kenzhametov, Evgeny Tkachuk, Anna Zavtur, Polina Maksimova, Elena Nikolaeva, Philip Yankovsky, Gela Meskhi, Askar Ilyasov, Anna Kotova, Ivan Dobronravov.

The saga of Yuri Bykov is also based on real events — the history of the organized criminal group Obshchak, which has been operating in the Far East since the mid-1980s. In the center is the rise and fall of the Likhovtsev family in the criminal world.

An ordinary huntsman performed by Artyom Bystrov becomes a killer for the sake of his family, but it is this decision that will ruin the family. The authors managed to avoid romanticizing the era.

Photo: Okko

— The artwork itself is largely based on real events. There is a lot of work here by the screenwriter Oleg Malovichko, who met with the direct participants of these events. The story is not easy, but I wanted to dissect it in order to deal with this unpleasant past once and for all, so that I would not want to return to it, so that I would not want to compete with it, compete, and build a normal future," said Okko general producer Gavriil Gordeev.

Where to watch: Okko, Start

"Children of Change", 43rd place

Directed by Lyubov Lvova and Sergey Taramaev. Starring: Victoria Isakova, Slava Kopeikin, Makar Khlebnikov, Khetag Khinchagov, Sergey Gilev, Konstantin Plotnikov, Danil Steklov, Marietta Tsigal-Polishchuk.

The first season was released at the turn of 2024-2025 and accurately answered the viewer's request for projects in the spirit of "The Boy's Word". However, there is a different plot here — the story of one family, which contains the drama of an entire generation.

Photo: NMG Studio

The 1990s. Illegal business is flourishing, and criminal gangs are in power. Adjacent to this world is one of Flora's sons, who lives on a modest salary as a trolleybus driver. He climbs to the top of the hierarchy, but life "by concepts" ruins the family. To pick up her pieces, Flora herself goes over to the bandits' side. The sequel was released in early 2026.

— We started calling the second season "gangster Gothic" among ourselves. There's a Gothic mood there," director Sergei Taramaev told Izvestia. — The mood is changing towards cruelty. The drama unfolds against the backdrop of a family war. The injury here is the inability to rely on anything. It's hard to get rid of it when there's no support, when you don't know what's going to happen to you tomorrow. This is a very difficult psychological situation. How to live, how to make money, how to start a family — at that time it was in a zone of complete unpredictability.

Where to watch: Start, Wink

"Comeback", 57th place

Directed by: Dinar Garipov. Starring: Alexander Petrov, Alexey Chadov, Vasilisa Korostyshevskaya, Illarion Marov, Khetag Khinchagov.

"Comeback" presented, perhaps, the most unexpected screen image of Sasha Petrov, a homeless man nicknamed Kompot, who does not remember his past and lives in the basement. After he helps a group of teenagers, they decide to help him get himself back.

— They don't pass by, but try to help him get his life back and give him an amazing chance to live two lives — an old one and a new one. After all, it's like he's starting all over again — building himself up differently, not knowing what he was like before. And the question arises: who will you become when you find out what you really were? This intrigue — the clash of two inner selves of a person, past and present — is incredibly fascinating," director Dinar Garipov explained the idea.

Photo: Legio Felix

For nostalgia for the 2000s, where the action takes place, the echoes of time collected by the authors in the screensavers for the series are responsible: news chronicles, excerpts from "Wait for Me" and "The Last Hero", musical hits like "About Love" by the Fabrika group and "I will Die Young" by Mr. Small.

Where to watch: Kinopoisk