In the golden age of television, given hyperproduction and until recently an unimaginably wide selection of content, it is increasingly difficult to find a police series that does not evoke a sort of "déjà vu". That does not mean the authors of the genre aren't trying. In that regard, lately few have gone as far as the creators of Mazhor, a Russian TV series whose title is best translated as "Golden Boy". The series, which began in 2014 and whose initial plot in its idea is closer to parody or a Latin American telenovela, has managed to reach four seasons, three standalone feature films and South Korean remake Flex X Cop. That success has even reached Netflix, which has offered the series to an international audience under the English title "Silver Spoon".
The titular protagonist is Igor Vladimirovich Sokolovsky (Pavel Priluchny), a young member of Moscow's "golden youth" whose life revolves almost entirely around nightlife and who has absolutely no financial or other worries. However, his father, the influential oligarch Vladimir Yakovlevich Sokolovsky (Alexander Dyachenko), is increasingly dissatisfied with his son's lifestyle, and that dissatisfaction culminates when Igor, during a night-time race of furious cars, clashes with two policemen. The incident represents the last straw, and the father decides to teach his son a lesson, using a previously obtained law degree diploma. Igor is given an ultimatum – he must join the police and serve a year as a detective, otherwise he will be disinherited. Igor rather reluctantly agrees, and his suspicions that it might not be the best idea are confirmed when upon arriving at the station he discovers that his colleagues – Lieutenant Danila "Danya" Korolyov (Denis Shvedov) and Lieutenant Yevgeny "Zhenya" Oblasov (Alexander Oblasov) – are precisely the two policemen he had clashed with. A deep enmity immediately arises between them, which will be further fuelled by the fact that Korolyov is in a romantic relationship with Captain Viktoria "Vika" Radionova (Karina Razumovskaya) and becomes pathologically jealous of the young man accustomed to solving all problems by reaching into his seemingly bottomless wallet. The investigative team, however, eventually does begin to do its proper work and Igor, over time, partly out of defiance, partly out of an effort to prove himself to his father, begins to turn into a more or less efficient policeman. His professional experience also prompts him to start investigating the death of his mother who, in the 1990s while he was a child, perished under suspicious circumstances linked to his father's shady dealings.
Screenwriter Alexander Shcherbakov requires a considerable suspension of disbelief from the viewer, not only because there are rare cases in the real world where rich and influential fathers would try to discipline their profligate sons by shoving them into police offices. The amount of coincidence needed to create complications for the protagonist, which he tries to solve, usually with not the most impressive results, is such that the viewer will very quickly get the impression of watching an episode of a soap opera that the authors are trying to deliberately prolong with ever more bizarre subplots and new characters. That impression, admittedly, is partially offset by the narrative structure which combines individual criminal cases solved per episode with the main plot. That is also an opportunity for Shcherbakov to show some creativity in certain cases, creating one-off but in some instances quite memorable villains. The basic plot, however, develops in a way that seriously compromises the fundamental concept, turning the protagonist's father, who should be some kind of capable and cunning "player", into someone who neglected an important detail in the plan to discipline Igor. All this ultimately leads to a desperately melodramatic and rather predictable finale which, of course, comes in the form of an irritating cliffhanger.
That does not mean everything in Silver Spoon is bad. The direction by Konstantin Statsky skilfully overcomes budget limitations and creates a strong contrast between the world of the wealthy to which his protagonist belongs and the world of ordinary mortals like his colleagues. The acting is relatively good, even when it comes to thankless roles like that of the protagonist. Pavel Priluchny tries to give a convincing transformation from an arrogant spoiled brat to a more or less efficient policeman, although the screenwriter, who made his character largely unsympathetic, has created serious and often insurmountable obstacles in that regard. The same is true of Denis Shvedov as his rival, while Alexander Oblasov was unable to utilise the potential of his character, obviously conceived as a sort of comic relief. The only character viewers might truly sympathise with is Vika, but the performance of Karina Razumovskaya, who approaches it with deadly seriousness without almost ever smiling on screen, only emphasises the fundamental problem of Silver Spoon. The series had an original idea, but poor execution, or rather authors who were afraid that using humour would make the audience not take them seriously.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)
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