Everyone Is Waiting for You

DAILY ON THE COUNTRY’S MAIN CHANNEL: THE TV SERIES “HOUSE OF OWLISH BREEDS” Live broadcasts before the program “Time” and 24/7 streaming on the Internet: follow the life of Count Aleksey Orlov—an Отечественной war hero—LIVE, IN REAL TIME! A no-good, second-rate actor gets a fairy-tale offer: “the role of a lifetime.” Now he’s a count in 1830—beautiful ladies, cavalry guards, frock coats and white dresses, mazurkas, duels, the first ball of Natasha Rostova, Pushkin, and all that. It’s much cozier here than in the murky 2022: wife, son, worries, debts—somewhere out there, far away… …But it only takes a few days in the TV center to feel the strange stillness, lifelessness. Even the air in Ostankino is empty, like distilled water. You can’t breathe it in… What should we call this genre sandwich? A costume melodrama, also a family saga, plus… a n e x i s t e n t i a l t h r i l l e r. CONTINUE AFTER THE AD? ANTON PONIZOVSKY—author of the novels “An Attempt to Turn into Sound” and “Prince in Disguise,” a finalist of the “Big Book” prize.