thoughts on heated rivalry from a russian speaker with parents who grew up in the ussr
connor storrie's russian is possibly the best i have ever heard from a north american actor. endless kudos to him and his dialect coach. he didn't get everything right - there were many instances where he put the wrong emphasis on certain syllables - but he did a really really really good job and was understandable the whole time and i applaud his effort.
i want to make it abundantly clear that i have nothing against ksenia daniela kharlamova. i think she is lovely, as is svetlana vetrova. that being said i could have much more easily stomached the astronomically low odds that ilya grew up with a half black best friend in moscow (yes, yes, svetlana's dad is a russian athlete who presumably married an african american woman, thus how svetlana has dual citizenship, but the fact remains that as of 2022 black people make up 0.03% of russia's population) if the show even once acknowledged svetlana's race and the impact that would have had on her growing up. literally One Line about her and ilya's deep friendship being partially because they are both Othered in russian society (ilya being queer, svetlana being half black) would have been acceptable. even growing up rich with a famous father does not mean she would have never experienced discrimination. of course given that heated rivalry was hesitant to really acknowledge shane being asian the lack of focus on svetlana's race did not surprise me. but it did disappoint me and took me out of the story.
where were the diminutives!!!!! why were ilya and svetlana only ever ilya and svetlana to each other!!!! best friends since childhood and ilya NEVER called her 'sveta' or 'lana' or 'svetachka'???? NO ONE called ilya 'ilyusha'???? as you may imagine that drove me insane.
you know what else drove me insane? the subtitles. why were they constantly adding cursing to the translated russian dialogue where there was none spoken???? first time in my life i have seen subtitles based on vibes.
i do applaud the show for understanding how russian last names work and making svetlana's last name vetrova and not vetrov (cough cough marvel with natasha)
when shane asked if he should take his shoes off and ilya said no i was like WHAT RUSSIANS RAISED YOU!!!!! shoes OFF tapochki ON!!!!!!!!!!!
i am aware that ilya probably made shane a tuna melt in ep4 because he thought that's what shane would want. that being said there is no born and raised russian man on this planet whose first instinct post hookup would be to make a tuna melt. he would make eggs. fry potatoes. boil some sausages. put out some bread and tomatoes and salami and cheese and make open faced sandwiches. pelmeni! selyodka! kotleti! grechnavaya kasha! caviar (he can definitely afford black) on black bread with butter! and where was the TEA!!!!! does he even own a kettle!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i understand this show had a budget of five canadian dollars and a dream but there is no fucking way a russian would live in a house without sour cream or kefir immediately visible in the fridge. those are STAPLES.
