On August 17 at 8:00 PM, the TNT channel will premiere the comedy series “Maloy” (Little One), produced by 1-2-3 Production. In the story, Sasha, an excellent student at the Ministry of Internal Affairs Academy, travels to the fictional city of Yugodonsk to find the father he’s never met. Instead of the legendary operative he’s spent years imagining, he encounters Maly (Little One), a police officer accustomed to living by his own rules and turning a blind eye to minor infractions for the sake of peace in the city. The lead roles are played by Vladimir Yaglych, Timofey Kochnev, and Nastasya Samburskaya.

The series’ creators told HELLO! how they searched for the actors, why Yaglych and Kochnev immediately developed the necessary chemistry, and why Nastasya Samburskaya, who had long been acquainted with director Ivan Makarevich, was cast almost immediately. And it must be admitted: the actress played superbly, once again giving the audience a bright and charismatic heroine.

Not just about the police

The story of “Maloy” began not with a police station, but with the eternal conflict between fathers and children. It was important for the authors to place two characters with opposing views in an environment where they would have to clash every day and constantly defend their principles.

We wanted to place the characters in a very conflictual environment – a bright one, one where the clash occurs almost immediately. We thought: where could they clash daily, and in such a way that this clash would be aggressive? There are not many such environments—for example, sports, the police. We chose the police because it is a relatable and vivid story, where the heroes can defend their ideals every day, say the creators of the series.

At the same time, the series is not so much about the service and investigations, but about family history—the everyday life of the service serves as the background here. The police station in “Maloy” is a separate world with its own rules, relationships, and heroes, which Sasha gradually enters. Here he will not only have to get to know the father he never knew, but also learn to accept people who live completely differently from what is written in textbooks.

Nastasya Samburskaya sings a song by Irina Allegrova

One of the musical surprises of “Maloy” is a new version of Irina Allegrova’s hit “Junior Lieutenant” performed by Nastasya Samburskaya. The idea belonged to director Ivan Makarevich, who has known the actress for a long time and especially appreciates her powerful, but at the same time very feminine voice. According to him, Samburskaya was immediately enthusiastic about the offer, and recording the song was a special pleasure for the entire team.

Makarevich and Samburskaya met during their studies: in 2007, they were both expelled from Konstantin Raikin’s course, and later graduated together from GITIS. Years later, they managed to meet on the same set.

However, “Junior Lieutenant” isn’t the only musical focus of the series. Almost the entire original soundtrack was written specifically for “Maloy” by composer Alexander Shyolkov, including the song “Maloy, You’re the Only One Like This.”

“Maloy” or “Cops”?

The series originally had a different title, “Cops.” According to the creators, it didn’t reflect the main themes of the project. The series is based on completely different issues: the conflict between fathers and children, life foundations and principles. The creators didn’t want to make the police the core of the story, so they soon changed the title to the main character’s nickname, Maloy (Sergei Maltsev), around whom all the events unfold. The director and screenwriter sought to convey to the viewers the importance of family and moral principles, so the series intertwines both drama and comedy.

Characters in detail

The authors of the series not only worked out the storylines of the secondary characters, which are really interesting to watch, but also carefully thought out their surroundings and habits.

For example, the character of Alexei Zolotovitsky – Boris – has dolphin knights on his monitor screensaver. Only a well-read and erudite viewer—like the kindly “geek” Borya himself—will notice this reference.

Sasha’s mother (Evgeniya Turkova) not only looks cute, but also has a cute habit: she constantly eats candy when Sasha tries to talk to her about something important. It’s as if the heroine hides behind the sweets when she’s nervous.

And department head Gorynych (Boris Kamorzin), despite his imposing appearance and intimidating position, is very sensitive to his “tomatoes” and peas, which he grows with great love and doesn’t allow anyone to touch them.

I think the value of details is precisely that the viewer notices them. If no one noticed them and you have to talk about them, then the detail most likely didn’t work very well. That’s why I don’t like to spoil even the smallest details: it’s great when the viewer notices something that adds to the character’s image. We included small details that you can spot if you watch closely. For example, the character played by Lesha Zolotovitsky has one of my favorite Easter eggs: something on his computer desktop reveals something about his character. “In general, cinema is always a huge puzzle,” shared the series’ director, Ivan Makarevich.

A City That Doesn’t Exist

The series takes place in Yugodonsk, but you shouldn’t look for this city on a map of Russia: it’s fictional. The southern city was “assembled” from the landscapes of Moscow and the Moscow region, and Taganrog was its prototype. It was precisely this environment that the creators wanted to place the upright and principled Sasha: here, his habit of living strictly by the book clashes particularly sharply with reality.

The southern city was chosen for a reason. As the creators explained, Sasha needed to find herself in an environment where everything is relaxed, where everything is arranged not so much “by the rules” as “by concepts.” Fictional cities are a fairly common technique in TV series: this allows for a less-relevant connection to a real place and makes the city itself a separate character. Viewers could “transport” themselves to the beloved village of Zhuki in the TNT series of the same name, and to the medieval Nischburg, now under quarantine, in the series “Plague!” This approach expands the possibilities for comedy and absurdity, helping to create the image of a “collective Russia.” And it’s just great to come up with names for cities!