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Try a Russian crime show for a change: Recharge by Rachel Lopez
A nice breather from gritty, slow American murder mysteries, A Trap For Cinderella is set just outside Moscow and is devoid of major Western TV tropes.
At a resort an hour away from Moscow, something is brewing. Minutes before a performance is set to start, the staff discover that Rita, the young entertainer, is missing. She left to do her hair in the afternoon, and the salon says she left after. Where might she be?
The town has its secrets, women have gone missing before. A rapist has just been released. The bar’s full of thugs. The resort staff have complicated relationships. The owner is falling apart. And this is Russia – everything’s eerie to begin with. Then, Rita’s body is found in the woods, with flowers and candles; the killer’s taken some of her hair. Oh, maybe someone’s trying to kill the old gardening woman too. Luckily, Makar Illyushin and Sergey Babkin, two men staying over, just happen to be private detectives.
The Russian crime drama, A Trap for Cinderella, is a nice change from American whodunits, which are slowly becoming whydunits, howdunits, gore fests or drawn-out period pieces.
Watch the first episode here:
The show clips along, wrapping up in four 40-minute episodes, all subtitled on YouTube by Russian channel StarMedia. It mixes Agatha Christie-style red herrings, flashbacks, a nice fistfight, the hint of a serial killer and/or copycat, and low-lather soap opera.
Don’t confuse the title with the 1962 psychological novel and its indie cinema adaptations. This Russian show has nothing to do with a woman who’s survived a fire and lost her memory. A Trap for Cinderella is based on Elena Mikhalkova’s 2012 story, Cinderella and the Dragon. The Russian literary crime fiction queen’s bestsellers aren’t easily available in translation, so the show is especially a treat.
Heat up some soup. Moscow is cold and the suspense drama is great fun, partly because you don’t have British or American stereotypes to guide you along. Sure women are being targeted, but there’s none of the moral spiel about how society treats men and women.
We’re used to seeing Russians as the villains in Hollywood, now everyone at the Russian resort looks like a bad guy. And the detective duo (their adventures span several books) displays little of the bromance so obligatory in the West. Makar’s been dragged to the resort only to jog him out of lethargy and avoid his mum, who’s staying in his apartment for a while. And yes, ladies, both detectives are single.
