im exaggerating and mostly joking but i recall its both funded by canada gov (so im predisposed to be wary of it) and it seems to adopt a homonationalist lens in regards to russia. bear in mind i did not watch it for myself idgaf but i have heard avout the plot from people ik (some who r fans) + osmosis basically. as with all things western on the topic of russia it is very russia critical, which is like, usually fine except it’s always unilateral and absolute about the topic when it comes from west which is steeped in russophobia already.

i mean ya, russia is like, famously bad on the topic of lgbtqia. im not saying thats good at all, though similarly to projects like burkina faso thats why i have critical support for them, but i also have seen some writeups for how it has this continuing pervasive anti-russia lens during the runtime, and it’s like, i’m never really going to trust very anti russia plot points from west which continually fails to prove it no longer believes russia is ethnic communist degenerates.

it kind of seems like homonationalism: it has a major focus on russia failures with queer people, i think theres a clip where hes talking to yankees and they insinuate gay sex illegal over in russia (it’s not, ‘lgbtqia propaganda’ isnt which is like, okay, still bad, but im not trusting anti-other-state homophobia position from a yankee) and like, okay. this would be okay at best if not a little clumsy, but then you add in how almost every other russian character apart from ilya and his gf is dickhead and things get weird.

ilya’s big arc with his identity ends with him rejecting his national identity, and the family of his that remains in russia are evil people. his dad at the least is irredeemable jackass and his mom is desd and his brother sucks. the only other pretty nice russian character is his gf who apparently speaks eng and may have dual citizenship. you can see why my skepticism doubles.

overall, it’s a pretty anti russia story, which like, okay, again that would be more acceptable from russian creator, but it’s not, i know it’s canadian product. and i respond to it same way i would respond to usa funding movie about queer chinese girl going to states and completely disavowing her cultural identity because of glorious freedoms. there is room to improve but im not taking the fucking canadians gov word on it bc i know their ulterior motives.

is it that serious? no. not really. its not as bad a piece of propaganda as like call of duty where killing arabs on screen is fantasy teens grow up to fulfill in us army.

but west continues to fund the far right militia in ukraine and uses them as vessel for NATO expansion, which canada has had a big role in, all while not examining homophobia locally in terrorist states of usa and canada, and my contempt for it is kind of enhanced becausw canada gets away w its soft power bullshit since people think its Nicer than USA, and it continues to be very russophobic so no i dont give heated rivalry benefit of doubt

ETA: rereading chinawatcherwatcher comment and actually finally taking in that ilyas dad is evil abusive man who was in high role in russian gov WHILE HAVING DEMENTIA completely convinces me. already people chomp for russia regime change but like, i have no doubts this show is sowing it further however subtly