Is it worth watching "Close Gestalt" - a controversial comedy about the afterlife from the authors of "Interns"

On August 11, the Kinopoisk and Okko services released the first two episodes of the Close Gestalt series.

The showrunner was Maxim Pezhemsky, known as the director of the films “Mom, Don't Cry” and “Love-Carrot 2”. He also managed to work on series - including "Interns".

The script was written by Dmitry Lemeshev, who worked on such projects as "Big Rzhaka", "Okolofutbola", "Alibi". The main role was played by Alexander Ilyin, known for his role as Lobanov in the TV series Interns.

"Close Gestalt" tells about a simple guy Feda, who helps the dead to correct the mistakes of the past. Fedya works as a salesman at a car dealership and watches his marriage fall apart. During a quarrel with his wife, he falls out of the window, and waking up in the hospital, he sees his mother-in-law, who died three years ago. The mother-in-law reports that her soul is not accepted into the next world, because she needs to “close the gestalt” - to complete her affairs on earth. Of course, with the help of Fedya, because only he sees her.

The matter is not limited to one mother-in-law: restless souls constantly come to Fedya. Including his father, who died at the age of 19 - the main character looks almost twice as old. So Fedya becomes a link between dead souls and the real world. But he not only solves mystical problems, but also tries to improve his personal life.

Why you should watch the series "Close Gestalt"

The series turned out to be very uneven - strong and weak qualities can manifest themselves even during one scene. However, the project has many advantages.

Interesting main character

Close Gestalt boasts a great main character. A little naive, but not stupid, kind, but not too much, Fedya is a controversial and interesting character. He is tormented by doubts about his place in the world, his desires, so it is constantly in a state of uncertainty. This is also evidenced by his manner of speech - at the junction of an intellectual, carefully choosing his words, and the founder of a financial pyramid, who wants to sell something meaningless.

Mikhail Lomonosov is mentioned several times in dialogues with Fedya, sometimes visual references are reminded of the scientist. All this is not accidental - Alexander Ilyin sings in the Lomonosov Plan group. It is obvious that Ilyin was initially considered as the leading actor, the script was at least adjusted for him. And for good reason: the actor fully conveys the important characteristics of his character.

Good jokes

Some of the scenes in "Close Gestalt" are really funny. The protagonist finds himself in unusual situations and, with the help of ingenuity (and the advice of lost souls), gets out of them, doing something funny along the way - in one of the scenes he even pretends to be a member of a secret order. Laughter is also caused by how Fedya fights off the advice of a young father who is trying to teach his son about life, although he lived half as long.

The series successfully sneers at pop psychology with its superficial interpretation of terms: the characters think they are closing gestalts, but do not know what it is in fact. Approximately the same authors refer to various concepts of the afterlife. The heroes are not strong in religious studies, so they themselves are trying to work out the rules for getting "to heaven" - provided that everyone has their own "heaven", author's.

The series also went through video bloggers. Fedya and his wife regularly watch videos of "experts" talking about relationships. The more the heroes follow the advice, the less the marriage has a chance of being saved.

Great picture

Ever since Russian TV shows have been released more often on streaming than on television, the quality of the picture has improved markedly. Close Gestalt is no exception. It is distinguished by good camera work and excellent scenery.

“Close Gestalt” eschews flashy colors – it was filmed in the fall for a reason. The melancholy picture adds some melancholy and hopelessness to the action, but not fatal. It turned out quite an interesting Russia, which is rarely shown in the movies. Not bright, as is customary in comedies, but not gray, as in dramas.

What can repel the series "Close Gestalt"

The series also has serious problems stemming from the script.

Too much moralizing

The show's slogan calls it "a comedy with soul," but sometimes it comes across as a sultry comedy. It's about moralizing, which is too much.

A whole episode is occupied by a bandit from the 90s who takes revenge on a friend (this is how he closes the gestalt). He acts like a villain. Yes, charismatic and sympathetic, but telling how he killed people in batches. Then he communicates through Fedya with reception daughter and ascends to heaven - a couple of minutes of good behavior, as it were, makes him good. The main thing is to deliver a tearful monologue.

Under the onslaught of other people's stories, the main character also begins to think about what is proper and right. Due to the fact that it is well written, the scenes of remorse and reflection look relatively good. But then the cardboard lost soul reappears, talking about the mistakes in life, and it all comes down to the formula "say sad words to sad music."

The authors of the series admit that initially there was no talk of morality and high meanings, they appeared in a rewritten version of the script. Perhaps the fixes worsened "Close Gestalt".

Too many stereotypes

The problem of the series is also lost souls, which are too stereotypical. The mother-in-law, who appears in the first episode, seems to be written off from Soviet jokes. The bandit from the 90s is also the most stereotypical - at the level of Foma from Fizruk.

References to popular images of popular culture are not a problem, but they can be used more creatively.

Is it worth watching the series "Close Gestalt"

“Close Gestalt” turned out to be as uneven as possible. Original humor coexists with bearded anecdotes, bright stories fade due to moralizing, jokes about the afterlife always end in a tearful and banal monologue. An interesting protagonist constantly communicates with cardboard characters.

The masterpiece did not work out, but the series cannot be called a failure either. "Close Gestalt" deserves attention. To understand whether it is worth watching, it is enough to take the time to the first episode - it expresses all the strengths and weaknesses of the series.