Obscene Money (Season 1)

Obscene Money (2023) is a Russian comedy you can watch online on iFILM. A provincial lecturer with a PhD in economics is tired of counting kopecks, so he decides to test his theories in the real world and tries his hand at black-market trading.

The snag is the seed money. He borrows it from the local crooks — who happen to be his former students — and spends it on his first shipment of goods. That is how the sleepy town gets its very first sex shop, stocked with novelties like "Aladdin's Cave" and "Banana Bully." Nothing then follows the textbook: his son is caught stealing, the creditors aren't the patient type, and his wife signs on as a "model" at a men's club. To keep the family afloat, he has to actually move this scandalous inventory. Konstantin Khabensky leads, with Ksenia Rappoport, Fyodor Bondarchuk and Pavel Derevyanko around him.

The series comes from Pyotr Buslov, the director of Bimmer, and his feel for the late-Soviet texture shows: American jeans, East German trousers, shortages everywhere. It's funny with a bitter aftertaste. A good fit for anyone who likes tragicomedies about an ordinary man backed into a corner. Stream Obscene Money online on iFILM.