Polytech (Season 1)

Polytech (Политех, 2023) is a Russian comedy series you can watch online on iFILM. Gleb is a schoolkid obsessed with competitive gaming, and he ditches his solid grammar school for a run-down vocational college where nobody cares about attendance. The logic is simple: grab any diploma to keep his parents happy, then spend the rest of his hours training for esports.

That plan falls apart the day a new headmistress shows up. An ambitious IT specialist exiled from Moscow, she wants to drag this forgotten college straight to the top of the national rankings — and the students are about to feel it. Gleb, played by Aleksandr Novikov, is caught between his own dream and her crusade to whip everyone into shape. The cast also features Yan Tsapnik, Evelina Blyodans and Egor Koreshkov.

Directed by Aleksey Zotov, the show is a breezy youth comedy about gamers, the generation gap and the everyday absurdity of provincial school life. It plays best for anyone who grew up on game streams and remembers skipping the classes that never mattered. Stream Polytech (2023) online on iFILM.