Raya Knows (Season 1)

Raya Knows (2015) is a Russian detective comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Raya Poluychik, played by Irina Pegova, runs a chair at an economy-class hair salon and has a working theory about everyone who sits in it. Her read on people is usually right. Her romantic life is a different story — she catches her latest boyfriend with someone else and has him out the door before the sentence ends.

Then she learns that her old friend Petrov has finally made investigator, but the department sent a replacement from out of town instead: Vladimir Kostyukov, quiet and methodical, played by Dmitry Dyuzhev. Raya decides he needs her guidance. He does not agree. Directed by Alexander Baranov, the series runs on the gap between their two approaches — Raya's instincts versus Kostyukov's procedure — and the fact that she is often correct.

Timofei Tribuntsev and Agrippina Steklova give the supporting cast real texture. Pegova is the reason to watch: she makes Raya's certainty funny without making it stupid. Stream Raya Knows online on iFILM.