This series was extremely loosely based on the case of serial killer Mikhail Popkov. However, the only real resemblances of the series to the true killer were the way he treated women including at their grisly demises, what he thought of them and that he was a cop.
From these bare bones, a complete new story was constructed whose salient points have been given away in the IMDB storyline. I shan't be as crass in this review. The location was changed to a hick town four hundred kilometers from Moscow instead of Siberia and an invented character, that of Evgenia Klyuchevskaya, brought into the narrative as a solo investigator sent by the capital.
Evgenia finds resistance from the local cops who are corrupt as well as from her assigned local partner.
Back stories for both main characters are expounded with some cod psychology thrown in to "explain" Ivan Krutikhin's motivations.
The final episode diverges just about as far as it possibly can from the real-life case. It was a final victory snatched from the jaws of what looked like it would be a defeat.
I have to just mention that despite what we hear about Russia being a police state and the lack of freedom there, virtually every series or film I see from there openly shows corruption and unpunished criminality as well as mafia figures controlling business and finance. Perhaps a programme not showing this would simply not be accepted as Russians presumably know exactly what is going on around them.
So, for the slowburn progress of the plot, I'll give it a six and a lukewarm recommend.
