Just Imagine Things We Know (Russian: ÃÂÃÂþÃÂÃÂþ ÿÃÂõôÃÂÃÂðòàÃÂÃÂþ üà÷ýðõü, translit. Prosto Predstav' Chto Mi Znaem) is a Russian television miniseries about the inner workings of Moscow media industry directed and primary written by Roman Volobuev, that premiered on KinoPoisk streaming service on September 24, 2020. Initially planned as an anthology series, it was renewed for a second season in 2021. Season 2 was written but never produced as a result of director being blacklisted for opposing Russian Invasion of Ukraine and eventually emigrating from Russia.
5 years after surviving an assassination attempt and fleeing with his family to UK a veteran investigative journalist Evgeny Malyshev returns to Moscow to find Russian media stifled by censorship and himself effectively blacklisted. Unable to find work he's forced to join a guerrilla news operation run on a banned Telegram messenger by three 20-something clueless tabloid reporters.
The show was inspired by a recent trend among Russia's news outlets to migratõ to alternative platforms to avoid censorship and is loosely based on a real-life story behind founding of Mash one of Russia's most popular Telegram channels that currently boasts more than 895 000 subscribers.
The script originated from a series of in-depth interviews with media industry insiders and is described by its authors as a cross between a journalistic procedural and a satirical roman ÃÂ clef with most of it characters being based on a real-life personalities from Moscow's media world.
Most of the first season's principal photography was done in March 2020 during theÃÂ first waveÃÂ of theÃÂ COVID-19ÃÂ pandemic allowing filmmakers to use empty exteriors of quarantined Moscow as a backdrop. The filming was halted only when city went into full lockdown. During this forced hiatus the show's script was rewritten to incorporate pandemic and also some shifts in the political climate such as unexpected decision by the Russian government of to lift a formal ban on Telegram messenger which show's characters use.
The first season's critical reception in Russia was mostly positive, with Kinopoisk reporting a 79% critical approval rating based on 29 reviews, Iskusstvo Kino calling it ëa smart andàbeautiful depiction of an ugly subjectû and Gazeta.ru going as far as dubbing it ëthe best Russian series about journalismû. Most of the criticism was directed atàthe small number of episodes, disorienting open ending and mentioning of real-life media figures that Snob Magazine called ëa name dropping ad nauseamû and ëthe endless inside baseball nobody outside media crowd cares aboutû. The show's casual depiction of LGBTQàcharacters also caused a backlash with Russian conservative critics, who called the series ëobsessively and pointlessly queerû.
Russian-Armenian media tycoon and founder of LifeNews media empire Aram Gabrelyanov on whom the character ofàPapa was based posted a profanity-laden review of the show on his (now deleted) personal Telegram channel in whichàhe unfavourably compared it to HBO's ëThe Loudest Voiceû and nicknamed it ëThe Loudest Fartû