“Fisher: Eclipse” - A Dark Thriller Returns to Haunt the Screen
Moscow, 1994. Preparations are underway for the trial of stableman Sergei Golovkin, nicknamed Fisher (played by Andrey Maksimov). The prosecutor’s investigator, Evgeny Bokov (Ivan Yankovsky), who captured the maniac, has settled in the capital and become a celebrity. However, his life takes a new turn when he receives a letter from Sonya Ershova (Marina Mitrofanova) from the southern town of Kurortny. A young mother, Sonya claims that unknown criminals have kidnapped her two daughters, and her husband, Vadim (Artem Grigoriev), who was preparing to pay the ransom, died in a car accident. Bokov travels to the town to investigate, only to find that Sonya’s whereabouts are unknown to the local law enforcement. The Moscow investigator’s relationship with the town’s police chief, Nadezhda Raikina (Irina Starshenbaum), is strained. Bokov enlists the help of a young and inexperienced officer, Vanya Vdovin (Nikita Khudyakov).
Ivan Yankovsky as Evgeny Bokov in a still from the series “Fisher”
The exceptionally grim thriller “Fisher,” particularly by domestic standards, became one of the main television events of 2023. It’s no surprise that a sequel, subtitled “Eclipse,” is hitting screens a couple of years later. The creators are trying to build on their success or at least maintain the standard. Showrunners Sergei Kalvarsky and Natalya Kapustina continue to work on the project, but the directors have changed. The first season was helmed by the duo of Lyubov Lvova and Sergei Taramaev, also responsible for “Black Spring” and “Children of Change,” while the second is directed by Alexander Tsoi. Tsoi, who previously worked on “Chewing Gum” and the fourth season of “Difficult Teenagers,” is venturing into the realm of dark thrillers for the first time. Based on the first two episodes, the sequel seems to lack the unusual editing and camerawork that distinguished Taramaev and Lvova’s work, but the show’s gray, chthonic style has been preserved. Visually, if you don’t look too closely, the second season largely mirrors the first. It’s still a high-quality thriller.
Ivan Yankovsky as Evgeny Bokov in a still from the series “Fisher”
New Partners, New Case
Bokov caught Sergei Golovkin with the help of Valery Kozyrev (Alexander Yatsenko) and Natalya Dobrovolskaya (Alexandra Bortich). What happened to Dobrovolskaya is unknown to viewers. Kozyrev is now Bokov’s boss in Moscow, but he prefers meetings and paperwork to field work. In the second season, Yankovsky’s character has new partners. The investigator from Rostov, who shocked audiences in the first season, has left his puppy, Sho, in the capital and started learning French. Fisher is accused of 11 murders. While Kozyrev gathers evidence and uncovers the location of one of the victims’ bodies, Bokov travels to Kurortny to investigate the new mysterious case and, at the same time, teach young officers the intricacies of this difficult profession. While the first season was based on real events, the sequel has no true crime element. Based on the first few episodes, it’s unclear whether a new maniac has emerged in southern Russia.
A New Era, A New Kind of Evil
Bokov will have to solve the new case in a different country. The investigators caught Fisher during the perestroika era, a time of complete, including moral, decay of the Soviet Union. The second season is set in the mid-1990s: there are no fewer poor people in the country, ransoms must be paid in dollars, bandits wield real power in Kurortny, and the mayor and administration still don’t want the town to be portrayed in a bad light. Even if the kidnappings are followed by murders, it’s better to investigate the crimes quietly, without federal publicity.
Alexandra Bortich as Natalya Dobrovolskaya in a still from the series “Fisher”
Shifting Landscapes, Unsettling Crimes
The setting has also changed. The Moscow highway remained in the first season, while the sequel focuses on a southern town with a faded gray identity. The events unfold in late autumn, so there are no vacationers in Kurortny. The town makes such a bleak impression that it’s hard to imagine carefree vacationers here. The country may be different, but the evil hasn’t gone anywhere; it’s simply taken the form of the next brutal criminal. In the first episode, the mother of the missing girls receives a finger from one of her daughters from the kidnappers - the second season is definitely not for overly sensitive viewers.
A Blend of Influences
“Fisher,” which came out two years ago, was a truly terrifying thriller in the spirit of David Fincher’s “Seven” or Bong Joon-ho’s “Memories of Murder.” The sequel is more like the debut season of “True Detective” or last year’s domestic “The Trace,” a southern gothic of the Russian variety. The first two episodes feature a fight in the style of “The Word of a Boy” and a meeting with a crime boss, as in “Children of Change.” The project’s creators are not standing still and are shifting the focus somewhat.
Verdict: Worth a Watch?
It’s hard to say whether the innovations are benefiting the show. The first two episodes are a long exposition with a slow introduction of all the characters. The story of Sergei Golovkin’s capture was also hardly fast-paced, but towards the end, it was impossible to tear oneself away from the terrifying spectacle. The second season is unlikely to disappoint fans of the mystery genre. As long as Yankovsky is still on screen, “Fisher” is definitely worth giving a chance.