Slavic

For Better or For Worse (Na dobre i na złe) is a Polish medical drama that’s been airing since 1999. It’s one of the longest-running Polish TV shows ever, with more than 600 45-minute episodes. The show is essentially your standard medical drama; it takes place at a hospital in a small town near Warsaw […]

Holy War (Święta wojna) is a Polish sitcom that ran from 2000 to 2009. It takes place in Katowice, and much of the dialogue is in the Silesian dialect, a version of Polish influenced by German that is spoken in parts of Poland and the Czech Republic. The TV show is about a husband and wife […]

L for Love (M jak milość) is a long-running Polish drama/soap opera. It’s been airing since 2000, and there are more than 1,000 episodes in its 17 seasons. It is the most-watched TV show in Poland. The show follows the large, sprawling Mostowiak family and all their relatives and in-laws. (There has been a massive cast of […]

The World According to Kiepskich (Świat według Kiepskich) is a Polish sitcom that’s been airing since 1999. It’s one of the more popular and long-running shows in the world of Polish television. There have already been 28 seasons and more than 500 episodes. Apparently it is the second-longest-running sitcom in the world, after The Simpsons. The show […]

Kitchen (Кухня) is Russia’s favorite recent sitcom. Spanning six seasons and a movie (!), it aired between 2012 and 2016 and has since led to a spin-off, Hotel Eleon (Отель Элеон), about some of the favorite secondary characters. A second movie should appear in 2017. The show takes part mostly in the eponymous kitchen, in one […]

Streets of Smashed Lampposts (Улицы разбитых фонарей), or Menty (Менты; a usually derogatory word for cops) is a long-running Russian police procedural. It’s been going since 1998, and there are now 16 seasons. Each episode features a different case to be solved, while also describing the everyday lives of Russian police officers; it’s similar in some ways […]

Comedy Woman (title originally in English) is a Russian sketch/standup comedy show—sort of the female version of Comedy Club, in which women barely take part. The show started in 2008, and there are now nearly 200 episodes. The show grew out of the comedy club/cabaret show Made in Woman. It was founded in 2006 by Natalya Yeprikyan (Наталья […]

Let Them Talk (Пусть говорят) is a Russian talk show reminiscent of the classics of American daytime TV—particularly Jerry Springer. The show has been airing since 2001, when it was called The Big Wash (Большая стирка—because you could watch it while you did the laundry); after a few years it was changed to Five Evenings (Пять вечеров), and then […]