Finishing this series and I only have one thought of ringing through my head.
''I wish it was longer.''
There are so many secondary stories and main plot points that could have been examined with in this series if it was only given more time.
We get flashbacks to Brezhnev's life that show little glimpses of how he got to where he is. But we could have had so much more.
Just the war alone could probably make for its own TV show and it also would have been nice to see more character interaction with various members of the Politburo especially towards the end when he's thinking of resigning for the second time.
So I saw a review for this film in where the person expressed discontent for what they considered to be an overly positive view of Leonid Brezhnev. And I was slightly fascinated by this as I didn't get that perspective at all while watching the movie*.
I saw the entire series of the kind of mild critique of the man. A guy who would become old and disconnected from the world that he was supposed to be running. Who's no longer fit for office but was simultaneously stuck in set office either by personal value or manipulation from external forces wishing to keep him in power as to either maintain their positions or be allowed to run their Affairs as freely as they like.
See that's the weird thing about Leonid Brezhnev. He's just kind of stagnant leader that ultimately did a lot of horrible things but he still kinda looked upon fondly because he brought about this neutral freedom to the Country where-in a lot of people could get away with doing things their own unique way and this whole pressurised ideology of Communist value and dictatorial Stalinist just started to fall apart and ultimately never took root again because both the common people and the ruling class kind of gave up caring about the whole thing.
Became this big game of maintaining power or just living through the turmoil as you try to keep your mind fixed on something positive while the world around you either stagnates or dies.
It's an incredibly strange thing to try and communicate to people who have never looked up Leonid Brezhnev or Soviet politics.
And this whole idea of maintaining a superpower but simultaneously not caring about said power. When you look at the United States or Great Britain you see a country run by corrupt individuals who are absolutely proud of the nation they're running.
They think themselves the kings of the earth and that their empire shouldn't die for a million years and form the course of history.
Where as within the Soviet Union that whole idea fell apart right after Stalin. People just kind of became disinterested in the entire Affair became almost oppressively abusive towards themselves and their own Nation to such an extent that it's still affecting Russia and the other respective Republic's to this day.
Sweet baby Jesus that turned into a ramble. The point I'm trying to get across is a man stayed in power for 18 years and ultimately kept the country not healthy but kind of secure in a weird way.
Ultimately the show becomes less about the grandiose politics around the world's most prominent man and instead becomes a tail of a fragile individual just trying to survive the last few months of his life. Surrounded by a system that ultimately knows he's going to die and grievously hopes that he doesn't.
* I do want to make it clear that I do not begrudge this person's opinion.
I don't even think they're incorrect.
I personally don't agree with them but I accept there statement on how they see the film.
That's kind of the beautiful thing about this, you can take two people with completely different perspectives and get a completely different outlook on a piece of media. Obviously you can apply that to any media but it's really prominent here.
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