"Unprincipled in St. Petersburg": Why You Should Watch the New Season of the Series About the Rich
On April 24, 2025, a new season of the series "Unprincipled" was released on "Kinopoisk". Now the action takes place in St. Petersburg, and the main character - Valentina, known to us as Valya Lux - is on her own, she left her husband and moved to the northern capital. However, her husband does not leave her and hopes to get his beloved back. And the woman is looking for a new love.
What is "Unprincipled in St. Petersburg"
Premiere date: April 24, 2025
Country of origin: Russia
Director: Zaur Zaseev
Screenwriters: Alexander Tsypkin, Ekaterina Bogomolova, Vladimir Vasiliev
Actors: Kristina Babushkina, Nikolay Fomenko, Pavel Derevyanko, Anna Kovalchuk, Vladimir Yaglych, Stasya Miloslavskaya, Roman Vasiliev, Igor Vernik
Genres: comedy, melodrama
TV series similar to "Unprincipled in St. Petersburg": "Unprincipled", "Krasnaya Polyana"
Duration: 8 episodes of 30 minutes each
Where to watch: "Kinopoisk" https://www.youtube.com/embed/LVG9R0KMjPU
REASON #1 The changes benefited the series
Valentina Khadyakova has always been one of the most striking characters in "Unprincipled". She stood out against the background of escorts, lovers of the high life and the annoying narrator Slavik. But will she be able to become the only main character of the series?
In previous seasons, each episode was divided into short stories about different characters. This format suited frivolous stories: the viewer was not tired of long dialogues and numerous plot twists. "Unprincipled" was created so that after a working day the viewer could plunge into the world of the rich with their endless money, expensive restaurants and illusory problems.
In the new season, the main storyline belongs to Valya and Khadyakov. And, to an unexpected surprise, this decision turned out to be quite successful. The creators focused their attention on two heroes and began to unexpectedly reveal them from new sides. The general woke up to tenderness and remembers his love for his wife. And the spoiled Valentina gains independence and harshly paves her way to happiness - not only through manipulation, but also through honest work.
And most importantly, the lightness of "Unprincipled" is still there. The series is still charmingly deep, full of fairy-tale plot twists and creating increasingly eccentric characters.
REASON #2 The new season is dynamic and has bright characters
The characters are pleasingly diverse. Among them are members of the local intellectual club Anna and Gosha, a married couple in an open relationship. Anna is a refined Petersburger who sees her goal as humiliating Valya. Gosha passionately wants to pass himself off as the city's biggest big shot and seduce the heroine, but turns out to be just a theater critic. Yes, it is implied that in Petersburg, theater critics can have the same weight as officials and generals in Moscow. After all, it is the cultural capital.
Most of the gags and comedy situations in the new season really exploit the oldest stereotype about the rivalry between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Valya's St. Petersburg girlfriend Lena notices allusions to Chekhov everywhere and considers herself unworthy of an intellectual club, while Valya walks over heads and cynically notes that in St. Petersburg there is only one decent restaurant and theater for the whole city. In general, it's a classic - relaxed intellectuals versus soulless careerists.
All this is, of course, superficial and exaggerated - but this is the style of "Unprincipled". In this sense, the new season can only be praised - it takes all the best from Tsypkin's series, changes the scenery and actively saturates it with events. Valya manages to get into a fight with the local intelligentsia, and fall in love with a young artist in a raincoat, and even raise and lower the Blagoveshchensky Bridge in a few minutes. How funny and subtle it is is unimportant, "Unprincipled" never pretended to be anything more than an attraction for one evening. The main thing is that the season is definitely not deprived of dynamics.
REASON #3 This is a story about family restoration
All previous seasons of "Unprincipled" were dedicated to toxic relationships. Slavik constantly lied and cheated on his wife. Vera and architect Roma could not get out of codependency. Young Pasha and Yulia constantly rejected each other because of material benefits and prospects. In the new season, on the contrary, we watch how the family slowly reunites, and people who have forgotten how to understand and listen again seek a way to each other.
Khadyakov and Valya are constantly getting closer and further apart, blackmailing and manipulating, so that they finally give in and talk sincerely. The most touching of the released episodes is dedicated to how the general bribes a handsome young man so that he would court Valya exactly as he did in his youth. It turns out that even these hardened cynics from Patrikov remember that their beloved loves shrimp in honey and cries at the film "Love" by Mikhail Kalik. A trifle, but pleasant. In fact, this is how the entire new season can be characterized.
Igor Vernik's late debut in "Unprincipled" is surprising: it's hard to believe that there is still a series about rich, white-toothed and carefree Muscovites in which he hasn't appeared
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