Russian Dolls: My Top Ten Complaints!

A picture is worth 1,000 words!

After watching six episodes, which I did only because I started this blog thinking we had a hit on our hands, I have decided to come up with a list of 10 of my least favorite things about the show. Here we go:

10. The title! Bad choice as far as I am concerned. It is not only insulting to Russian women and the Russian community, it is also insulting to ALL women. Women are not “dolls.” We are not playthings and we are to be taken seriously. Brighton Beach was a better title or maybe the Brighton Shore.

9. Rasputin! The name of the restaurant is unappealing. It is named after a creepy looking Russian mystic with supposed healing powers, who was also known to be a notorious womanizer.

8. The agenda! The show has an agenda, unlike other reality shows, to try to force Russian culture and tradition into the storyline at every turn. From the opening proverb to the explanations inserted everywhere about how terrible Russian parents are for having high expectations for their children and wanting the best for them. Frankly, I don’t see them as being different than other parents in that regard.

7. The fortune telling! I wish they would have let Eva do a “real” fortune telling session instead of the “scripted” one that was obviously contrived just to create drama.

6. The shows are self contained. We never see anything from the past brought up and resolved, like Sveta’s fight with marina over the jewelry show and the bill. Each episode is separate and stands on it’s own, no connection to previous shows or events.

5. Anastasia. She is my least favorite of the young “dolls.” She is self absorbed and only thinks about herself. She has a whiny voice and is always complaining. She is disrespectful to her mother. She is still a student at 25! Who knows how much longer she has to go to complete her Bachelor’s degree and now she wants to add three years of law school! Maybe she is making money from this show, but it can’t be that much and it will be short lived. The reason she lost the Calendar girl competition is the same reason she is going to have trouble succeeding in life, she is a spoiled brat.

4. Boris. He is too chauvinistic for me and too controlling. However, I am not married to him, Renata is, and she seems to love him very much. Hard to say if he is going overboard because that is how he really is or to create drama on the show.

3. Michael Levitis. He allows Marina to run the show. He rarely speaks up, even when she is insulting Eva, his mother. He needs to get a backbone and become the King of his castle.

2. Albert. Albert is hardly on the show at all. Why? He is just there to be Eddie’s sidekick in the confessionals and make crude jokes about women? I don’t see him as being that kind of guy, I could be wrong. But, why does the show want to portray men speaking so disrespectfully about women? Is that Russian too?

1. Marina! Yes, you knew she would be at the top of my list. There is nothing good I can say about this woman. She sets a bad example for her children the way she speaks to her mother in-law. She teaches her children that material things are what’s important in life. She has an over inflated ego and a way too high opinion of herself importance. She considers herself a socialite because she has money, jewels and expensive clothing, but she has no class, no grace, and lacks social skills. Her high pitched voice coupled with her accent, make it hard for me to listen to anything she says. Her gulping down the cake that Diana and Anastasia brought over was just the last nail in the coffin for me!

A Double Bite!

What do you think? Agree, disagree? I would love to hear your thoughts. I cannot see this show coming back for a second season (if they even air all of this one).