Season 1

Inside Lapenko (2019), Season 1 — watch online on iFILM. Five episodes of a one-man Russian comedy in which Anton Lapenko plays every single character on screen.

The whole thing looks dubbed off a worn VHS tape, dropped somewhere between the late Soviet Union and the messy nineties. A few threads weave through the season. A shy, soft-spoken Engineer rides the commuter train toward the woman he loves and gives a tour of his cramped flat. The host of a paranormal show called "The Riddle of the Hole" keeps poking at a street gang, a string of highway killings, and an absurd "cheese case." Meanwhile Roza-Robot and Shershen rehearse their latest tracks. There is no plot in the usual sense — just sketches, grown out of Lapenko's Instagram, that bleed into each other.

Most of the dialogue is improvised, and it all rests on one actor shifting between thug, robot and gentle nerd. Five episodes, gone in one sitting. Stream Inside Lapenko Season 1 online on iFILM.