Zhuki (Seasons 1–4)

Zhuki (2019) is a Russian comedy series you can watch online on iFILM. Three city programmers — Nikita, Den and Artemy — are about to sell their smartphone app for millions when the deal collapses and all three get drafted into the army on the spot.

Desperate to keep the startup alive, they opt for alternative civil service and land in the middle of nowhere: a remote village called Zhuki. No internet, no cell coverage, none of the urban comforts they're used to — just a gruff work foreman, a cast of vivid locals and chickens that couldn't care less about venture capital. Finishing an app in a place where barely one phone gets a signal turns out to be harder than any tech interview.

Vyacheslav Chepurchenko, Vadim Dubrovin and Pavel Komarov play the trio, with Maxim Lagashkin and Viktor Bychkov supplying the village color. Directors Konstantin Smirnov and Konstantin Kolesov build the show on the old clash between hipster coders and the deep Russian countryside, and the humor stays warm rather than mean. Easy weeknight watching. Stream Zhuki online on iFILM.