The Soviet Union may have long ceased to exist; however, its televisual culture—in terms of genre and system of production—remains, affecting contemporary televisual practice in the Russian Federation (and other former Soviet republics). This is one of the key messages of a monograph on film and television genres of the late Soviet era, authored by Alexander Prokhorov and Elena Prokhorova, two of the most imminent scholars who work on the cinematic and televisual culture of the late Soviet period.

The book focuses on four principal genres: the epic, police procedural, comedy, and melodrama. The discussion includes a rigorous close reading of a number of Soviet productions and original theorization of the subject matter. The book simultaneously fills in the gaps in our knowledge about the Soviet media system and tells a story of the USSR and the late Soviet period from the perspective of their media practices. The Prokhorovs challenge a lot of assumptions about Soviet media which still persist in scholarly literature. They provide an original framework for reading the evolution of Soviet television's language medium. Current research has centered on contemporary Russian media and it often accounts for its retroactive developments by using the basic notion of the (nostalgic) return to the Soviet era. The Prokhorovs convincingly demonstrate that the dynamic of media developments is actually quite different and cannot be accounted for by nostalgia discourse. The developments also include engagement with western models of media production as well as the persistence of cultural tradition. Indeed, the authors concern themselves with the issues of authority, media control, and censorship; however they do so without fetishizing power and without rehearsing stereotypical explanations which characterize, sadly, a lot of scholarship about the period.

The book makes a significant contribution in three distinct areas of research. First, the authors expand the existing genre theory by considering film genres and television formats that had emerged in the context of the authoritarian Soviet regime. They continue the debate about media specificity, which appears to be particularly relevant in the era of “post-media,” or a condition of total media convergence whereby all kinds of media are available across a range of platforms. Second, by exploring different types of media output and modes of circulation of media content during late socialism, the Prokhorovs utilize and develop the methodological tools of media archaeology. Indeed, the focus of the authors is on the filmic and televisual text itself; they ingeniously reconstruct the expectations of the Soviet viewer, making the book very enjoyable to read. Finally, the authors concern themselves with the broader context of late socialist culture, thus extending our understanding of the USSR and of Soviet culture and people. The sections on the reformulations of the private sphere, the ironic detachment of Soviet viewers, the centrality of the nuclear family, and social apathy are particularly exciting to read.

The book would have an even greater theoretical impact if it included some general background information on Soviet television and its place in the Soviet media system, for example, as well as the proliferation of technology, the availability of national and regional channels, the stars of Soviet television, and so forth. Similarly, as the focus of the book is on the 1970s–80s; it would be brilliant if the authors could have contextualized their conceptualization in the context of concurrent media theory, such as Raymond William's classical study of television. This is with a view toward considering whether his theory would have been different if he had had access to Soviet television. Finally, the book puts a lot of emphasis on the relationship of Soviet television to cinema; I believe it would be exciting to see some even if tangential comparisons drawn between television and other media, such as radio.

The subject matter, the mode of presentation, and the wide range of examples make this book accessible to researchers and students. The book would be of particular interest to students of courses in media studies, film studies, cultural studies, area studies, Russian studies, international relations, and history.