Chikatilo

For more than a decade a killer moved through Soviet cities while the system around him failed to connect the crimes. The show follows investigators, journalists, psychiatrists and ordinary citizens as they piece together a pattern that had been missed for years. Along the way a wrong man is convicted and executed, and new investigative methods are tested under intense public pressure. The series focuses on the procedural grind, the human cost for victims and families, and the strain on officers who aren’t ready for this scale of violence, without revealing how the case finally resolves.

Released in 2021, Chikatilo was directed by David Dadunashvili and created by Sarik Andreasyan, Sergey Volkov and Andrey Gavrilov. The cast is led by Fyodor Lavrov as Poptsov, with Nikolay Kozak, Oleg Kamenshchikov, Dmitry Vlaskin and Yuliya Afanasyeva.

There are no widely reported major awards tied to the series. It received modest attention from viewers and critics, with an average user rating around 7.24/10 on one aggregator, but no prominent festival wins or big industry prizes are documented.

Because it dramatizes a notorious real case, the series renewed conversation about Soviet-era policing, media sensationalism and how institutions respond to unprecedented crimes. Certain scenes and the focus on investigative technique sparked debate online in Russian-speaking communities, and it contributed to the true crime trend on streaming platforms.

Critics noted the show’s emphasis on procedure and moral fallout, rather than sensationalizing the killer. Themes include institutional blind spots, the evolution of forensic practice, accountability for miscarriages of justice and the toll on victims' families. Performances, especially Lavrov’s, anchor the slower, methodical pacing that many viewers appreciated.