Kuda (TV series)
Kuda (Iradi, "The In-Laws") is a bilingual television sitcom broadcast by IradOne. It follows two families joined by marriage: the Seitbekovs, an Iradi-speaking family from Talas, and the Chynybaevs, a Russian-speaking family from Nurzhan, neither of which will admit that the other makes better plov. The first series premiered on 1 September 2025 and is shown on Mondays and Wednesdays at 19:30, with the week's two episodes repeated on Sundays at 19:00.[1] The title is the Iradi word for the families of a married couple, who become kuda to each other at the betrothal visit (see Marriage in Irad).
Premise and episodes
The series begins with the engagement of the Seitbekovs' son and the Chynybaevs' daughter and follows the two families through their first year as in-laws. The twelve episodes of the first series include "The Engagement Dinner", "Two Kinds of Plov", "The Dacha", "Name Day", "Grandfather Learns English", "Kara-Ak Derby", "The Russian Christmas" and "Who Holds the Baby?".[1] Running jokes include the rivalry between the Seitbekovs' stirred Irad paloosu and the Chynybaevs' long-grain plov, a culinary divide the Talas Herald has traced to the rice of the Chu valley,[2] and the two fathers' loyalty to the rival football clubs of Talas and Nurzhan.
Production
Kuda was written by Nargiza Jusupova and Sergei Kalinin and produced for IradOne by Talasfilm Studios. Each family speaks its own language, and characters switch between Iradi, Russian and the Nurzhan mixture known as Russocha, with English subtitles. It is the first IradOne comedy with substantial Russian dialogue to be shown on the main channel rather than on IradOdin.[1][3]
Reception
The series drew large audiences in both cities in its first weeks, and phrases from it spread quickly on social media. Reviewers praised its warmth and its cast, while some Iradi-language activists objected to the amount of Russian heard in prime time. Politicians allied with Kamran Bekzatov and some Russian-speaking commentators said the Chynybaevs were drawn from stereotypes of the Russos, and several analysts read the series as a government message of reconciliation with Nurzhan ahead of the 2027 election. IradOne said that the series was "a comedy about families, not politics".[3]
References
- ^ IradOne (2025). Kuda: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
- ^ Talas Herald (18 November 2021). 'What Makes Iradi Plov Iradi.' Talas.
- ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2026). 'Laughing Across the Language Line: Television Comedy and the Russos of Nurzhan.' Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 22–39.
External links
- Programme page on IradOne Online