| Better than Us | |
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Russian-language poster
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| Genre |
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| Created by |
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| Starring |
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| Country of origin | Russia |
| Original language | Russian |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 16[1] |
| Production | |
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| Production location | Moscow |
| Cinematography | Ilya Ovsenev |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company | BYW Group |
| Original release | |
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| Release | 23 November 2018 (2018-11-23) |
Better Than Us (Russian: Лучше, чем люди, romanized: Luchshe, chem lyudi, literally Better than People) is a 2018 Russian science fiction television series created by Andrey Junkovsky, about an advanced empathic android named Arisa. It stars Paulina Andreeva and Kirill Käro, as well as Aleksandr Ustyugov. It was produced by Yellow, Black and White in cooperation with Sputnik Vostok Production[2] for the Russian state channel C1R.[3]
Netflix purchased it under the English title Better than Us, and it is the first Russian series presented as a Netflix original series.[4] On 16 August 2019, the first season of sixteen episodes became available to stream in Netflix markets outside of Russia and China.[5] A second season of ten episodes was planned to begin filming in Moscow and Beijing in the third quarter of 2021.[6]
The story takes place in 2029, in a world where androids serve humans in various positions, even replacing them in many menial jobs. An advanced robot named Arisa is imported to Russia from China discreetly, within the CRONOS corporation. Arisa accidentally kills a man who tries to use her as a sex robot, and then flees. Her ability to kill humans shows she does not abide by Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Instead, she is designed to protect her family (which includes herself) by all means possible. She encounters a little girl (Sonia) and automatically bonds with her, making herself the child's guardian.
The series follows three storylines:
By the end, it is revealed that China's one-child policy has led to a critical shortage of marriageable women, so an engineer designed Arisa; she is programmed to be a wife to a man and mother to adopted children. However, her creator dies and Arisa is sold to the Russian robotics firm CRONOS.[8]
The filming of the television series began in 2016 and ended in 2018.[10][failed verification]
