Characters / The Interns

Main non-intern characters

Original cast

Andrey Bykov

Andrey Eugenievitch Bykov (Андрей Евгеньевич Быков)

Played by: Ivan Okhlobystin (Иван Охлобыстин)

Head of the Therapy department and intern's instructor. Alisa's father.

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• Amicable Exes: With Rita. Their relationship is long gone, but they broke up on good terms. Now they're just friends.
• Attention Whore: Bykov just can't tolerate not being the center of people's attention for long. If you do not pay attention to him, he would find a way to change it; it doesn't matter whether the reason would be positive or negative, as long as it works.
• Badass Biker: He used to be a leather-wielding, long-haired biker under nickname "Lizard"; he's tend to view those as his glory days. At some point he decides to restart his biker "career", which nearly ends in tragedy.
• Berserk Button: While he may explode at pretty much anything, several things proved themselves to be the sure way to cause his wrath, which everyone learned to avoid:
  • Bykov can't tolerate slackers — which would be understandable, if not for him to consider you "slacking" the instant you finish one task but is yet to start another (albeit he forgives Sophia at one point, back when he had a soft spot for her). And no, he accepts no such concept as "break": you only stop working when your shift ends. He consistently fails to live up to this standard himself.
  • Touching his stuff in general is a bad idea, but touch his ficus, "Igor", and you are a deadman. He would reserve most creative and humiliating punishments for this. Interns quickly learned to avoid Igor at all costs. Couple of episodes have interns suffering due to touching Igor, while another one shows this attitude backfiring on Bykov when he doesn't appoint anyone to water it during Lyuba's vacation (interns are too scared to touch it).
  • He has nothing but contempt for "VIP" patients. And if you try to put one on "his" territory, he would go out of his way to ruin any chances for those patients to come back for another round, after which he would tear you a new one. Kisegach is aware of this, and either tries to convince him somehow, or just keeps him in the dark. Several episodes actually have this ire as a plot point.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: In-Universe: Bykov trolls everyone, including his direct boss, Kisegach. Usually, he can get away with it. Usually. He also has a low opinion on Kisegach's investors, and she barely keeps him from telling what he thinks of them to their face.
• A Boy and His X:
  • Bykov really likes his ficus, "Igor". Don't touch it, or you would die.
  • Before his bike, "Isolde", was hit by a truck (with Bykov himself barely surviving), Bykov was prone to talk about "her" like "she's" some actual person, in overly dramatic fashion, and strictly prohibiting anyone to even go close to "her".
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite being sarcastic troll and a little too childish at times, he is genuinely good specialist when it comes to medicine. He also knows when situation becomes too serious to joke anymore.
• Casual Kink: Apparently, he likes being tied to his bed during sex; it gets brought up twice, one time by himself.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: The stock punishments for screwing up are night shifts (which are unbearably boring), or forcing interns to do orderlies' duties (publicly), but when interns really screws up, Bykov comes up with something more creative, like forcing Phil to reenact an RPG in real life (complete with quests), or forcing Semyon to tell children the fairytales (with pre-existing stories being forbidden, it should be new ones).
• Deadpan Snarker: Bykov has a sarcastic comment for every occasion.
• Drama Queen: Bykov can't do anything without overdramatising it. If he's angry, he would yell at you on top of his lungs. If he's sad, he would make it look like the end of the world. If he talks about your mistakes, he would exaggerate them to the point of Epic Fail. And if he wants to make fun of something or someone, it would be over-the-top Large Ham performance, nothing less.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Almost always acts like this to his interns. He shouts at them, insults them (creatively and rarely repeating himself), and punishes them for their screwups (both major and minor) with night shifts and/or by forcing to do orderlies' duties. He considers this to be a test of interns' ability of dealing with stress.
• Drunk with Power: Bykov is a petty tyrant, who sees nothing wrong with abusing his superiority over interns to punish them for whatever he sees fit (like not laughing at his jokes when he expects it).
• Dr. Jerk: While he maintains slightly more self-control with his patients than with everyone else in the hospital, they are not safe from his hot temper, either. He is particularly hostile to the "VIP patients", whom he hates to the point that Kisegach would do anything to keep him away from them.
• Dude, Not Funny!: He's master of the tactless jokes. He considers normal to tell Kisegach jokes about her son's possible death, injuries or other misfortunes (right when something bad happens and she doesn't know what to do), or to Kupitman about his alcoholism and problems related to it, or his age. He may also joke about his interns' possible suicide, to which they don't even react anymore.
• Enraged by Idiocy: He can't tolerate idiocy or incompetence, and instantly explodes on whomever shows them. Though he often exaggerates just how strongly his interns fail.
• Entitled Bastard: Despite acting like a jerk and troll to even his friends and Love Interest, he always expects that they would forgive him and do as he want. When they don't, he sees this as a betrayal, instead of admitting his faults. This attitude almost ruins his relationship with Kisegach in the final season, and only when he gives up on it, she gives him another chance.
• Everyone Has Standards: One of the most consistent principles he shows is the loyalty to the team. He really hates betrayers, and wouldn't tolerate them, even if the one betrayed isn't him. Kirill learns this the hard way.
• Follow in My Footsteps: Inverted. Bykov doesn't want for Alisa to become a doctor herself, since this would ruin her life just like it ruined his. As the specific reasons, he mentions that the Russian doctors suffers from constant stress, non-existent personal life and Perpetual Poverty.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He is very easy to anger, and while some things are almost sure to cause his wrath, he can actually explode at pretty much anything, depending on his mood at a time.
• Hates Everyone Equally: He has very low opinion on everyone, and no matter what you do, Bykov would find an excuse to call you moron. Gleb may be the only exception because he's just better at pressing Bykov's Berserk Buttons.
• I Call It "Vera":
  • His ficus is called "Igor". There's a good reason for that, actually, though this is not the first (and likely not the last) "Igor" he has.
  • Bykov named his bike "Isolde" and always talked about it like "Isolde" was real person. When "Isolde" was destroyed in the road accident, he treated it like the death of his great friend.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is rude, he is hot-tempered and he has low opinion on... essentially everyone. But he still cares about his friends and colleagues, and would defend them if required. And, despite seemingly hating his Interns from first sight, he is genuinely happy with their success in life, and tries to help them if something goes really life-ruining bad; every intern gets a bonding moment with him at certain point of the series. It was also repeatedly stated that he's more forgiving than Kisegach, merely punishing his interns where she would've fired them.
• Lazy Husband: Whenever Kisegach tasks Bykov with housework, buying food, babysitting Ilya, etc, he tries to dump it on interns. At the same time, he expects that Kisegach wouldn't do it. It's always portrayed as wrong, and often provokes conflicts.
• Legacy Character: Not Bykov himself, but his ficus, Igor. In the 8th season, when Igor dies, we learn that this was the fifth ficus Bykov had, with every single one being called "Igor": they tend to die due to neglect, with every death causing some overly dramatic reaction from Bykov, and later he obtains new "Igors"; the fourth Igor had Bykov trying to off himself (or at least pretending to), and the first one was something much worse.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Not-violent example. Being a troll, he loves when people shouts at him (especially Kisegach), because this means that his provocations works.
• Manchild: His behaviour and jokes are often extremely childish in manner, both in personal life and at work. It got him (or Kisegach) in trouble at more than one occasion. One particularly egregious example is when he sent a report to ministry which contained only the words "burn in hell". Really.
• Mean Boss: He is a terrible boss to his interns, treating them with nothing but abuse, punishing them for any small mistakes (or just because he is in the bad mood), and he is not exactly helpful when something goes wrong. He was outright compared to a slaver at more than one occasion, sometimes even by himself. That being said, it was repeatedly pointed that he's also more forgiving than Kisegach, merely punishing people where she would've made them fired, and sometimes he shows his soft side.
• The Nicknamer: Bykov invents insulting nicknames appropriate to the situation on the run, but several of them sticks:
  • Almost all interns got at least one stable nickname from him:
    • Gleb Romanenko is "Mishka Kala", wordplay on "Koala Bear" and "Kal" ("Feces").
    • Boris Levin is "Doctor Lenin".
    • Varvara Chernous is either "Doctor Varya" or "Meine lieben Püppchen" ("My beloved dolly" in German).
    • Phil Richards is "Filya" or "Fil'ka" (besides being one of the forms of his name, this is also the name of the (puppet) dog character from Long Runner Russian children show, "Good Night, Little Ones!").
    • Maxim Korneev is "Chukovsky", after the Soviet children poet Korney Chukovsky.
  • While he has no stable nickname for Kupitman, always calling him something alcohol and/or venereology-related, recurring theme is to compare him to "alcoholic granny", usually after Kupitman calls him out on something.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: He's known for his aversion to any forms of romance, particularly kissing (which he calls "unhygienic"). He enforces it as actual rules in his department, immediately breaking any kissing couple he sees and separating them. This habit gets exploited as several points.
• The Prankster: He constantly tries to make fun at expense of either interns or his friend, Kupitman. To name just one specific example, every year on an anniversary of the start of his friendship with Kupitman, he gifts him with some booby-trapped presents.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Usually, if he drops new task on you, you must figure out what to do by yourself (even if your patient outright rejects you on the spot). Those who fails, would serve a night shift as punishment. At times, one may wonder what exactly his purpose in interns' education is, especially when he spends that time playing games or playing pranks.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: While all interns enrage him with their incompetence, he has particularly heated relationship with Gleb; this hatred is mutual. Sometimes just mentioning Gleb near Bykov can anger him.
• Speech Impediment: Like his actor, Bykov has Rhotacism, which makes him unable to pronounce the letter "R". This is usually played for laughs (even Bykov himself makes fun at this sometimes).
• Stealth Insult: Inverted. His insults are anything but "stealth"; his compliments, however, are often masked as yet another insult, though everyone instantly recognises them for what they are.
• Sticky Fingers: Bykov occasionally takes whatever food he may find for himself, and sees nothing wrong with it. If confronted, he disregards the questions or laughs at best, and actually gets angry at worst.
• Tragic Keepsake: Why he calls his ficus "Igor" and cares about him so much? Because it is named after the first patient whom he failed to save; he received Igor as a gift from their pathologist. Though original Igor is long gone, he keeps brining new ones, calling each one "Igor".
• Troll: He trolls everyone, from his interns to his best friend to his Love Interest. Sometimes they troll back.
• Ultimate Job Security: He gets away with blatant insubordination, unprofessional behaviour, his Manchild behaviour, and much more. It was like this long before he actually started his relationship with Kisegach.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Kupitman. They just can't stop trolling each other, but they are the best friends and care about each other.

Ivan Kupitman

Ivan Natanovich Kupitman (Иван Натанович Купитман)

Played by: Vadim Demchog (Вадим Демчог)

Head of the Venereology. Sophia's uncle.

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• The Alcoholic: He pretty much runs on cognac. Interestingly, while sober, Kupitman may be very unpleasant to deal with, while drunk Kupitman is normally much friendlier. Bykov frequently makes jokes at his expense, like calling him "drunkard granny".
• Animal Motif: Poodles. He has hairstyle which brings association with poodles (short, curly grey hair), and has personality somewhat resembling small mean dog. "Smartass poodle" is also the go-to insult when someone gets angry at him.
• Collector of the Strange:
  • Kupitman has a collection of rare and expensive cognac^note  Russians often calls any brandy "cognac", which makes it impossible to identify what is and what isn't the actual cognac. He always talks about it in rather bizarre ways.
  • Kupitman keeps a collection of weird and seemingly unrelated things at home, like the globe which actually hides a stash of alcohol inside. Lobanov, when he and Romanenko briefly visits it, even compares Kupitman's apartments to Kupitman's own mind.
• The Cynic: Kupitman has very low expectations of people, and sees nothing of value in sentimentality or romantic. Bykov is sure that it's somehow related to him being venereologist, but it's unclear whether he became cynical due his profession, or chose it due to already being a cynic. Nearly only things he actually romanticises are cognac and venereology (and last one is debatable, due to him talking speeches about "goddess Venus" only to characters whom he tries to motivate into working under him, when they show little interest, or to impress someone who has low opinion on him).
• The Dandy: Kupitman spends quite a lot of time trying to maintain his fading beauty (cosmetics, manicure, hair...), sometimes even at his actual duties' expense, leaving interns (and later Phil) in charge. He often gets called on this, including by Kisegach. Also, while he wears uniform most of the time, the one look at his shoes reveals that they cost much more than some workers' monthly salary; same applies to some of his costumes.
• Deadpan Snarker: Much like Bykov, he is prone to sarcastic comments whenever he has opportunity to do so. Unlike him, he prefers to maintain cold, calm demeanour.
• Dirty Old Man: He is almost fifty years old (and looks even older due to his alcoholism), but keeps trying (and sometimes succeeding) to date women twice younger than him. He also has a profile on at least one dating service platform. This is portrayed as creepy and disgusting.
• Dude, Not Funny!: He never reacts well to jokes about his alcoholism or his age. Sometimes, he may try to strike back.
• Evil Uncle: Before he actually came along with Sophia, in early days of her internship he tried to kick her out of the hospital — and thus, from his life — either by giving her blatantly harmful "advices", or by manipulating Bykov into firing her (to everyone's, including Bykov's, disgust). Fortunately, he grew out from this.
• Faux Affably Evil: Downplayed; Kupitman may put a facade of Benevolent Boss, but deep inside, he is an egoist and greedy manipulator, who would betray you the second he may earn something valuable from it — all while maintaining the calm, gentle demeanour. Phil quickly learned to never trust Kupitman when he tries to act nice, always expecting (and often receiving) a backstab from him.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Besides Bykov, Kisegach, Lyuba and interns, hardly anyone in the hospital ever sticks with him, and even they usually have low expectations of him.
• Greedy Jew: Downplayed; there's no much emphasis on him being a Jew, but he is the only one to use the VIP wards for his personal enrichment, he accepts bribes from his patients for "confidentiality", and it's standard practice to waste time treating VIP patients so they would stay for longer and pay him more. He also rarely agrees to help just out of good will, though he usually prefers cognac as currency instead of money. Notably, none of his relatives shows similar qualities.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: In the final season, after Levin's return, Kupitman becomes obsessed with Levin trying to steal Lyuba from him — and allegedly having a chance for that; that obsession lasts for several episodes. Unknowingly to him, Lyuba still can't stand Levin, while Levin gave up on hitting on Lyuba pretty quickly.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • "Poodle". He was named this by Levin and Lyuba in one early episode, and Kupitman was worried if it would stick; it did.
  • Sometimes, when people gets angry at him, he gets called "Penis Doctor" (mainly by Lyuba).
  • Whenever Kupitman calls him out on something, Bykov would compare him to "drunkard granny".
• It Amused Me: When he is not motivated by material gain or his love for cognac, he is motivated by his sick sense of humour. Unfortunately, people involved never finds his pranks funny, because his "jokes" always turns out to be destructive to their relationships with friends and beloved ones.
• It's All About Me: Kupitman cares about Kupitman, first and foremost. If he may get away with backstabbing you and receive something for it, he would try it. He would always put his selfish interests above personal life of his subordinates, even if it would break his promises. And let's not even start discussing his corruption.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Kupitman almost never does anything out of pure altruism, he always has ulterior (and rather selfish) motifs. Everyone are aware of this, and whenever he offers his help, tells him to cut the crap and go to his real motifs.
• Kavorka Man: Kupitman is old-looking due to his alcoholism, and is not exactly attractive, but has multiple affairs despite this. Though as time goes on, it becomes progressively harder for him to maintain this.
• Knight Templar Parent: His cousin intrust him with Sophia's protection while she's undergoing internship in another city, and Kupitman would do anything to not fail him, including sabotaging Gleb's relationship with Sophia (albeit, to be fair, he found out when they slammed in his door in the middle of the night, drunk like pigs and making out). When relationship goes on anyway, and his cousin finds out, Kupitman's fears gets proven right, as Yakov Kalinin reacts exactly as expected.
• The Load: No one takes him seriously because he is an alcoholic, and he never gets invited on any serious events (and when he does, he nearly universally botches them as he gets wasted). He is aware of this and thinks that they only let him work in the hospital out of pity, which offends him. He does pull his weight as venereologist most of the time, but not so much as the head of department.
• Manipulative Bastard: Kupitman often just can't resits the urge to manipulate other people when they attempts to ask him for help, mainly for his amusement. Even though everyone at some point becomes his victim, they still continue asking him for advises.
• Mean Boss: Different flavour than Bykov, who's at least honest in his hatred. Kupitman tries to put a facade of Benevolent Boss, but he would always put his own interests before anyone else's. Forcing Phil to cancel his plans just so Kupitman may go on a date / on a poker tournament / two-weeks-long vacation (leaving Phil to work for him without weekends) / whatever, despite them discussing this beforehand? Of course. Stealing whatever cognac Phil obtained from his patients, then taking even more to "compensate" for his own loses? Perfectly normal for him. Abusing Phil just to show who's boss? He sees nothing wrong here. And so on. It should be noted, however, that drunk Kupitman is widely considered to be much, much nicer than sober Kupitman.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Often mentions that while he is mainly venereologist, he may fulfil the role of any even remotely related specialist, amongst them dermatologist, gynaecologist and obstetrician.
• Practical Currency: He actually uses cognac as alternative currency; specifically, you can pay your debts to him in booze, or bribe him with it. While he usually accepts normal money, he sometimes insists on cognac; he explains this as him already having money, while good rare cognac can become a part of his collection.
• Purple Prose: Every time he talks about venereology, he goes into long, elaborate speeches about his "sacred duty" as a "high priest of the goddess Venere". He talks in the same way whenever he discusses alcohol, too.
• Sabotutor: Kupitman intentionally provides Sophia with bad advices for her interaction with Bykov during her casting for internship, hoping that Bykov would kick her out (he prefers living without her). Bykov actually reacts strongly negatively when he learns about this.
• Sanity Slippage: Kupitman spends most of season 10 pretending that he doesn't drink (for whatever reason his cousin thinks that Kupitman is The Teetotaler, and Kupitman fears to disappoint him). But this forced abstinence has destructive effects on his sanity: he becomes even more toxic to Phil than usually, and starts hallucinating. Fortunately, when he accidentally reveals his alcoholism to Sophia, it turns out that she has a reason to not snitch her uncle to her father, allowing Kupitman to return to his usual drunk happiness.
• Serial Spouse: He has been in three marriages, each one ending in divorce — and him nearly killing himself with alcohol. Bykov fears that if he ever gets in serious relationship again, it would culminate in the fourth marriage, which, if it ends just like the first three, would certainly kill him this time; he is on the edge even without it.
• The Starscream: How he became the Head of Venereology? By befriending his boss, collecting blackmail-worthy information on her, then backstabbing her to the point she was forced to leave. This backfired, however, since now she's rich and has her own private clinic in Germany, while Kupitman is old, lonely alcoholic with dubious career perspectives anywhere outside of this hospital.
• Token Evil Teammate: While not outright evil (though he comes pretty close at times), he openly accepts bribes from his patients and uses VIP wards for his personal enrichment (and it's when the hospital in general is always severely underfunded). He also shamelessly manipulates other people for his personal amusement when they asks him for help, not even considering that this may harm their personal lives.
• Token Minority: Until Sophia was introduced, he was the only Jewish character in the main cast.
• Trademark Favorite Drink: While he may drink different kinds of booze, everyone knows that cognac would always be on the first place. In fact, in one episode, when he tries to replace it with something else, he fails, and has to return back to cognac, regretting to even trying.
• Ultimate Job Security: Though it gets subverted at few points, as Kisegach grows fed up with him (requiring him to spend entirety of respective episodes to improve the situation), most of the time Kupitman gets away with drinking on duty, taking bribes, consistently missing all important meetings, etc.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Bykov. They just can't stop trolling each other, but they are the best friends and care about each other.
• Younger Than They Look: He is less than fifty years old, but it's easy to mistake him for old man, due to his alcoholism. He is aware of this, and never reacts well when it gets pointed out.

Anastasia Kisegach

Anastasia Konstantinovna Kisegach (Анастасия Константиновна Кисегач)

Played by: Svetlana Kamynina (Светлана Камынина)

Chief Doctor of the hospital. Gleb's mother.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Bykov often calls her "mouse" or "squirrel".
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Usually she is extremely tolerant to Bykov's antics and at timesoutright insulting jokes. But if you press her too hard, she is capable of anger outburst which would scare even Bykov into compliance.
  • She usually lets Kupitman get away with his behaviour, but she has her limits; when he goes too far, she's not reluctant to punish him, while two episodes puts him on the brink of losing his job outright.
  • Not even her son is immune to her anger. Notably, eventually she, alongside his father Victor, decided to cut his access to their finances, forcing him to adapt to the "normal Russian doctor's" life. This turns out to be correct decision, since he eventually grows up from his Spoiled Brat personality into (mostly) normal man and friend.
• Gag Nose: Her unique eagle-like nose gets mentioned at several occasions, mainly by Bykov, who uses any excuse to mock someone (it is likely a reason why Bykov, when angry, calls her "gahgoyle"). In one episode her attempt to remove it (or, rather, pretence that she wants to) even becomes a plot point.
• Not So Above It All: Kisegach may put a serious mask, but deep inside, she is just as fun-loving troll as Bykov; she actually joins some of his pranks, and even puts her own at times.
• Punny Name: According to Bykov, her surname is based on pun, and refers to butt-kissing.

Lyubov Scryabina

Lyubov "Lyuba" Michailovna Scryabina (Любовь "Люба" Михайловна Скрябина)

Played by: Svetlana Permyakova (Светлана Пермякова)

Head Nurse in Therapy department.

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• Age-Gap Romance: In the first two seasons, she was in relationship with Levin, who's almost twice younger than her. It was ruined by Levin himself.
• Berserk Button: If you want to live, don't call her fat. Or old. She will go from friendly laugh to "go to hell" in less than a second; in fact, this is pretty much the only sure way to enrage her. And the Head Nurse is the last person you want as your enemy.
• Big Beautiful Woman: She is rather attractive, despite being... big (never use word "fat" near her).
• Character Catchphrase: "Edrit-Madrid!", which may be used in almost any context, from her being surprised to her being angry.
• Everyone Has Standards: Gossiper or not, she at least tries to learn more before starting another rumour, to not distribute blatantly false information. Unfortunately, this information being true is the only condition, she has no qualms to discuss something damaging for your reputation and/or relationship as long as it's "interesting". This trait, however, makes her good source of information when you know what to ask.
• First-Name Basis: Everyone calls her simply "Lyuba".
• Foil: To Rita. Lyuba is cheerful, energetic and friendly, while Rita is more calm, aloof and analytical.
• The Gadfly: Unlike other characters, particularly Bykov, Lyuba makes fun of other people for the sake of it, with no intentions to harm their feelings, and her jokes are much less cruel.
• Genki Girl: Always cheerful, energetic and (unless you know how to enrage her) friendly.
• Gossipy Hens: Infamous gossiper. What knows Lyuba, soon would know everyone, from nurses to patients. But she is also one you would ask when you need any unofficial information about someone.
• The Heart: Bykov considers her to be the soul and heart of the whole hospital; that's why he reacts to her leaving on vacation as if it's some sort of a catastrophe.
• Knowledge Broker: Due to knowing everything about everyone in the hospital (mainly with purpose to start gossips), she may be used when you need to find something specific. She gradually lost this position to Rita, though.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Someone really must explain to her what "personal information" and "I do not want to discuss this" means.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: She is master of eavesdropping people at exactly the wrong time, usually resulting in her interpreting already silly situations as something sexual in nature. At least, she usually keeps her findings secret until she can confirm them: even gossipers have standards, you know!
• Put on a Bus: In the season 8, she departed to the USA herself in hope to mend her relationship with Levin (who leaved back in season 3). Unfortunately, it only served to ruin their relationship permanently, and in season 10, she returned, heartbroken and no longer willing to have anything to do with Levin.
• Signature Laugh: She has unique, rather loud laugh. She mostly laughs whenever she finds something funny, often after her own jokes. She herself considers her laugh to be pretty; other characters, even if they disagree, would not risk telling so to her face.
• Stout Strength: She is surprisingly strong, despite being... big; whoever angers her, learns this the hard way.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Her ex-boyfriend Levin is much smaller and weaker than her.

Olga Lobanova

Olga Sergeevna Lobanova (Ольга Сергеевна Лобанова)

Played by: Tatyana Lyannik (Татьяна Лянник)

Semyon's wife. Initially a lawyer, later she was hired as the hospital's accountant.

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• Better as Friends: She and Phil eventually decided that they just aren't meant to be a couple, and actually works much better as friends.
• Fiery Redhead: While not to a degree of her husband, she may be quick to explode as well (particularly on Lobanov's usual stupidity). And once enraged, she is as dangerous as wild flame.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: For a long time she and Semyon couldn't conceive a child; this was one of the reasons for their breakup. And then she got pregnant after one night stand.
• Old Flame: She divorced Lobanov in 3rd season when he disappointed her yet again, but returned in the season 6, confirming that old feelings towards Semyon never died completely. Once her new relationship with Phil fell apart, she eventually returned to Semyon and remarried him.
• Put on a Bus:
  • She leaved series for couple of seasons after her breakup with Lobanov in 3rd season. It took her until 6th season to reappear.
  • She took maternity leave after giving birth to her daughter in the end of 9th season, and was absent until the middle of the 11th season, only being mentioned from time to time by Semyon.
  • She went on a month-long vacation with Semyon in the second half of 11th season. While Semyon would later reappear in the final season, Olga would remain offscreen, without explanation given.
• Romantic False Lead: She dated Phil after her return for some time before going back to Lobanov (while Phil would eventually stick with Polina).
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Semyon; she is attractive redhead, while he's rather ugly, and was even mistaken for criminal more than once.

Later additions

Margarita Korolyova

Margarita "Rita" Pavlovna Korolyova (Маргарита "Рита" Павловна Королёва)

Played by: Yulia Nazarova (Юлия Назарова)

Bykov's ex-girlfriend. He suggested her as temporal replacement for Lyuba during her absence. Later she remains as Lyuba's subordinate.

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• Age-Gap Romance: By the final episode, she's in relationship with Alexei, who is near twice younger than her.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Unlike Lyuba, Rita prefers to keep some distance. She's also more calm and analytical than Lyuba.
• Amicable Exes: With Bykov. Their relationship is long gone, but they parted on good terms.
• Foil: To Lyuba. Lyuba is cheerful, energetic and friendly, while Rita is more calm, aloof and analytical.
• Knowledge Broker: Pretty much like Lyuba, she collects all the rumours around the hospital, and analyses them for information. If you want to find something, just ask her.

Timur Alabayev

Timur Borisovich Alabayev (Тимур Борисович Алабаев)

Played by: Azamat Musagaliev (Азамат Мусагалиев)

New doctor in the Therapy. Polina's ex-husband.

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• Consummate Liar: He can create elaborate lies on the spot; no one could crack them because he actually goes and starts reinforcing them with new details as required, making them harder to disprove. This is actually one of the early clues that he may be not as trustworthy as he claims.
• Foreshadowing: Several details indicates his dishonesty long before it plays crucial role in his final fallout with Polina.
  • Timur is noticeably unwilling to reveal any details about the reason why he quit his old job with much better salary, and tries to not mention it at all. Later it turns out that he was fired and blacklisted after his idiotic prank backfired at him.
  • Many episodes where Timur plays important role involves him lying to someone, in one way or another, sometimes to exploit people. His penultimate episode shows that his constant lies were the real reason why he broke up with Polina, and also why she breaks with him again.
• The Gadfly: He likes making silly jokes directed at other people (and sometimes even himself), but unlike Gleb, rarely with bad intentions; most of them are indeed just for fun.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Staple of Bykov's jokes at his expense; Bykov just keeps "mistaking" Timur's true ethnicity for either other ethnic minorities, or something unrelated, up to and including the Golden Horde. Timur prefers to ignore it, because he can't afford to lose this job, but he's not amused.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Polina remembers her past life with him as the worst experience of her life, because he was insufferable, self-centred jerk. At first, it seemingly gets confirmed that she's prejudiced, that it was the mutual fault, and now they have a chance to mend their relationship (as Timur acts nowhere like his old self), but then Polina finally remembers the true reason: his constant lies. When Timur lies to Polina once again (for no good reason at that), Polina realises that Timur didn't change a one bit, and dumps him instantly. Timur at first seemingly accepts defeat, but then pretends that he's gonna kill himself, in attempt to scare her into staying with him... only to being busted with his "plan B" chick.
• Put on a Bus: After quitting the job in the hospital, and irreversibly ruining his standings with Polina, he permanently leaves the series.
• Token Minority: Only Kazakh in the cast. Of course, Bykov makes any Asian-related jokes he can come up with on him. Timur, generally, doesn't mind and even plays along to not enrage Bykov, but even he has the line. Of course, he has a good reason to tolerate Bykov's abuse.
• Understatement: In his first episode, he says that he quit his previous job in prestigious private clinic due to "conflict with a boss". In Timur's penultimate episode, we learn that this conflict was Timur's prank going wrong (he accidentally spilled some literal shit on the boss' head from the window), which backfired due to Timur being busted laughing like an idiot near that window, and resulted in Timur being blacklisted from every other clinic the boss managed to contact (with Kisegach's hospital being the sole exception).

Victor Romanenko

Victor Alekseevich Romanenko (Виктор Алексеевич Романенко)

Played by: Mikhail Porechenkov (Михаил Пореченков)

Gleb's father and Kisegach's ex-husband. A businessman.

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• Ascended Extra: He was entirely offscreen character with only minimal importance to the plot — until the last season, where he becomes the central antagonist.
• Disappeared Dad: He virtually disappeared from his son's life after divorcing his mother. Many years after, he decided that Gleb needs a father figure after all — especially now, when he's on the brink of losing himself. This may also be his chance to win back Kisegach.
• The Ghost: Until his appearance in the last season, he existed entirely offscreen.
• Old Flame: One of the reasons for his return is his attempt to resurrect his relationship with Kisegach. He's not very successful at first, and it's mainly Bykov's non-stop screwups which makes him look good in comparison.
• The Rival: In the second half of final season, Bykov has to compete with him for Kisegach's affection. Bykov almost loses it due to, well, being Bykov.

Interns

Original cast

Gleb Romanenko

Gleb Victorovich Romanenko (Глеб Викторович Романенко)

Played by: Ilya Glinnikov (Илья Глинников)

One of the original four interns and Anastasia's son from first marriage.

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• Brilliant, but Lazy: He is, actually, smart and capable of learning, but is very lazy, and would do everything to avoid doing work, up to and including dumping it on the others.
  • In the end of season 9, he was briefly left in charge of Therapy as the only free doctor available; this proved that, if properly motivated, he can be a good specialist.
  • When he was put in charge during the final season, he demonstrated good administration skills (in fact, he is better as administrator than he is as a doctor). It's implied that he would succeed his mother after her departure in the last episode.
• The Bully:
  • If Semyon abused Levin, Gleb abused Phil. Some of his pranks are far into Jerkass territory. He eventually grew out of this.
  • He was a bully back in the school, while being the most popular kid there.
• Character Development: Initially sleazy and lazy Spoiled Brat, who's here mainly to not disappoint his mother, he gradually learned both to take his job more seriously (by standards of this series, anyway), and became a better friend and doctor in process, though one thing — his Troll tendencies — remains intact throughout the whole series. He occasionally snaps back into his old self when the plot demands it, though.
• Disappeared Dad: His father left his family long time ago, only helping Gleb through money, but he still shares his last name (despite his mother returned her maiden name). Gleb's father returns in final season, however.
• Fatal Flaw: He is very, very lazy. Why work on yourself, if you may exploit other people? Why learn how to live by yourself, if you can exploit your parents' money? He isn't dumb, but never tries to put his skills to good use unless pressed.
• Nom de Mom: Inverted. He uses his father's last name, despite his mother divorced him long time ago and now uses her maiden name.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: He reacted... badly when learned that Bykov started dating his mother. It is not so much because she is his mother (Bykov is not the first to date her anyway), as because it is Bykov who dates her. This became even worse when Bykov accidentally impregnated her (though this time he is more offended by Bykov's attempt to leave her after that).
• The Peter Principle: Inverted. Somehow, once he gets put to do administrative job, it works much better than whatever he was capable of as a doctor.
• Really Gets Around: When outside of stable relationships, he changes girls on daily basis, to Phil's annoyance: they shared apartments right until the season 12, with only one room having an actual bed, and another having the uncomfortable couch; not to mention the... noise.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Semyon's Red; he is much calmer than him, and prefers using his head.
• Serious Business: Much of conflict with Sophia in the 13th season is caused by him trying too hard to show that he can take marriage and wedded life "seriously" and plan ahead instead of doing everything impulsively like he always does, to the point of throwing away any fun and enjoyment out of it; this proves Bykov's previous statement that the harder he tries to prove that he's not dumbass, the more he acts like one. It bites him in the ass when Sophia (who's only interested in making fun) dumps him to keep her freedom.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Gleb never can get along with Bykov, which only gets worse by Bykov dating Gleb's mother.
• The Slacker: He and Semyon are infamous in the hospital for their laziness, and savviness they use only to avoid doing work.
• Spoiled Brat: When first introduced, he was lazy, spoiled son of a rich mother, who can't afford much time to rise him right. When she decided to finally cut him from her money, he gradually became more responsible, though he shows old colours from time to time.
• Token Evil Teammate: To original interns. While not to a degree of Kupitman, he is prone to ethically questionable deeds, and some of his jokes are borderline cruel; his lowest moment is that time when he scammed Phil for big sum of money and bragged about it to Lobanov, who (while not a saint by any standards himself) was outraged. He also considered perfectly okay to press Polina into quitting internship just out of personal dislike for her; she called him out on it.
• Troll: Gleb just can't resist temptation to troll other interns (especially Phil).

Semyon Lobanov

Semyon Semyonovich Lobanov (Семён Семёнович Лобанов)

Played by: Aleksandr Ilyin Jr. (Александр Ильин Мл.)

One of the original four interns.

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• Berserk Button: Never call him stupid. This is one of the easiest ways to enrage him. No, attempts to be "clever" and subtle about it would not help, just ask Levin.
• Book Dumb: He is most experienced of four interns (notably, he is the only one who has any prior practice, because he worked at ambulance), but his theoretic knowledge is one of the worst. He shows that this experience actually worth something in the season 2, when he coordinates the other interns and saves some random guy's life, while resident "smart guy" Levin only snapped out of shock when yelled at.
• The Bully: To Levin, whom he constantly abused in early seasons. Notably, he was the first to call Levin "Deer". He also briefly became this to Phil after his introduction, but stopped abusing him when they became friends.
• Butt-Monkey: Even more than the other interns. Nothing ever goes right for Semyon; be it work, attempts to raise money or his personal life, something always would go wrong. Sometimes this is his fault, but often he is just collateral damage for other characters' antics.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Semyon often creates some "genius" schemes to avoid doing his work or to raise some easy money (in rather questionable ways). They rarely, if ever, work, either because of his stupidity, bad luck, or both.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Never mess with his girl, whether current or ex. He would hit you in the face for it on smallest provocation; just ask Gleb, or Phil.
• The Ditz: He is not very bright by any standards, let alone for a doctor. He also has poor grasp on grammar (for example, when in one episode he was forced to adhere a school dictation, he utterly failed it).
• Face of a Thug: He was mistaken for criminal several times, one time — over his face alone.
• Foil: To Levin. Lobanov has bad theoretical knowledge, but some actual experience (though sometimes he overestimates it, while Levin is well-educated, but overestimates his ability to apply this knowledge on practice. Semyon prefers to deal with problems with brute force; Boris prefers to deal with problems with his intelligence. Lobanov is very hot-tempered, while Levin (usually) would try to ignore whatever abuse he suffered.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He is rather impulsive, especially if he thinks that somebody is after his Love Interest.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be rude sometimes, but he cares about his friends and their wellbeing. Notably, when Gleb scammed Phil for big sum of money and tried to brag about it to Lobanov, Semyon called him a vermin and refused to eat anything Gleb bought with those money; he only forgave Gleb when he apologised.
• Late to the Punchline: He's often the last to get the joke, especially when someone uses more complex insults about his intelligence, or, rather, lack of thereof against him. But, while late, he always gets that this is an insult, so it's ill-advised to call him stupid.
• Lethally Stupid: All inters can do moronic mistakes, but only Lobanov is so prone to either completely disregard safety rules, or put his patients at danger due to either having no idea what to do, or being too lazy to doublecheck. This trait remains unchanged even by the time of final season.
• Noble Bigot: He is rather homophobic. Not uncommon trait amongst Russians, but his reaction is considered inadequate even by the other characters. This makes him being Mistaken for Gay himself so often even more ironic. But, that aside, he is generally a good man and friend, and if somebody hurts his friends, he would protect them (even Levin).
• Old Flame: When Olga returned in season 6, as a new hospital's accountant, Lobanov (who was in new relationship at the time) realised that he still can't forget Olga (who now dates Phil). This forced him to dump Irina and start fighting for Olga's heart. It worked, since she couldn't forget him, too. In the season 8, they restored their relationship.
• Out of Focus: While all old interns started receiving less screen time after introduction of the new ones, Semyon was hit with it the most, due to not only working at other department, but also (unlike Phil, who at least works under Kupitman, who's Sophia's uncle) not being related to either one of new characters. Then he disappeared completely for entire season. He finally returned to the main team in the last season.
• Perpetual Poverty: He is infamous amongst friends and colleagues for his constant lack of money, and he always tries to loan more (sometimes even to pay off the other debts). This often gets Lampshaded as the reason behind his poverty, since everyone has similarly low salary, yet he is only one to be in such conditions. His constant lack of money is also the main reason why he always accepts some questionably ethical offers from his patients to raise some easy money.
• Put on a Bus: Went on month-long vacancy with Olga in the second half of season 11. Then he was punished by his boss for not bothering to ask him for permission first, resulting in him spending three months working at ambulance, non-stop, which we learn when he finally shows up in the final season.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: His constant smoking is directly behind his and Olga's inability to have children in earlier seasons. They still managed to conceive a child much later, though.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Gleb's Blue; Semyon is extremely hot-blooded and often acts impulsively.
• The Slacker: He and Gleb are infamous in the hospital for their laziness, and savviness they use only to avoid doing work.
• Troll: While not as often (or as good at that) as Gleb, he has his moments. His main targets are Levin (before his departure) and Phil, though sometimes he mocks Varya or even Gleb himself. He also cooperates with Gleb for some of his pranks.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Olga. She is attractive redhead, while Semyon may easily be mistaken for criminal.
• Ultimate Job Security: Anyone who tries to act like Lobanov in real life, would be fired and likely sued very quickly. Yet Semyon somehow preserves his job no matter what (but he comes pretty close couple of times).
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Became this with Phil, of all people. Lobanov still sometimes trolls him (and Phil's past with Olga remains a heated topic), but non-maliciously, and would protect him from real harm (Gleb, when he gone too far with his abuse, found this out the hard way).

Boris Levin

Boris Arkadievitch Levin (Борис Аркадьевич Левин)

Played by: Dmitriy Sharakois (Дмитрий Шаракоис)

One of the original four interns.

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• Age-Gap Romance: In the first two seasons, he was in relationship with Lyuba, who is twice his age. They broke up permanently in the third season, however.
• Animal Motifs: Deers, to symbolise his arrogance dumbing him out.
• Back for the Finale: After disappearing in the end of season 3, he returns in the final season.
• Book Smart: Levin graduated with perfect grades (so-called "red diploma"), of which he's immensely proud and would rub it into your face. It doesn't mean that he's good at actually using that knowledge, not by a long shot.
• Butt-Monkey: Just like Lobanov, he's frequent target for abuse and just bad luck, but unlike him, he usually deserves it.
• Ditzy Genius: He had great marks at university and even graduated with perfect score (so-called "red diploma"), which he loves to rub into everyone's faces, but consistently lacks common sense and basic communication skills. He's not that great with applying theoretic knowledge on practice, either, as practice requires healthy self-doubt (he's overblown with pride) and being able to act in emergency situations (he's prone to panic, which shuts down his cognitive abilities). The years he spent away from Moscow did improve his medical skills, but did nothing to improve his social skills... which is gonna be an even worse problem in the future, as he takes over as the new Head of Therapy at the end, instead of just one of the common doctors.
• Endearingly Dorky: He becomes much, much nicer near Lyuba, and even if he acts even more awkward when tries to admire her, she actually considers this being cute. By contrast, he tends to act like a jerk towards almost everyone else. He drops this entirely when forced to choose between Lyuba and pursuing his career, causing their breakup in the season 3.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Levin is smart, but is too haughty to admit being in wrong, or to recognise that his "science career" is not the most important thing in the world, or that he still has much to learn, even from "inferior" humans around him. That's why he consistently alienates the other people and stays lonely.
• Foil: To Lobanov. Lobanov has bad theoretical knowledge, but some actual experience (though sometimes he overestimates it), while Levin is well-educated, but overestimates his ability to apply this knowledge on practice, and has zero understanding of how interact with other people. Semyon prefers to deal with problems with brute force; Boris prefers to deal with problems with his intelligence. Lobanov is very hot-tempered, while Levin (usually) would try to ignore whatever abuse he suffers.
• Foreign Exchange Student: In exchange for Phil moving to Russia, Levin moved to USA. Even after finishing his internship, he decided to stay in America, returning only in the last season, and not exactly at his free will.
• For Science!: Levin sometimes embraces his inner Mad Scientist and tries to do some strange and creepy experiments:
  • In the second episode, when he (due to his stupidity) "guessed" that his patient has "some new disease", he tried to cut up her head to take a sample of her brain for testing. He was only prevented from doing this by Bykov.
  • One of the episodes shows him being a little too enthusiastic about cutting up some lab rats for his experiments; Levin's behaviour in those scenes looks rather creepy. The rats gets protected by Lyuba, who finds them cute.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: In his early episodes, he was prone to complain about receiving menial work tasks (which are generally reserved for nurses), seeing them as beneath him (just because he graduated with perfect grades) and barely hiding his contempt for actual nurses, or other interns. Bykov always ignores his complaints.
• I Choose to Stay: Just like Phil, he decided not to move back home after finishing his internship, and only returned (in the last season) because he (by his own stupidity) was accused of a sexual harassment and was deported.
• Insufferable Genius: Levin just has to point out his superiority to everyone, whether it matters or not (and whether he really has it or not). He also has a bad habit of calling Semyon stupid, which always backfires. He even acted this way to his girlfriend, Lyuba (which contributed to their breakup). He somehow became worse after his return in the final season.
• It's All About Me: Levin is very unwilling to give up anything for anyone, including his partner. He rather rudely told Lyuba that he's not gonna give up his chance to take foreign internship, whether she allows it or not, which ruined their relationship, then, when she gave him a second chance, showed himself a terrible host due to not making any efforts to show that he does care about something else than his comfort, forcing her to pay for everything (despite being the one who invited her) and then only paying for return ticket when this quickly made her broke... and somehow still believing that she would forgive him and accept him back.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: His history with Lyuba shows that Levin never changes, no matter how many chances he receives:
  • When it seems that he actually loves Lyuba enough to stay with her when she asks him for that, instead of moving to USA to continue internship there (Lyuba secretly planned to let him go anyway, as a reward for his loyalty, because it is just that important chance for him)... he reveals that he never planned to cancel his ride to USA, whether Lyuba allows this or not; between his Love Interest and his career, he chose the latter. After that, she dumps him on the spot. Levin runs away, believing that he did the right thing.
  • Much later, Levin invites Lyuba to himself, and she agrees. But when Lyuba returns (alone and heartbroken), she reveals that it went disastrously. Levin took "everyone pays for themselves" as the excuse for his egoism, resulting in him refusing to help Lyuba financially at any point (despite being the one who invited her, and knowing that she's low on money — unlike him); when she did run out of money, he gave her the money for return ticket as a loan. Since then, Lyuba wants nothing to do with him.
  • When Levin finally returns in the last season, he tries to hit on Lyuba again, never ever thinking that there was a good reason why she dumped him twice — his egoism and arrogance. This time around, she refuses to give him yet another chance.
• No-Respect Guy: No one takes him seriously, not even orderlies. It becomes a plot point in one of the episodes, where it gets put to such extreme that Lyuba even hires Lobanov to "train" him (nothing comes out of this).
• No Social Skills: Levin just doesn't know how to deal with other people, and whenever he tries, he only makes things worse.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Levin has a bad habit of not thinking what he tells to other people, particularly Lobanov. Usually it involves Boris being "smart", and Semyon being "stupid", which without fail presses Semyon's Berserk Button.
• Put on a Bus: He departs to the USA in the end of season 3, until the very last season.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He considers himself to be much better specialist than he really is.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He often fails to say even most basic things without overcomplicating them, ranging from medicine to his weird attempts at humour (which only himself considers to be funny). No one likes this, especially Lobanov.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Tiny and slim, comparing to huge Lyuba.
• Too Clever by Half: He has the best education amongst original interns and would not miss an opportunity to rub this into their face, but when it comes to apply his knowledge on practise, sometimes makes the really idiotic mistakes, which not even Lobanov would do (whether medicine-related or not). He also can't just understand that telling Lobanov that he is stupid is not the smartest idea (no, attempt to hide it behind Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness would not work), despite it backfiring every. Single. Time.

Varvara Chernous

Varvara "Varya" Nikolaevna Chernous (Варвара "Варя" Николаевна Черноус)

Played by: Kristina Asmus (Кристина Асмус)

One of the original four interns.

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• Apologises a Lot: Running Gag in the earlier episodes; she says "sorry" every time she drops something or collapses with something/someone (which is a lot). She eventually grew up from it, with the gag being reused exactly once in much later episode.
• Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: Her attempts to help everyone often interferes with her actual duties, leading to her wasting time without achieving anything (with neither her task nor problem she tries to solve). This is most obvious in her debut episode: she'd spent a whole episode helping "terminally ill patient" with his "last wishes" and hearing his "sob stories about his coolness"... while, had she bothered to actually check clinical history, she would have found that he is not even a patient and just an alcoholic suffering from hangover.
• Extreme Doormat: Varya has troubles with saying "no" when she's treated aggressively, or with even trying to argue when she gets interrupted, even if she's in the middle of saying something crucial. She gradually dealt with this in her later episodes, at least for the most part.
• Fatal Flaw: She has two main flaws:
  • Varya is virtually spineless, breaking at first pressure. Doctor, especially a Russian doctor, should be a fighter, fighting to protect their patients to the last drop of blood. If you can be broken by insults, or loud yelling, or simple refusal to cooperate, you're unlikely to stick around for long. This is also why she always lacks guts to spill out the crucial information.
  • She is too empathic to become a good doctor. Why? Because good doctor should know when they may help and when they can't; attempts to help everyone would result in her not helping anyone, because of lack of time and resources. It frequently results in her acting before thinking, with disastrous results.
• The Ingenue: Most naive and idealistic of original interns, which often gets her in troubles, mostly due to other people exploiting her (including her debut episode).
• The Klutz: Mostly in early episodes (especially in first two), where she was prone to hit random things, but this happens from time to time with her.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: She introduced herself as "Doctor Varya". Bykov would not let her forget this any time soon. Kupitman sometimes also calls her this, if for whatever reason gets angry at her.
• Poor Communication Kills: Varya has extreme problems with revealing crucial information in time. The worst case was her Fake Pregnancy from season 5, when she spent several episodes withholding the truth from Gleb (who thought that she was pregnant from him) just because she felt too awkward to discuss this, despite almost everyone being already aware and trying to persuade her to do the right thing for once. Instead, she wasted time to the point when Gleb nearly ruined his friendship with everyone because they started boycotting her, and once she revealed everything, he instantly dumped her, this time forever.
• Put on a Bus: She leaved Therapy (to work with her Love Interest in the Surgery) in season 8, disappearing from it completely. She never came back, even for cameos.
• The Smurfette Principle: Until Polina and later Sophia were introduced (both having more complex personalities), Varya was the only female intern for several seasons in a row, with the fact that she's a woman (of the "gentle, weak, fragile" kind) being the major part of her characterisation.
• Stupid Good: Her own empathy often causes more harm than good, as she goes out of her way to "help", but, acting irrational, only causes harm, including to herself.
• Token Good Teammate: She's the most emphatic one amongst interns (both old and new ones), and has high moral standards. Both of this, unfortunately, are detrimental to her work and personal life.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: She's overly emotional and emphatic, and this constantly interferes with her work. She often panics and acts before realising that her actions are either suboptimal or unnecessary at all; and she tends to believe in any sufficiently sob story, being it true or not (mostly not, rather obvious at that). This is actually what Bykov stated as the main reason why he does not consider her to be fit for being a doctor: good doctor must have hot heart, but cold head.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: She has very idealistic view on this world. Bykov, being Bykov, just can't resist to shatter this mentality.

Phil Richards

Phil Richards (Фил Ричардс)

Played by: Odin Bairon (Один Байрон)

An exchange intern from USA. He was risen by two fathers — biological father, and stepfather (it's unknown what happened to mother); it frequently gets used both for comedy and for drama.

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• Better as Friends: He and Olga eventually decided that they just aren't meant to be a couple, and actually works much better as friends.
• But Not Too Foreign: His mother was Russian. Also at least one of his dads can speak Russian fluently enough for Phil to speak with him in Russian instead of English.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Whenever he tries to press his standards (moral or otherwise) on his friends and colleagues, his position always gets proven wrong by the end, though specific reason may vary; most often it would be due to him not realising how easy he may ruin his friends' life due to stubborn adherence to the law.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Phil gets drunk very quickly; before he managed to forget her, in this condition he usually started whining about his ex, Jessica. He developed some alcohol tolerance later, though.
• Cannot Talk to Women: Whenever Phil meets a girl he likes, he has serious issues when it comes to expressing his feelings, and nearly always has to rely on outside help.
• Control Freak: Phil must plan everything beforehand. He always plans his budget for the full month ahead, and if you want to lend money, you must ask him a month before (or, at least, this is what we know from Gleb's words). He also planned to achieve a prestigious position, a dog and children back in USA before reaching thirty five years (in that order).
• Culture Clash: Many jokes involving him (mostly in early episodes) relies on him not being familiar with some Russian customs, mentality or some old-fashioned local treatment methods ("zelyonka", cupping therapy, etc).
• First-Name Basis: No one ever calls him "Richards", not even Bykov, who uses last names when referring to any other intern.
• Foreign Exchange Student: When Levin moved to USA to continue his internship there, Phil has moved to Russia instead.
• Foreign-Language Tirade: Phil occasionally switches to English, usually when he's nervous because of something.
• Funny Foreigner: The fact that he is American often gets Played for Laughs. Specially by Bykov.
• I Choose to Stay: After finishing his internship, he decided to not return after all, since he kinda started liking that place, plus all his friends are now here.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He is straight (despite having two gay fathers), but people keep mistaking him for gay due to his "unmanly" behaviour and habits, emotionality and, well, his heritage.
• Last Girl Wins: He and Polina both sticks together after their previous relationships ends up in disaster.
• Missing Mom: The only two things we know about his mother is that she's Russian, and that he was raised without her; we don't even know her name. It's not known wether she's still alive, either.
• Naïve Newcomer: Because he is not native, he had troubles to adapt at first, which was readily exploited by Gleb.
• Nice Guy: One of the nicest guys amongst interns (besides Varya and Lyosha). This highly contrasts with how Lobanov, Levin or Romanenko usually acts.
• Queer People Are Funny: Zigzagged; Phil has two gay fathers (biological father, and stepfather), which is often used as source of comedy, but at times, it's also used seriously.
  • The episode which reveals their existence shows that while Phil genuinely loves them, he did suffer massive homophobia-induced bullying all his life, and it's very touchy subject. Kupitman, of all people, forfeits his bet to not let Bykov bully Phil further (albeit Bykov would later try anyway, if only briefly).
  • Some episodes uses quirkiness of his relatives for humour, but at times, they're treated completely seriously, and it gets shown that they're parents first and foremost. They're worrying about Phil, for completely valid and non-comedic reasons, and they can have fallouts just as any other parents, requiring intervention to make peace between them.
  • Phil himself, due to his upbringing, is often portrayed as weird and at times Ambiguously Gay himself, but just as often his insecurities and constant anxiety are used completely seriously and shows that he's vulnerable, sensitive guy who desperately needs some love, but just keeps facing bullying and betrayals, only finding support in his friends and colleagues.
• Romantic False Lead: Phil was briefly in relationship with Olga. They broke up on her initiative.
• Sixth Ranger: Phil joins the cast as a new intern in the season 4, replacing Levin (who departed in the previous season), and sticks till the end of the series.
• Token Good Teammate: Sometimes to his detriment. He is nice and friendly, and is opposed to rules violations (both on interns' and on administration's side); last one often gets either him or his friends into troubles.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Becomes this with Lobanov, of all people. While Lobanov still trolls him from time to time, they consider each other to be friends.

Later additions

Polina Uyanova

Polina Sergeevna Ulyanova (Полина Сергеевна Ульянова)

Played by: Yana Guryanova (Яна Гурьянова)

A new intern who was introduced in season 9 (and re-introduced in season 11).

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• Distaff Counter Part: She's described by her actress as "Lobanov in a dress", referring to Polina's straightforwardness and occasionally tactless behaviour, as well as tendency of doing or saying things before thinking.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: She managed to anger everybody in her first appearance, before she even started working in the hospital. Even Bykov was impressed, and allowed her to stay. It took her some time to even start improving her relationship with other people.
• Innocently Insensitive: She often doesn't think before saying something, which leads to her harming other people's feelings. Particularly, in her first appearance she called [[Younger Than He Looks Kupitman old (major issue for him), "increasing" his age by about twenty years. Predictably, he voted against hiring her.
• Last Girl Wins: She and Phil both sticks together after their previous relationships ends up in disaster.
• No Social Skills: She thinks of herself as The Social Expert. She disproves this in her very first episode, and it only becomes worse from here. She has bad luck with socialising with other people, often hitting just the wrong keys and getting exactly opposite effect than intended.
• Sixth Ranger: Twice:
  • She originally appeared in the season 9, as a new intern (replacing recently departed Varya), but then quietly disappeared between it and season 10.
  • She returns in the season 11 and joined Bykov's second team of interns in the season 12, this time for good.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Inverted, she is specifically designed to be polar opposite of Varya.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: The eason why she became The Friend Nobody Likes is that she managed to anger every major character in her very first day in the hospital. It wouldn't become much better in her latter appearances.
• Put on a Bus: She quietly and without any explanation disappeared from the series after only one season. When she returned later, she finally provided explanation both for her absence and for nobody speaking about her.
• Stepford Smiler: She tries not to show this, but her divorce with Timur actually hurt her much more than she lets the other people see, and her cheerful personality after returning to the hospital actually serves to hide her depression. This becomes an issue when Sophia decided that they're the rivals, forcing Gleb to come at Polina's defence.

Maxim Korneev

Maxim Leonidovich Korneev (Максим Леонидович Корнеев)

Played by: Ilya Shidlovsky (Илья Шидловский)

A new intern from Saint-Petersrburg. Generations of his family become doctors, and he would not become exception.

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• Black Sheep: He is the last descendant of a long dynasty of doctors... who never finished the medical university, forcing him to fake up his diploma. Bykov eventually learned about this, but, instead of dishonourably kicking him out, encouraged him to finish his education and graduate legitimately, after which he would be accepted back.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Max is tend to cheat his way out of most problems... which almost never works out.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: He has legitimate skills, but would always search for shortcuts and workarounds instead of just doing what he was supposed to do, which generally causes him more harm than good. In fact, even his medical diploma is fake. However, towards the end of his involvement in the series he realised that Cheaters Never Prosper, and confessed to Bykov — who, instead of dishonourably kicking him out, let him quietly quit, so he may finish his education legitimately and return.
• Fatal Flaw: He is not dumb, but instead of putting his skills to good use, he always tries to cheat and find an easy way out. As result, when the tricks don't work (like with professor who doesn't accepts bribes), he has no cards left. By always cheating, you never learn how to do things legitimately. He realised that right before leaving the series.
• Foreshadowing: When interns starts their introduction, Maxim is weirdly unwilling to reveal anything important about himself other than his place of origin. In the next season, it turns out that his diploma is fake, and he's trying to hide it from everyone.
• Missing Steps Plan: He likes to scheming, but always misses some crucial details, which leads to his downfall.
• The Proud Elite: Max tries to pass himself as one, by emphasising his Petersburg's origin (city known as the "cultural capital" of Russia), him being descendent of a long dynasty of doctors, and him being rich, but never goes into deep details. In fact, this is only half of the truth, and he is the Black Sheep of the family, because he failed to live up to their legacy.
• Put on a Bus: Maxim disappeared from the series once Bykov found out that his diploma is fake in the middle of a season 11. While Bykov promised to let him back once he receives diploma legitimately, this never happened during remaining episodes.
• Slimeball: Max is tend to exploit the people around him for his personal gains, and just cheat his way out of problems in general. No one likes this; even Phil outright admitted that he considers Max to be untrustworthy.
• Smug Snake: He often tries to manipulate the people around him to receive what he wants (or just for fun), but he's not nearly as successful at that as Gleb was.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He is essentially the second Gleb, with manipulations, cruel sense of humour and questionable morale. Gleb at least had some genuine friends, while Max only manipulates the people around him.
• Troll: As Gleb before him, he likes to make fun out of other interns, sometimes in rather ugly ways. His main target is Alexei, whom he mocks for his low-class origin.
• Token Evil Teammate: Max has rather questionable moral standards, and often tries to cheat his way out of problems or exploit the other people. In fact, he isn't even supposed to be here, because his diploma is fake (which gets revealed in his last episode).

Alexei Maltsev

Alexei "Lyosha" Denisovich Maltsev (Алексей "Лёша" Денисович Мальцев)

Played by: Aleksandr Lyapin (Александр Ляпин)

A new intern from the provincial town Torzhok.

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• Can't Spit It Out: He doesn't want to marry Rita (or even be in relationship with her any more; he never wanted, it was planned as merely a Fake Relationship), but just can't say so directly. And when he tries to say indirectly, well...
• Failure Is the Only Option: A series of fatal coincidences resulted in him not only starting dating Rita, but actually being close to marrying her, despite feeling nothing for her and being perfectly happy with the status of occasional lover. Many of his later episodes involves his ill-fated attempts to dump her and preserve face, but they universally fails without Rita ever learning anything.
• Fatal Flaw: His lack of self-confidence, which constantly results in him failing to do important decisions, not taking any risks and asking someone else for approval, or, when presented with several options, trying to take them all. Bykov keeps trying to defeat this trait, since the true doctor should know what he or she does, and, after making decision, sticking to it instead of trembling in self-doubt and doing nothing as result.
• Mr. Fixit: Alexei can fix almost anything, be it a broken bed, a door lock or a toilet. In fact, he works as a locksmith in his spare time to earn more money... or, rather, worked, until Bykov forced him to chose between medicine and locksmithing when patients started recognising him and started filling complaints.
• Nice Guy: He is nicest and friendliest intern from second team, always being ready to help when asked; by contrast, Maxim is the manipulative jerk, and Sophia is cold and rude.
• The Pornomancer: Sex just seems to find Alexei, wether he likes it, or not. He's particularly "lucky" with women twice his age, culminating with his relationship with Rita (who is old enough to being Bykov's Old Flame).
• Running Gag: Never let him start talking about Torzhok; it would be impossible to shut him up.
• Secret-Keeper: For Kupitman and Lyuba's Secret Relationship, since he accidentally busted them together. It turns out to be not so easy, since it constantly causes him troubles, but neither one of them cares.
• Single-Issue Wonk: Less abrasive than most, but no less annoying; whenever he starts talking about his hometown, Torzhok, he would go into long and boring monologues about the city, which no one can tolerate for long.
  Zhanna: Your Lyosha is a freak; in one word, "Torzhok"!
• There's No Place Like Home: Alexei's motivation to join internship is not for himself, but for his hometown, to which he plans to return some day; the thing is, Torzhok needs professional doctors, so Alexei can't return without becoming one himself. Otherwise, he has no interest in staying in Moscow, despite spending several years living here.
• Token Good Teammate: To the second team of interns. He is nice and friendly, and would help people in need, while Maxim is a manipulative jerk; Sophia was quiet at first, but quickly showed her dark side.
• Working-Class Hero: He represents the "simple Russian guy" from province. What he lacks in proper education, he compensates with savviness and being willing to work hard to achieve his goals]].
• Working-Class People Are Morons: He isn't stupid, despite his humble origin and lack of high culture upbringing, but Maxim keeps invoking this trope just to mock him. Sophia soon started doing this as well, but because she just dislikes him.

Sophia Kalinina

Sophia Yakovlevna Kalinina (Софья Яковлевна Калинина)

Played by: Aglaya Tarasova (Аглая Тарасова)

A new intern from Kirov. Kupitman's niece.

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• Can't Hold His Liquor: Never let her drink, she would get drunk very quickly, with disastrous consequences. Gleb learns this the hard way.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She spent several episodes thinking that Polina tries to "steal" Gleb from her — and that she intentionally tries to cause her harm, due to being her "rival". She went out of her way to cause Polina as many problems as possible in return (she was deadly sure that Polina only simulates depression, and tried to provoke her into "revealing" that, with predictable results). She only dropped that attitude when Gleb got fed up with it and forced them to spend a day together to know each other better, which somehow resulted in them becoming best friends.
• Ditzy Genius: She is the smartest (and best educated) in the second team of interns, but she has serious lack of common sense and knowledge how to live without constant supervising from her parents, which regularly results in problems when she tries to do something "new and cool" without thinking about consequences. Particularly glaring example is her attempt to take a "loan" from some random guy literally on the street — something no sane person would ever do, because virtually every time those guys ends up being the criminals with no qualms to take their money back from your cold dead body.
• Fatal Flaw: She is too immature, due to the way her father raised her. She has no skills required to live in the big world, she has no responsibility for her actions, and she has no desire to learn, now, when she is free from her father's control. It's quite ironic that Gleb turns out to be more responsible in their relationship — which is exactly why she leaves him, because in the end she loved her freedom more than she loved him.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Sophia briefly became an outcast in her early episodes due to everyone thinking that she was accepted into internship not for her skills, but for her connections to Kupitman (while the others had to compete for the few remaining places).
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Despite having low tolerance for alcohol (or even experience with it), she still tries to obtain some (and some more, and more...) whenever she goes into any night club, being much more concerned with "having fun" than with anything else. After bringing her into club for first time, Gleb refused to do it ever again because she got wasted in only thirty minutes, and was only convinced to do it again on condition that Sophia would stay away from alcohol — which she violated on the first opportunity, proceeding to became wasted with tons of alcohol, wildly dancing and even attempting to show striptease on one of the tables (this is despite being from conservative intelligent jewish family with no prior experience with night clubs of any kind), forcing Gleb to stop her.
• Hated Hometown: She really doesn't want to return to Kirov, as it means losing access to all the fun Moscow can offer, and getting back under her Control Freak dad's control.
• It Runs in the Family: Paranoia and love for conspiracies is certainly their family trait. Her great-grandfather was a KGB agent, her father is a paranoidal Knight Templar Parent, and she herself is cold, ruthless Clingy Jealous Girl who always expects some rivals in people around her.
• Jewish and Nerdy: Most educated in the second team of interns (in both scientific and cultural ways), but due to spending most of her life under constant overprotection of her father, she knows little about outside world and how it supposed to work.
• Put on a Bus: After running away from her wedding, she permanently disappeared from the series, deciding that she would rather live for herself than marry Gleb. Later it was revealed that she didn't take into account how she's gonna survive without a job or friends, and was soon forced to return to Kirov.
• Runaway Bride: She dumped Gleb right on the day of their marriage, greatly harming his feelings. This backfired on her, and resulted in her returning to Kirov.
• Small Town Boredom: One of the reasons whe she would rather stay in Moscow than return home is just how boring it is to live in her hometown, Kirov, especially with her Control Freak father.

Secondary characters

Other hospital's stuff

Orderlies Pavel and Pyotr

Pavel/Pasha and Pyotr (Павел/Паша и Пётр)

Played by: Mikhail Pavlik and Maxim Artamonov (Михаил Павлик и Максим Артамонов)

The orderlies.

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• Big Guy: Whenever they gets called for help, that's because they're big and threatening. If they are angry at you, even Lobanov would be afraid to deal with them.
• Fat Comic Relief: When Pasha receives any role in the plot, it most likely would be for comedy, being something certainly not fitting him (him and Pyotr being called "atlantes" during Bykov's roleplay; Pasha accidentally getting into the list of attractive suitors and being removed after expressing extreme surprise; etc).
• First-Name Basis: Unlike most characters, Pavel always gets addressed simply as "Pasha". We didn't even learn his (or Pyotr's, for that matter) surname.
• Living Prop: While they rarely have actual plot importance, they often can be seen on background.
• Recurring Extra: They almost never receives any significant role in the plot (often to the point of being the Living Prop), but they shows up occasionally in minor roles. Pasha, in particular, lasts for entire series.
• Those Two Guys: It almost seems that these two are the only orderlies in this hospital; though Pasha sometimes appears individually.

Vera

Vera (Вера)

Played by: Tatyana Mukhina (Татьяна Мухина)

Kisegach's secretary.

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• Recurring Extra: Unlike the orderlies, she rarely appears in person; but she lasts trough the whole series.
• Sycophantic Servant: She would do anything to please her boss, Kisegach, if she has a chance to being rewarded for it. This, however, makes her unfit for being a friend, unlike, say, Lyuba or Rita.

Galina and Valentina

Galina (Galya) and Valentina (Valya) (Галина (Галя) и Валентина (Валя))

Played by: Elena Surkova and Veronica Ris (Елена Суркова и Вероника Рис)

The nurses and Lyuba's subordinates.

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• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Galya is brunette and Valya is redhead; blonde in this trio is Lyuba, their boss. In later episodes, when Galya stopped appearing, she was replaced by Rita.
• Gossipy Hens: When Lyuba starts calling either Galya or Valya, it's a clear signal that she wants to start another rumour.
• Recurring Extra: If we need nurses, it most likely would be one of them (mostly Galya in earlier episodes, and mostly Valya in later ones).

Gennadiy Petrovich

Gennadiy Petrovich (Геннадий Петрович)

Played by: Sergei Makarov (Сергей Макаров)

A traumatologist and Bykov's friend. Lobanov's boss after he became full-pledged doctor and leaved the Therapy.

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• Benevolent Boss: Downplayed. While still prone to exploit Semyon at times, he is much nicer than Bykov and at least would not treat you like dirt... openly. He also provides him with more freedom, while Bykov was compared to a slaver at several occasions, including by Bykov himself. This all dissipated when Semyon made a mistake of going on three months-long vacation without warning him, making Gennadiy do everything in his power to make Semyon regret it.
• In-Series Nickname: Colleagues call him "the Beard" since the time when he spent a year without shaving as part of a bet.
• Recurring Extra: After his initial appearance in season 5, he reappeared in season 7 (when Lobanov briefly moved to him into Traumatology), and then became recurring character (as Lobanov's new boss after he finished internship).

Ivanovich

Ivanovich (Иванович)

Played by: Eduard Ablam (Эдуард Аблам)

An electrician. In love with Lyuba (which is not mutual).

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• Abhorrent Admirer: He's in love with Lyuba, who can't stand him. Doesn't stop him from trying anyway each time they meets for any reason. Him almost blatantly suggesting sex each time does not help matters.
• The Alcoholic: There're two loves in his life — Lyuba, and vodka. In fact, this is how he'd met Lyuba the first time: he once stole some medical alcohol, for which she was punished. Not exactly a good first impression, which he only made worse by his other characteristics.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He disappears without a trace mid-series. Much later, there would be a mention of another alcoholic electrician, but he wouldn't appear on-screen, and would be named differently.
• Drinking on Duty: He's drinking on duty, and sometimes instead of duty. Despite that, he still manages to make things work (without injuring himself or the others).
• No Name Given: "Ivanovich" is neither name nor surname, it's a patronymic. His actual name was never stated. The same applies to his colleague, Mikhalych.
• The Pollyanna: He's always cheerful and optimistic; however, combined with his other traits, this only makes him more irritating, since he never bothers to acknowledge his mistakes, or even try to change himself — why, if everything is fine and great?
• Recurring Extra: One of the two known electricians, other being Mikhalych. He mainly appears in the episodes when something must be fixed ASAP, though results are not always worth dealing with him.
• Refuge in Audacity: Let's just say: if you want to flirt with a woman, at least try to hide the fact that you want to bang her (which he combines with poor attempts into creating romantic atmosphere). This and his alcoholism makes it pretty obvious why Lyuba refuses his advances.

Irina Shemyakova

Irina Vitalyevna Shemyakova (Ирина Витальевна Шемякова)

Played by: Lidia Arefyeva (Лидия Арефьева)

A psychiatrist and Lobanov's Love Interest after his breakup with Olga (and before she returned to him).

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• Glamorous Single Mother: Unless you know beforehand, you would never guess that she is a single mother: she is perfectly able to sustain herself and her son Kirill, and even has time for relationship with Semyon.
• Immodest Orgasm: She's very loud in bed — so loud that, at one point, it gets mistaken for murder, causing Semyon some problems.
• Put on a Bus: In the end of season 6, Lobanov tells to Lyuba about Irina being loud in bed (it was complicated; lets just say, he had a reason), which not only enraged Irina to no end, but most likely forced her to quit working in this hospital altogether, because Lyuba revealed this to everyone, making Irina the resident laughing stock.
• Romantic False Lead: She was Lobanov's temporal Love Interest after his breakup with Olga, but once Olga returned, Semyon quickly realised that he no longer loves Irina, and dumped her to try and win Olga back.
• The Shrink: Her specialisation. In her debut episode she helped Phil to deal with his depression after his dog's death, which later indirectly led to her relationship with Lobanov.

David Takoev

David Taimurazovich Takoev (Давид Таймуразович Такоев)

Played by: Vadim Ramazanovich Tsalatti (Вадим Цалатти)

An anaesthetist. Varya's new Love Interest after her breakup with Gleb.

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• Be Yourself: He actually likes "natural" Varya much more than her attempts to be "special" for him. In fact, this may be the reason why he chose her after several "special" girls in a row.
• Love Interest: In him, Varya finally finds the guy she needs — caring, gentle and forgiving.
• Nice Guy: Unlike Gleb, he never acts like a jerk to Varya.
• Put on a Bus: He and Varya disappears from the series permanently in the season 8.
• Really Gets Around: He has a reputation of womaniser... who never stays with one girl for long. Then again, those were little affairs, while relationship with Varya seems to be the first serious one.

Igor and Valera

Igor and Valera (Игорь и Валера)

Twin doctors working under Bykov.

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• Flat Character: They gets introduced mainly so Bykov's abuse of Gleb can contrast with him treating someone fairly. Otherwise, they have almost zero characterisation, interaction with other characters or screen time. It's easy to miss the moment when they stopped appearing entirely; Bykov certainly did.
• Identical Twin Mistake: They gets mistaken for each other nearly every single time they appears on screen, due to them looking and acting completely similar, and making no attempts to make distinguishing them any easier. They gets correctly identified only in their final appearance, and that happens due to lucky guess.
• Remember the New Guy?: They were hired by Bykov between seasons 9 and 10, so he would still have three doctors under him. When Bykov brought his son on the work in the tenth seasons' first episode, he introduced them to him just like everyone else, without mentioning them being new here.
• Shoo Out the New Guy: They lasted for only one season, and quit their job offscreen somewhere after season 10.

Relatives

Sergey Vasilyevich

Sergei Vasilyevich (Сергей Васильевич)

Olga's father.

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• Alcoholic Dad: It's Implied that the real reason why Olga's father is constantly restricted by his wife is his alcoholism. Even when he describes his personal life (with heavy self-bias), it's rather clear that most of the times when he was forbidden to leave, it was in one way or another related to alcohol, and very first thing he does when he attends the hospital to "check up" is to ask Semyon to find some alcohol.
• The Ghost: While he was introduced in one of the earlier episodes, it took him until season 9 to appear in person.
• Henpecked Husband: He can't go anywhere without his wife's permission (and with her being presented). This is actually for his own good. He also has little saying in how things gets done in their family, being forced to obey his wife's decisions.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Inverted; unlike his wife, he is actually Semyon's friend, and was the only one of their family to remain in good relationship with Semyon even after his ugly breakup with Olga, and was willing to help him. Not that it actually changed much.

Alisa Bykova

Alisa Andreevna Bykova (Алиса Андреевна Быкова)

Played by: Maria Pirogova (Мария Пирогова)

Bykov's adult daughter.

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• Back for the Finale: After being absent for almost entire series, she returns in the final episode.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Alisa acts a lot like Bykov... when he was young, enthusiastic and talkative. And now she wants to become a doctor, like him, so she decided to spend some time with him to learn on practice. She changes her mind when she sees just what this work had done with her father (whose spirit was almost burned out due to all this stress), and leaves back to her mother, fearing that she can repeat his fate.
• Official Couple: She finally sticks with Gleb in the final episode, and insists that this time, she wouldn't abandon him.
• Put on a Bus: After just seven episodes, she decides to return to her mother, disappearing from the series until the very final episode.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Forms this dynamic with her father, Andrey Bykov; he is pragmatic, cynical and rather cold (unless you provoke him), she is energetic, optimistic and enthusiastic.

Yakov Kalinin

Yakov Semyonovich Kalinin (Яков Семёнович Калинин)

Played by: Aleksandr Nazarov) (Александр Назаров)

Sophia's father and Cupitman's cousin.

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• Abusive Parents: Not intentionally, but his insistence that Sophia must train to become superior in every aspect, particularly in music, and constant freedom restrictions leaved Sophia no place for free time at all. Add there his Control Freak tendencies, and you would start to understand why Sophia hates her home so much. Also, music lessons traumatised her enough for her to still hating Mozart and his music even years after.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: He was not amused when he found out about his daughter's relationship with Romanenko, and the next day arrives to Moscow to try and separate them, firstly by force, and then by trying to find any evidence that Gleb isn't trustworthy — through spy gear, no less.
• Control Freak: His daughter Sophia lives under strict routine with no place for personal life, only for education. This backfires when she goes to Moscow, with relative freedom, since she takes every opportunity to try something previously forbidden, wether it's safe or not. Even then, he forces her to regularly call him, and when he learns about her being in relationship with Gleb (from Gleb himself), he arrives to Moscow the very next day and tries to take her away by force. When it fails (Gleb suddenly proposed to Sophia, rendering him unable to do it anymore and save face), he tries to blackmail Kupitman into acting like a spy for him to find something which would put Gleb in bad light, for which he actually obtained some spy gear (presumably it belonged to his grandfather, who actually worked for KGB).
• It Runs in the Family: Paranoia and love for conspiracies is certainly a family trait. His grandfather was a KGB agent, Yakov is a paranoidal Knight Templar Parent, and Sophia is a cold, ruthless Clingy Jealous Girl who always expects rivals in people around her.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He isn't exactly most sympathetic character out there, but his belief that Sophia isn't mature enough to live by herself isn't all that wrong — because he is the cause of the problem. Whenever she's free to do as she wants, she does something reckless or downright dangerous, because she never developed survival instincts or basic common sense, always looking at her father for approval. She proves him completely right soon afterwards when she decides to dump Gleb so she may live free, without needs to worry about things like "family" (only to soon realise that she can't do so without source of income or place to live, and return to Kirov).
• Knight Templar Parent: There's natural instinct of any good father to protect his daughter, and then there's his obsession with controlling her every step, and trying to separate her from her mentor, friends and Love Interest, because he thinks she is not mature enough to think for herself.
• Put on a Bus: He only visits Moscow two times — to take Sophia away, and (when it fails) to attend her wedding. When Sophia run away, he had no reason to stick around either.

Marina Kisegach

Marina Aleksandrovna Kisegach (Марина Александровна Кисегач)

Played by: Lyudmila Chursina (Людмила Чурсина)

Kisegach's mother and Gleb's grandmother.

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• The Ghost: While she was mentioned in several episodes (mainly being important for Gleb's plots), it took her until season 7 to appear in person. After reappearing several times, she returns to offscreen existence once again.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: She clearly has some common qualities with her daughter Anastasia, like her talent to manipulate people.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: She and Bykov hates each other since the very start; Marina doesn't even bother with pretending.
• Rich Bitch: She's a rich woman who has very uneasy character. Bykov learns this the hard way.

Other recurring characters

Jessica

Jessica

Phil's ex-girlfriend. She stayed in USA when he moved to Russia, and later dumped in very cruel and mean way.

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• Closet Key: During Phil's visit to the USA with his then-girlfriend Katia, Jess managed to seduce Katia, who until then was a homophobe. Phil busted them together (in his own bed, no less); knowing Jess, it may or may not be intentional, to hurt Phil even more.
• False Soulmate: Phil believed that Jess is the love of his life; but for her, he was just an awkward boy to toy with, exploit and discard once he ceased to be of any use (when he moved to another country). She didn't stop at just that, either, continuing causing him pain even after their breakup.
• The Ghost: Except for one episode, where she appears as product of Phil's imagination, she never appears in person; everything we know about her, we know from Phil's words.
• Jerkass: Apparently, Jessica just loves to make Phil suffer.
  • She and Phil made an oath of fidelity. She broke it after a couple of months of his absence, dumped him via Facebook, made photos with her new boyfriend in her and Phil's "special place" (being perfectly aware that he would see it), and the next day made a post in Twitter about how she had "her first orgasm in life" (which just can't be anything else but direct mockery of Phil); by contrast, it took Phil two years of romancing her before they had sex for the first time, indicating that she likely never actually loved him to begin with. Phil was deeply harmed by her betrayal.
  • When Phil briefly returned to USA with his then-girlfriend Katia, Jess somehow learned about it, and seduced Katia, leading to Phil busting the two in his own bed. Given Jess' prior actions, it was likely intentional.

Innokentiy

Innokentiy (Иннокентий)

Bykov's often mentioned (but never appearing in person) friend. A test pilot.

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• Chekhov's Gunman: Bykov started calling him long before he became of any importance to the plot (or even the source of any comedic situation). Then the fact that Bykov has his contacts became crucial to Semyon's plot in one episode.
• The Dreaded: In one episode, Bykov calls him to deal with Semyon's Rich Bitch patient and her boyfriend; it scares them enough to force the girl into compliance and apologising before Semyon for acting like a jerk.
• The Ghost: He never appears in person, nor can he be heard, but Bykov mentions him on several occasions throughout the series, and sometimes calls him, though only once their friendship actually affected the plot.
• Godzilla Threshold: Bykov considers calling him to be the nuclear option, especially for something so minor as Lobanov and his problems, but he does call him anyway since they have no other way to help Semyon.
• Overly Pre-Prepared Gag: His entire existence. He was mentioned just often enough to make the viewers remember his name, and start wondering just what's so special about the guy — all for one joke where just one call to him solves all Semyon's problems (well, "solves").
• The Unreveal: We never actually learn what's so special about him which makes him that respected (and feared) figure.

Boar

Boar/Sergey (Боров/Сергей)

Bykov's old biker friend.

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• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • Until he revealed his real name to Kisegach in season 10, he was only known as "Boar".
  • He only knows Bykov as "Lizard", which causes some confusion when Kisegach asks him about "Andrey".
• Recurring Extra: Despite being important for only one episode, he keeps being mentioned in dialogues throughout the series, and briefly reappears twice, in two different seasons.

Anton Yaroslavsky

Anton Nikolaevich Yaroslavsky (Антон Николаевич Ярославский)

Played by: Andrey Andreyev (Андрей Андреев)

Anastasia's lover after her breakup with Bykov in season 4. Disappears early in season 5.

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• Put on a Bus: After spending some time being Bykov's rival, he gives up, realising that Kisegach still loves Bykov, and leaves their life — and the series. He would later show up once in season 9, but wouldn't make any attempts to restart the conflict and quietly leave afterwards.
• The Rival: Anton briefly becomes Bykov's competitor for Kisegach's attention, though their confrontation only occurs at the last episode before Anton leaves.
• Romantic False Lead: Anton dated Kisegach during her brief breakup with Bykov in seasons 4–5. Bykov didn't consider him to be a serious threat right from the start, and was proven right, because Kisegach dumped him all by herself.

Sergey, Kirill, Zhanna and Vakhtang

Sergey (Сергей), Kirill (Кирилл), Zhanna (Жанна), Vakhtang (Вахтанг)

Other candidates for internship in season 10, who (unlike many others) survived the casting for long enough to at least reveal their names.

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• Butt-Monkey: Sergey spent his first and only day being used as a butt of countless jokes by both Bykov and the other candidates.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Kirill spent his second (and last) episode trying to cause his rivals being kicked out (switching targets on the move), by offering to help them, only to betray their trust in one way or another. In the end, Bykov kicked out him, out of disgust, because he can't tolerate such behaviour in his team; Sophia, who was in his team, was spared.
• Flat Character: Sergey and Kirill received very little characterisation before being kicked out of the competition, beyond Sergey being boring, and Kirill being an asshole. Zhanna and Vakhtang didn't get even that.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: When Bykov invites Sergei, Kirill, Zhanna and Maxim into the on-call room for their first test, the scene is meant to remind about the pilot episode, with them being analogues of Boris Levin, Semyon Lobanov, Varya Chernous and Gleb Romanenko, respectively. Of those four, Sergei even acts like Levin... which gets him the first one to get kicked out, as this time Bykov can afford to get rid of a boring complainer.
• Token Minority: Vakhtang is Georgian in otherwise mostly Russian cast.
• Too Clever by Half: Sergey is smartest one amongst interns presented during Bykov's Fox-Chicken-Grain Puzzle, but it does him little good, because the actual test involves sense of humour and outside-of-the-box thinking, while he considers himself above participating in something like this. He gets predictably disqualified when, rather than participating, he complains about the rules, calling them "illogical" (failing to realise that they aren't meant to be).

Ekaterina Vorobyova

Ekaterina "Katia" Vorobyova (Екатерина Воробьёва)

Played by: Lubov Sokolinskaya (Любовь Соколинская)

A journalist. Phil's (second) girlfriend during second half of season 13, until he made mistake to introduce her to USA, which resulted in her cheating on him... with Phil's first girlfriend, Jess.

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• Dirty Harriet: To collect material about prostitutes for a new article, she pretended to be a prostitute herself (it's the only way to earn their trust and gather the information she needs, prostitutes aren't the most talkative people), which is how Timur hires her when he needs someone for one night-stand with Phil. She took precautions in case someone would actually try to force her into sex, taking a shocker, a pepper spray and a switchblade; she didn't need those with Phil, because she actually liked him.
• Gone Horribly Right: Phil wanted to cure her from her homophobia (she can't become a part of family if she can't stand him having gay parents), so, when going back to the USA to save his parents' collapsing marriage, he took Katia with himself (who changed her mind at the last moment and decided to trust him). It resulted in her cheating on Phil with Jessica, Phil's first girlfriend.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: She was hired by Timur and Polina, who were desperate to find any woman willing to sleep with Phil, not knowing that it's merely a disguise she needs to make a scoop. Then Katia actually started dating Phil, and they decided that it went too far, and tried to break them up, forcing her to finally reveal the truth to Phil. When the original plan gets revealed to Phil, he reacts as well as may be expected.
• Noble Bigot: While generally a good woman who genuinely loves Phil, she has troubles accepting homosexuality as something normal due to her cultural upbringing. But, realising that if Phil's parents managed to raise him so well, they're not as bad as she was taught to believe, she decided to put away her prejudice and come to know them as people, not "gays". Due to Phil's usual terrible luck, it accidentally resulted in her cheating on him... with a woman.
• Put on a Bus: She disappeared from the series after cheating on Phil with Jessica.

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