Cybervillage or Cyberfarm (Кибердеревня, Kiberderevnya) is a comedy series by Sergey Vasiliev. Actually, it started as a series of YouTube shorts on the Birchpunk channel, but as of 2023, it's a full live-action series.
It is the 22nd Century. The farmer Nikolay is living with his family on Mars. Once, he used to work with his friend, Konstantin Baragozin, in a robot-producing corporation, but the friend removed him long ago. Now, Baragozin, a Corrupt Corporate Executive, is about to be fired as the CEO, with the only plan allowing him to keep his position involving a factory on Mars. Nikolay stubbornly insists on remaining. During the attempt to remove them by force, an accident occurs. An old "Freaky Friday" Flip device constructed by the two friends ages ago has transferred Baragozin's mind into an old robot, while Baragozin's body was left a Blank Slate and taken back to Earth. Now, Baragozin (nicknamed Robogozin) must ally with Nikolay in order to return to his body. However, Baragozin's deputy finds he much prefers matters as they are.
This series provides examples Of:
- Annoying Pop-Up Ad: Galina suddenly interrupts the talk to her husband with a medicine ad.
- Anti-Nepotism: Baragozin complains his headmistress mom tended to lower his school grades to avoid favoritim accusations.
- Artificial Family Member:
- Galya insisted on two holographic kids added to her and Pavel's household.
- Baragozin's childhood drawing has a robot in place of his father.
- Aside Comment: Nikolay does these all the time. Backfires at one point when he says something derogatory about the police... and they hear that.
- Asteroid Thicket: Shown to be the case in one scene with the space train.
- Beastly Bloodsports: The teens on Saturn's rings have one with robotic dogs. Robogozin's head ends up on the body of one...
- Blank Slate: What Baragozin's body is left as once his mind is uploaded into the robot.
- Brain Uploading: Baragozin gets his mind uploaded into an old worker robot.
- Cassandra Truth: Robogozin telling people about his true identity tends to be ignored. If it does work, then the person in question usually hates him.
- Cathartic Scream: Baragozin’s deputy and some girl standing on the roof and screaming "Jackass".
- Child Prodigy: Lyudka is quite the tinkerer at her age.
- Colonized Solar System: Mars, Saturn and Pluto were shown as of episode 4.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Baragozin, naturally.
- Cranium Chase: The second episode begins with Robogozin’s head breaking off and the body running around.
- Curse Cut Short: When Galya attempts to use a curse for describing a bad situation, her automatic censor stops her and suggests possible replacement words.
- Deface of the Moon: Baragozin carved his face into it.
- Distant Prologue: Nikolay and Konstantin as young men, working on a consciousness transfer device.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: Nadya has it as part of her plan to make the robots work.
- Exiled to the Couch: After Nadya sees her husband's secret labnote she says "once you're back home, it's two months of livingintheshedine".
- Fantastic Racism: Robots, for example, are not allowed into the train as passengers.
- Fat Bastard: Baragozin, at the beginning of the series, is too fat.
- Firing Day: Baragozin fires his deputy in the first episode.
- Food Slap: Pavel throws a glass of tea into Oleg's face after he insults Verochka.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Attempted by the two friends in the Distant Prologue.
- Freemium: Galina requires a premium account to unlock the adult option.
- Future Food Is Artificial: What the construction workers on Mars are served. Some strange goop in metal tubes with markings like "synthetic chicken" and "pseudoborscht".
- Going Commando: Galya emphasizes that after selling her underwear for charity donations.
- The Grovel:
- Robogozin is forced to apologize to Nikolay's car after insulting it.
- Nadya grovels before her robots to make them stay.
- Hands-On Approach: Oleg, being interested in Verochka, is shown to do that when teaching her to shoot during the hunt.
- Instant Mass: Just Add Water!: As a variant, there are tiny meals which expand a hundredfold when microwaved.
- Job-Stealing Robot: Plenty of them. One of the reasons Baragozin is hated.
- Just a Machine: A common treatment, but in reality, the robots are shown to have feelings and personalities.
- Landmark Declaration Gambit: Lyudka claims that the farm has a rare Sand Worm.
- Let the Bully Win: When Oleg challenges Pavel to a shooting contest, Galya recommends that he loses, since that is the only major shareholder yet to approve his assignment as the chairman.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Like make a failed decades-old device work.
- Missed the Bus: The second episode is appropriately titled "How did we Miss the Train".
- My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Galya scans Pavel when he seems distracted, and says he is either high on drugs or in love.
- My Skull Runneth Over: In Episode 7, Robogozin runs into that problem due to his memory drive being obsolete.
- Naked People Are Funny: Baby Baragozin, once left alone, throws off his clothing and runs out. On live TV.
- Never Sent Any Letters: Nikolay really blows a fuse after learning Robogozin has been intercepting his letters to the family and vice versa, and replacing them with his own.
- Niceness Denial: Robogozin, after saving the train, claims he did it for his own safety.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Baragozin is a parody of Dmitry Rogozin
- Overly Long Gag: In the second episode, Nikolay, Robogozin and a granny take the Space Elevator from the surface of Mars to a space train. The YouTube channel has a video of the whole ride, ten hours long.
- Parents Know Their Children: Baragozin's mom recognizes him at once, even in a robot body.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The combination to the lock Baragozin forgot turns out to be the date of his own "Rosebud" moment.
- Pastoral Science Fiction: About Russian farmers on Mars.
- Punk Punk: Future in the style of Glorious Mother Russia and the traditional Russian rural/provincial mess.
- Railroad Plot: How it starts. Nikolay is the only one refusing to evacuate Mars and make room for Baragozin's new factory.
- Rapid Hair Growth: Happens to the construction foreman after Lyudka switches his shampoo with one of her father's inventions. According to her, it was originally meant to stimulate vegetable growth.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Nikolay's farm workers all have individual personalities and require personal approaches.
- Robotic Reveal: Galina, the wife of Baragozin's deputy, is revealed to the audience as a hologram when he puts her on a pause.
- Robotic Spouse: Galina.
- Sand In My Eyes: Robogozin seems to cry during a family moment, and claims some rust got in his eye.
- Sand Worm: The farm has one named Chervik (Wormie).
- Scenery Censor: Galina attempts to switch to naked, only for the naughty bits to be covered with notifications to buy the full version.
- Shrink Ray: A Plutonian worker made one. Turns out to be useful when the workers aren't getting enough money to eat.
- Shout-Out:
- The tractor Mitya is possibly an allusion to the tractor from the Prostokvashino books.
- Robogozin's head lying on the sand parodies an iconic scene from White Sun of the Desert.
- When the heroes finally try to transfer Baragozin's mind back, there is a setback because the flux capacitor is missing.
- Small Town Boredom: Marinka seems to suffer from it.
- Space Elevator: Mars has one which the heroes take to catch a space train.
- Soap Punishment: As a variant, when Baragozin's deputy tries to beg him to undo the decision to fire him, Baragozin gives him a soap bar. The deputy thinks he must eat the soap as punishment. In reality, the baby Baragozin was trying to see if it was edible.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Nikolay's family knows the construction workers are tired of their Mess on a Plate meals, so they leave them some drugged pastries.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Nikolay's instructions to Nadya about the farm.
- Tempting Fate: The Blank Slate Baragozin provides these whenever there is a plan counting on him behaving.
- Trust Password: Robogozin, once he makes contact with his secretary, tells her about his nickname for her and some other private matters.
- Unobtanium: The actual word (nedostupnium) used for what Baragozin intends to mine on Mars.
- We Used to Be Friends: Nikolay and Konstantin.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Baragozin was that when it came to his mother. She actually did appreciate his achievements, but never displayed that.
- What a Piece of Junk: Bulya might be a bit old and with a temper, but she gets one where he wants to go.
- Xanatos Gambit: Nikolay leaves Nadya instructions on how to handle the robotic workers. She ignores them, so they abandon her. She runs into trouble of the Eek, a Mouse!! type, and grovels before them for help. Once alone, she explains she doesn’t fear mice, but her way also works. Then we switch to the robots listening to their own instructions from Nikolay, which say Nadya will probably try something like that, and that they should play along.
- You Have Failed Me: Baragozin orders to scrap a robot servant for failing to button his suit properly.
