The premiere of Baby Boxes 2 melodrama series about the challenging issue of abandoned infants is planned on Ukraina TV channel for the end of September.
The first season of the series broadcast in spring 2016 was watched by almost 17 million Ukrainians. During the week on air Baby Boxes came to the top of 20 most popular programs for 18-54 audience (50+) – its average ranking and viewing share have amounted to 3.8% and 12.7% respectively. For 18+ audience (all Ukraine) the share of Baby Boxes series was 25% higher than average daily share of Ukraina TV channel, and average film ranking and share for this audience amounted to 5.93% and 15.39% respectively. Besides, in the time slot used for the series the share of Ukraina TV channel was 46% higher than that of its closest competitor.
Almost immediately after the premiere the work on the second season started.
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The audience instantly took to Baby Boxes protagonist, doctor Sokolova played by Ekaterina Reshetnikova. In the second season, her character has lived through important changes in her life: now she has a family, her husband is an ex-employee of the Ministry of Emergencies Rudnikov, who is played by Konstantin Samoukov. Vera Vasilyevna Sokolova now has to make a tough choice between career and relationship.
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“I had some concerns that the second season can turn out to be worse. This often happens in cinema when the sequel is not as good as the first project. But now all doubts have left me: I like it that my character in the second season is shown from different sides – not just hospital, but private life as well,” says Ekaterina Reshetnikova playing the female lead. “How the birth of a child changes her character. How the characters of her husband and son change… That is, she’s not just a doctor, she’s also a woman. And there is no smoothing out – you give birth, you come back to work, everything looks simple and pretty. No, everything is shown in a rather harsh light, just like it is in real life.”
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Each episode of the series is a story about saving a newborn baby put into the so-called baby box equipped in a perinatal center – for those who want to get rid of the infant anonymously. Our characters are doctors and medical staff at the perinatal center who bring the foundlings back on their way to life, treat them and are the first to give them warmth and comfort. There are also new parents who have made a conscious decision to become a mother or a father to someone else’s child. But the central character is still a child around whom all the events evolve.
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Oksana Taranenko, one of the series second season directors, told about perks and challenges of filming infants: “During the second season of Baby Boxes series, 57 infants were filmed. Their working day is really short (laughing). In one day we might have three or four infants filmed. There is this really funny remark in the scripts, something like ‘The infant smiles and extends his little hands towards the character’, but this is unrealistic. In our series, all infants are younger than four months and all of them live their own lives and have their own ways. They sleep when they have to scream and scream when they have to sleep. Even when the set is all ready and there is a million people in the shot, but the infant has to eat or relieve itself, we all obey and wait. We treat them with the utmost care.”
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In the second season, the audience will see bright and beautiful romantic scenes but also witness some detective stories.
Oksana Taranenko told why Baby Boxes second season is worth watching: “A child transforms everything around. Even the characters we could call negative or indifferent will surely change. The arrival of a new human into the world is a miracle transforming everything around.”
Directors: Anatoliy Grigoryev, Alina Bukhtiyarova, Oksana Taranenko
Producers: Irina Kostyuk, Yuriy Morozov
Executive producer: Sergey Demidov
Creative producer: Maksim Bernadsky
Cameramen: Andrey Kusch-Shevalev, Yevgeniy Kluchnikov, Maksim Bayev
Screenwriters: Olga Yatsenko, Elena Tereshkova, Yaroslava Segal, Elena Lipkan, Natalia Yaes, Oleg Prikhodko
Cast: Ekaterina Reshetnikova, Konstantin Samoukov, Aleksandr Mokhov, Sofia Pisman, Olga Morozova, Aleksandr Piskunov, Anastasia Bunina, Artem Vilbik, Inna Miroshnichenko, etc.
