Even as a not insignificant portion of the nation draws a blanket of isolationism, xenophobia and monolinguality ever more tightly around itself, another faction has grown more interested in what's happening around the world, and more accepting of TV shows and movies not in English.

Netflix, a global company, has a "browse by language" button at the top of its home page, with offerings in Turkish, Malay, Thai, Hindi, Tamil, Polish and Cantonese, among others, along with the more familiar French, Korean, Spanish and Japanese. There's value in seeing how other countries see themselves when they're not putting on a show for us.

Which brings us to "Double Stakes," a Ukrainian police and thieves series premiering in the U.S. this week on Viaplay, a Swedish-owned streaming service whose main business is Nordic noir, a genre so popular that many American streamers give it its own corner. Because there are so many of those series, it's easy not to write about any of them; but a show from Ukraine doesn't come along every day — or any day. And given that it arrives from a nation fighting a war we used to think more about here before other wars started blocking the view, and because I felt I had only the vaguest idea of the actual place, and because it's where all my great-grandparents came from, it piqued my interest, and I dived in. It was a most enjoyable swim.

Igor Shvedov (Vlad Nikitiuk) returns from the front after six years working in military intelligence, with a set of skills that will come in handy through the adventures that follow. Fresh off the bus in his camouflage gear and dog tag, he reunites with his older brother, Anton, whom he knows only as "the owner of a construction company, and not only that," with maybe a bit of a pre-legitimate past "in the '90s." (Characters are always talking about the '90s, as if they were the Wild West.) But quicker than you can say "Volodymyr Zelenskyy," Anton is felled by an assassin's bullet.

Igor goes to see Bayun (Yakov Kucherevskyi), his brother's friend and associate of 30 years, who will hip Igor to the facts that Anton, called "the Swede" (Shved being Ukrainian for Swede) was in fact one of the city's main crime bosses, and that the likely author of his murder is one of three others: Crab, a brute; Count, who puts on airs; or Knave (called Jack), a slick "trickster." You can think of them as the Joker, the Penguin and the Riddler in TV Batman terms, if you don't think too hard. (There's no one-to-one correspondence.)

Bayun, who is now in charge of Anton's business, is more of a Baloo, comical and relatively sweet and something of a guide to Igor. (That their gang never dealt drugs is the thing that separates the decent criminals from the decadent.) We are meant to like him, and do. He's additionally dignified by his smart girlfriend, Murka (Anna Guliayeva), who has a level head, mad hacker skills and tattoos. He's studying German, for no apparent reason, and throws phrases into his dialogue to amusing effect.

In order to find his brother's killer, Igor joins the police, where, as a "combat veteran, a scout, with an excellent legal and physical training," he's immediately given a badge and the rank of lieutenant. The police, who are currently concerned about the disappearance of an undercover officer, have their own uses for him. Not all the coppers will turn out to be good — there are the corrupt and ambitious among them — but two are, Lena (Daryna Egorkina) and Oleksa (Valentyn Tomusiak), once trust has been established. Igor, for his part, is the sort of hero who, unless he is tied up, drugged or hit from behind, will get the best of any opponent; even one with a gun. (He has been scouted by the national MMA team.) "The guys are a little afraid of you," he'll be told regarding his reputation in the underworld. "You've been shot so many times — and nothing." Like Tennyson's Sir Galahad, he has the strength of 10 because his heart is pure.

References to the war with Russia come mostly at the top. Igor gets into a tussle with thuggish barflies who object to his turning up the sound on a TV report from the front; Vika (Oleksandra Syzonenko), whom he rescues from the same bar and who'll become his girlfriend in a trice, was orphaned when her parents' house was hit by a bomb; Igor's unit, he learns, was supplied with guns and ammunition by Anton's people.

The story, which involves undercover agents and snitches among both the police and warring groups of gangsters, can be hard to track; it doesn't help that many characters are called by more than one name, and that those names are Ukrainian. (The subtitles are not especially consistent on spelling, either.) But it is also refreshingly straightforward. By Hollywood standards, the production is basic, lo-fi — sets with little decoration, no special effects, flat photography, askew subtitles ("Do speak bluntly," "I've got a misfortune," "What made you so grumpish?"). As stylish as "Double Stakes" ever gets is canting the camera at a 45-degree angle, like we did in the '60s.

As a result little stands between you and the actors, appealing or unappealing according to their characters. Notwithstanding its many tropes and poses — some borrowed from American movies — or perhaps because of those tropes and poses, it feels honest, made by humans, oddly appealing, even though much of it involves people trying to kill one another. The characters are not in themselves complicated or ambiguous; it's as psychologically simple as "Star Wars" was, to start — and you know how that worked out.

———

'DOUBLE STAKES'

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: Viaplay

———

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.