the advertising campaign for this series be something to behold in it own right and and it about the only thing the people behind this film do right . allegedly and it have decent budget which be nowhere in evidence . and m and m be the kind of film that require special effect while in the film they be what you would call bargain basement if youre feel generous . bortko follow the book faithfully enough but still remove some crucial scene and add a ridiculous character play by valentin gaft make up to look like beria . bulgakov be never that direct . also and bortko shot most of the 1930s moscow in sepia like color to contrast it with woland and master colorful scene . i think it be a big mistake but it be unavoidable give that bortko have no feel for the macabre and the bizarre . he have very a pedestrian imagination . bulgakov moscow be devilish in it own right and and bortko turn it into a bland depiction of a regular city . in the book and woland come to the city that felt a if it belong to him already . here and he come on a tour of a gray and uninteresting moscow with nothing to distinguish it from any other city . which show that bortko also have zero grasp of the philosophical and religious issue of the book . i wasn not particularly annoy by most of the cast exclude margarita . anna kovalchuk be beautiful but she couldn not act to save her life . bortko must be fond of cast people who look right without any regard for their acting ability ( he do the same casting lidya velezheva a nastasya filippovna in the idiot ) . on the whole and negative .