The creator of the series Nataliia Vorozhbyt introduced many modifications in comparison with the original – the events were shifted to the period of 2000s-2010s and new storylines were added.
One of Kaidash's sons, Lavrin, expresses his patriotic opinions during hard times for Ukraine and joins the struggle for independence.
He accused the "maidanuti" (the disparaging name for the participants of the protest against Yanukovych in 2013–14) of the Revolution of Dignity and the annexation of Crimea and Donbass by Russia.
This is the project title used in the contract between the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and PROKINO LLC on the production of the film, signed in November 2018.
[5][6] However, the screenwriter herself interprets the idiomatic expression "to catch the Kaidash", which means to become distressed or to reflect on life, as more modern and appropriate.
Subsequently, Vorozhbyt elaborated the play script and turned it into a full-fledged modern performance "The Kaidashes 2.0", which was included in the repertoire of Kyiv Wild Theater (directed by Maxim Golenko).
[3] After the release, Nataliia Vorozhbyt claimed that the funding provided to the TV series creators was not enough to shoot the story in its entirety, so they filmed in "rather difficult" conditions.
[7] After the change of the STB channel management, the new creative producer of StarLightFilms Dmytro Kitsai offered Vorozhbyt to become a showrunner of the project and apply for the government financial support.
[3] The project called "Kaidash's Family XXI" won the competition of patriotic films run by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine in 2018, so the filming of the TV series was 50% funded by the government: with a total budget of ₴26.7 million, the Ministry of Culture allocated half of the cost — ₴13.3 million.
[13] The music in the TV series was mostly Ukrainian and some Russian pop music of the 1990s and early 2000s: the song "Poliubi menia takoi" ("Love me like that") by Natalia Mohylevska, «Dym sigaret s mentolom» ("Smoke of menthol cigarettes") by Nensi, "Sneg" ("Snow") by Iryna Bilyk and Philip Kirkorov, "Kapli Absenta" ("Drops of absinth") by Irakli, etc.
[5] In the final version, some of the characters of the series speak surzhyk (mixed sociolects of Ukrainian and Russian languages).
[14] In Ukraine, the premiere of the TV series was originally planned on the STB channel in late February 2020, but was later postponed to March 2, 2020.
Motria's wedding night takes place in the brothers' shared room, and already at six in the morning Kaidashykha wakes her up for work.
Motria tries to please her mother-in-law and does all the housework, but overhears Kaidashykha discussing her with Baba Palazhka, calling her lazy.
Every weekend Lavrin comes to the village from work and brings gifts not only for the relatives, but also for Tania, who recently gave birth to a girl.
She butchers a chicken, cooks a lot of meat dishes and salads, sets the table and starts waiting for the guests.
To make amends, Lavrin and Melashka decide to give the mother a present – Motria's tea set, which happened to be at hand.
Lavrin and his father come to Kyiv and try to find Melashka, showing her photo to visitors of the Lavra, but return home disappointed.
But this peace is too fragile and can collapse any time because Melashka's phone's been blowing up with texts from her lover Sasha from Donetsk, whom she met in Kyiv.
Euromaidan swept the oligarchs out of power, and after Russia's military aggression against Ukraine in the Crimea and Donbass, the Russo-Ukrainian War began.
Karpo, in difficult times for Ukraine, shows his pro-Russian essence: he blames Euromaidan for everything, calls the Revolution of Dignity a virus of "maidanuti".
Semyhory has not been spared of the scourge — Vasyl, a friend of Karpo and Lavrin, are drafted into the army and go missing in the Battle of Ilovaisk.
Families are divided into two camps: some are sympathetic to the displaced people and ready to give them everything needed, while others see them as pro-Russian traitors and want them to leave Semyhory.
[23][24][25][26] In addition, it has been repeatedly compared on social media with the TV series "Svaty" (adding that it is for "a more intelligent" audience).
In his opinion, the filmmakers managed to "place all the characters on the film "board" very accurately", corresponding to the motif of Ivan Nechuy-Levytskyi's novel.
He also noted the language changes between the early series and later ones:[27] it is emphasized that the tear-off calendar <...> is in Russian, i.e. in the usual imperial discourse.
That is, the words, the language itself begin to feel differently, they themselves become something else.Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan commented favorably on the film, calling it "an incredibly important and vivid phenomenon" of the Ukrainian cinematography.
[29] Filmmaker Valentyn Vasianovych gave a negative review of the series, citing its pathos, vulgarity, bad editing, poor acting and sharovarschyna (a low-quality culture that speculates on national motives).
""; Vvedenska sums up her review noting that the overall impression of the series is negative and you feel "as if [you] were spoon-fed the image of the "average Ukrainian peasant", densely seasoned by toxic Kremlin propaganda".
[33] Despite the significant success of the series, Nataliia Vorozhbyt repeatedly stated in interviews with Ukrainian media that she did not plan to make a second season because "this is a complete story".