The multiple languages thing is actually one of the things I love about the show--I adore so much that they're really fully invested in making its bilingualism natural. I would be so sad if they were to cut back on the Russian scenes to give the show a broader appeal! But I guess I think it's good for English speakers to get used to watching a show with subtitles anyway, too, because there's sooooooooo much good international television that monolingual English-speaking folks miss out on as a result of not being willing to read them. :)

I was really surprised by the number of people who said they couldn't connect to the characters--what I find so different about this show as opposed to many other "golden age of television" shows is that the characters actually are designed to be people the audience comes to love (as opposed to merely finding them interesting).

-J