Learn Hardcore Russian: Вечером дома мы включаем вторую серию того же сериала про путешествия. - In the evening at home we turn on the second episode of the same travel series.

Russian often expresses time adverbials without prepositions. Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер (“evening”) used adverbially, and it corresponds to English “in the evening,” “at night,” “in the morning,” etc.

Typical patterns:

утром – in the morning
днём – in/at the daytime
вечером – in the evening
ночью – at night

So you don’t say в вечером; just вечером is correct.

Why is дома used here instead of в доме? What’s the difference?

Дома in this sentence means “at home” (location, not movement). It’s an adverb-like form meaning “at home,” not “in a (specific) house.”

Compare:

Мы вечером дома. – We’re at home in the evening.
Мы вечером в доме. – We’re in the house in the evening (in some particular building, not necessarily “home”).

So дома = “at home,” while в доме = “in the house (building).” Here the idea is “at home,” so дома is natural.

Could I change the word order and say Мы вечером дома включаем вторую серию…? Does it sound different?

Yes, you can say:

Мы вечером дома включаем вторую серию того же сериала про путешествия.

This is also correct. Russian word order is more flexible than English. The difference is mainly in emphasis:

Вечером дома мы включаем…
→ Fronts вечером дома (“in the evening at home”), slightly emphasizing the time and place as a starting point of the statement.
Мы вечером дома включаем…
→ Starts with мы (“we”), slightly highlighting the subject “we.”

Both are natural; context and style determine which sounds better, but grammatically both are fine.

Why is включаем used here instead of something like смотрим or будем включать? What nuance does включаем have?

Включаем is the 1st person plural, present tense, imperfective of включать (“to turn on, to switch on”). In Russian, the present tense of an imperfective verb is frequently used for habitual or repeated actions:

Вечером дома мы включаем вторую серию…
→ “In the evenings at home, we (usually) turn on the second episode…”

So the sentence describes a regular routine, not a one-time event.

Why not смотрим?

смотрим = “we watch.” You could say:
- Вечером дома мы смотрим вторую серию… – “we watch the second episode…”
включаем focuses on the act of turning it on, while смотрим focuses on the watching itself.

Why not будем включать?

будем включать is future tense with a repeated/habitual nuance in the future: “we will (be) turning on.”
The original sentence describes a current habitual action, so включаем is appropriate.

Why is it вторую серию and not вторая серия?

Because вторую серию is the direct object of the verb включаем, and in Russian, direct objects of transitive verbs are typically in the accusative case.

Nominative (dictionary form): вторая серия – “the second episode” (as the subject)
Accusative (direct object, feminine singular): вторую серию

Forms:

вторая → вторую (feminine adjective/pronoun in the accusative)
серия → серию (feminine noun, accusative singular)

So:

Вторая серия интересная. – “The second episode is interesting.” (subject → nominative)
Мы включаем вторую серию. – “We turn on the second episode.” (object → accusative)

What exactly does того же mean in того же сериала and why that form?

Того же = “of the same” or “that same.”

Breakdown:

тот – that (demonstrative pronoun)
того – genitive singular masculine/neuter form of тот
же – a particle adding the meaning “same” or reinforcing identity: “that same / that very”

того же сериала literally: “of that same series,” i.e., “of the same TV series.”

Case:
It’s in the genitive singular because it depends on серия in a possessive/genitive-of-source relationship:

вторая серия (чего?) того же сериала
– “the second episode (of what?) of the same series”

So the pattern is:

серия нового сериала – an episode of a new series
серия этого сериала – an episode of this series
серия того же сериала – an episode of the same series

What is the role of the particle же in того же сериала? Could we say того сериала instead?

Же in того же сериала conveys the idea of “the same”. Without же, you lose that exact nuance.

того сериала – “of that series” (a specific one you already referred to)
того же сериала – “of that same series” / “of the same series”

In this context, you want to say “the second episode of the same travel series,” so же is necessary.

In other structures, же can also emphasize or contrast, but here it’s the classic “the same” usage:

тот же фильм – the same film
та же книга – the same book
то же самое – the same thing

Why is сериала in the genitive? Could it be nominative сериал?

No, it must be сериала here because it’s in a genitive construction:

вторая серия того же сериала

It literally means:

“the second episode of the same series”

In Russian, when one noun depends on another in a relationship like “X of Y,” the second noun is usually in the genitive:

серия фильма – an episode of a film
страница книги – a page of a book
конец дня – the end of the day

So:

Nominative: сериал – “(the) series”
Genitive singular: сериала – “of (the) series”

Using сериал in nominative here would break that pattern and be ungrammatical in this context.

Why is путешествия used after про? I thought про takes accusative, but путешествия looks like genitive.

Про indeed takes the accusative, but the forms can be confusing because neuter nouns often have identical forms in several cases.

Путешествие (neuter noun):

Nominative singular: путешествиe
Accusative singular: путешествиe (same as nominative)
Genitive singular: путешествия
Nominative plural: путешествия
Accusative plural: путешествия (same as nominative plural)

In про путешествия, we have plural accusative (or nominative plural form), which is путешествия.

So:

сериал про путешествия – a series about travels
фильм про животных – a film about animals
истории про любовь – stories about love

It looks like genitive singular, but grammatically here it’s accusative plural governed by про.

Could we say о путешествиях instead of про путешествия? Is there a difference?

Yes, you could say:

того же сериала о путешествиях

Both про + accusative and о + prepositional can mean “about,” but there are nuances:

про путешествия – more colloquial, everyday, slightly informal.
о путешествиях – a bit more neutral or formal; often used in more “literary,” academic, or careful speech.

In everyday spoken Russian about TV shows, про путешествия sounds very natural and common. О путешествиях is perfectly correct, just slightly more bookish or neutral in tone.

How would I say “the same series” and “the same episode” on their own?

Patterns with тот же / та же / то же / те же:

тот же сериал – the same series (masculine)
та же серия – the same episode (feminine)
то же путешествие – the same journey (neuter)
те же путешествия – the same journeys (plural)

In the genitive, as in our sentence:

того же сериала – of the same series
той же серии – of the same episode (e.g. конец той же серии – “the end of the same episode”)

So “the same series” as a standalone noun phrase would be тот же сериал.

How would the meaning change if we used включим instead of включаем?

Включим is the future tense, perfective (1st person plural) of включить.

Compare:

Вечером дома мы включаем вторую серию…
→ Imperfective, present; describes a regular/habitual action: “In the evenings at home, we (typically) turn on the second episode…”
Вечером дома мы включим вторую серию…
→ Perfective, future; describes a one-time or specific future event: “In the evening at home, we will turn on the second episode…”

So:

включаем here = “we (usually) turn on” / “we turn on (as a routine).”
включим would mean “we will (then) turn it on” this particular evening (a concrete plan).

Why is there no word for “the” before вторая серия or тот же сериал? How do Russians show definiteness?

Russian has no articles (“a/an,” “the”). Definiteness or indefiniteness is expressed via:

Context (what’s already known in the conversation)
Demonstrative words like этот (“this”), тот (“that”)
Word order and emphasis
Sometimes numerals or other modifiers

In this sentence:

вторая серия is clearly “the second episode” from context (we presume episodes are watched in order).
того же сериала uses тот with же (“that same”), which implies a specific, known series – effectively a very definite reference.

If you wanted to stress something like “this particular series,” you might say:

этого же сериала – of this same series

But you never add a separate equivalent of “the”; it’s just not part of Russian grammar.