Servant of the People

[tiggymalvern]

I started watching Servant of the People on Netflix out of curiosity. I continued watching it because it's actually good and really entertaining.

In some respects, it's nothing groundbreaking. A lot of the jokes and style will be familiar to anyone who's seen things like Yes, Minister and The West Wing. It's political comedy and there's definitely overlap. But those comparisons are good ones, because overall, Servant of the People is political comedy done really well, and with serious points to make beneath the laughs.

Zelenskyy is great in it. He's clearly committed, and he has a fabulous face for deadpan humour. This is a man who's good at what he does. Some of the comedy is really clever, witty dialogue, and some of it edges towards farce - there's a bit of everything in there. A few bits here and there didn't quite come off for me, but comedy is never going to be 100%.

And it's crazy. Because Zelenskyy and his team spent three years writing a comedy about just how hard it would be for a political outsider to try and reform the system, how entrenched the problems were, and how everyone who'd been milking the country would be acting against them in every possible way. And then after that, they said, 'Fuck it, shall we try it anyway?' And they tried it, knowing exactly how shitty it would be.

The truly sad thing is that there's a pathos to watching it now which was never intended and shouldn't be there. Because while you're watching it, there's always the awareness that this brilliant, funny man and his team set out to fix a country against impossible odds, and ended up hiding underground watching it be bombarded into an even more horrific mess, because of the ego of one evil maniac.

I'm frustrated too, because season one of Servant of the People ends on something of a cliffhanger (though not the cliffhanger you're thinking it might be). I really want to watch the rest of it, but Netflix only has season one. The Pirate Bay has seasons two and three for download, but there are no English subs available anywhere ::cries::

So, dammit, everyone, go and watch Servant of the People so that Netflix will buy the rest of it!

Comments

[dreamerinsilico]

Well, I'm convinced.

The situational irony is kind of killing me, and of course I can only imagine what it's actually like for Zelensky himself.

[tiggymalvern]

Seriously. Looking for the silver lining, I suppose, once this is all over, Ukraine will have the whole of the western world helping to rebuild it - it won;t be a small group of people trying to do it alone.

[tameiki]

Good to know that there's a sub out there, even if it's only for the first season. I was very curious about it. No surprise that it's well written and an intelligent comedy, Zelenskyy does have a degree in law so he's in a unique position to be able to write content that's well-informed. Thanks for the heads up, Tiggy! I'm going to go start watching it. :)

[tiggymalvern]

We need the fansubber culture back again, apparently. Although I'm sure Ukrainians have more important things to be dealing with right now, even if they're not in Ukraine :-(

[tameiki]

Had a tutor who was from Ukraine, also hired her son who was a cardiac surgeon in the Ukraine who was waiting to get recertified to practice medicine in the US. They're both worried and trying their best to keep contact with family and friends still over there. Thankfully, she and her son and his family are all here.