Kiyv. Vasiliy Goloborodko is a high school history teacher, living with his parents and sister Sveta in a shabby house. One day, during a break in class, he goes on a rant against corruption in Ukraine, a student secretly films him and uploads the video to the Internet, which gives the teacher such popularity that the students start a crowdfunding to have him elected as the President of Ukraine. To Goloborodko's surprise, he is indeed elected. Now facing problems with how to run the country, he hires his ex-wife Olha to be the Director of the National Bank of Ukraine; broke actor Serhiy to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs... Initially, he is not that popular, leading to protests over budget cuts. At the same time, devious oligarchs want to bribe him to take control over the country's government. However, Goloborodko outfoxes them when he arrests his Prime Minister, Yuriy, for corruption on a live TV show, leading to the applause of the audience.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, people worldwide retroactively gained renewed interest for the comedy TV show "Servant of the People", which enjoyed such a popularity domestically that it managed to help the comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy get elected as the President of Ukraine in real life, similarly as the role he plays in the story, achieving a rare feat. “Servant of the People” has several funny jokes (though some are very specific to Ukraine’s mentality and history, and thus several references might fly over the viewers’ heads) and Zelenskyy is irresistibly charming and sympathetic as the protagonist Goloborodko, the unlikely hero who eventually rises to the occasion during crisis, and is always an optimist. The first episode shows Goloborodko living with his sister and parents as he prepares to go to work as a history teacher in a high school, whereupon his dad laments at him: “You studied in school just to go back to school”. After Goloborodko’s rant about how each election in his country is just a choice between “plague and cholera” goes viral, he is unexpectedly elected as the President of Ukraine, as a TV programme ostensibly shows clips of world leaders (Barack Obama, Xi Jinping, Angela Merkel) “dubbed” in Ukrainian as they congratulate him for his election. The effects are immediately visible, as public officials clean his dad’s back yard, paint a parking spot for his car and paint the wall of his house. A man with flowers even proposes Goloborodko’s niece Natasha, even though he broke up with her six months ago.
The authors describe several specifics about Ukrainian way of life, from their dream of becoming part of the EU, through their anxiety due to Russian irredentism, up to several cultural puns and proverbs (“Two Ukrainians make for three Marshals”). Through the subplot of oligarchs scheming to take control of Goloborodko's administration the series even touches upon more subversive themes, about the plutocracy and the tendency of the rich trying to control every aspect of society, which is almost comparable to political satire "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". However, the 1st season is uneven: some episodes are brilliant; others are boring, bland or uninspired fillers. About seven episodes could have been cut to make the story more concise. One of the best jokes is when Goloborodko is in the office, browsing through the candidates for the job position in the Central Bank, and doesn't want to hire Georgians, so he insists on a Ukrainian candidate. Finally, among the documents he finds one who has excellent references, but reads the name of the candidate: Yanukovych. After the 2022 war, some moments in the show sound very eerie, creepy, almost prophetic. One of these moments with a darker context today is the final episode, in which Goloborodko is hallucinating talking to Ivan the Terrible, which leads to this dark dialogue: "Bloodbrothers, soon we will liberate you." - "No, no thanks, we don't need to be liberated." - "What?!" - "We belong to Europe! ...You go your way, we will go another way. Let's go separate ways and meet again in 300 years" Despite omissions, the first season of the "Servant of the People" is a funny, honest and courageous series that allowed Ukrainians to dream bigger, and if it didn't give them a greater storyline vision, it at least gave them a greater political vision.
Grade:++
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