Review of the series «The Regime»

Recently, the HBO channel has finished airing the 6-episode political satire «The Regime», starring Kate Winslet. In Ukraine, the miniseries accessible is available for viewing on Megogo. In the review below, we will tell you which real-life character the show’s silly heroine resembles (and maybe more than one) and whether this story can make a good joke about arrogant adherents of authoritarianism.

«The Regime»

Genre political satire
Directors Stephen Frears, Jessica Hobbs
Starring Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough, Guillaume Gallienne, Hugh Grant
Premiere NGOS, Megogo
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb

An unnamed country somewhere in Central Europe is ruled by Chancellor Elena Vernham, who lives in a luxurious palace and is more concerned about the humidity there than about the country’s affairs, let alone the nation’s well-being. She is assigned to the service of a twitchy corporal, Herbert Zubak, who allowed himself to use brute force against the protesting miners, earning him the nickname «Butcher». This radical act probably reassured the leader that Zubak was the man she needed.

The soldier’s duties now include constantly following his superior with a hygrometer and measuring the humidity in each room. Blind loyalty to this abnormal routine and to the Chancellor herself leads to complete trust for the latter, and the corporal becomes her chief advisor, influencing both domestic and foreign policy. This, however, further detaches them both from reality and leads to disastrous consequences.«The Regime» — is the second major political satire from the NGO in the last year after last year’s clown show called «White House Plumbers». If the authors there were not very successful in mocking the Watergate scandal, here we have a collective dictatorial image, whose power seems categorically unshakable at first glance, but everyone knows how such stories end.

Fingers crossed: hostile attitude to the United States and everything Western in general and a look toward China — yes; annexation of neighboring territories to achieve selfish goals — please; detachment from reality, manipulative rhetoric about the country’s main natural resource — as if the doctor ordered it. And that’s not to mention meetings with foreign colleagues at three-kilometer-long tables and insignificant henchmen whose only concern is to pour sweet nonsense and jokes about sanctions into our ears. There is also a place for the dead in a glass sarcophagus. What fundamentally distinguishes the local country from the swampy places in Muscovy is its people, who at some point lose their patience. While the russians need this ephemeral tsar with ephemeral greatness, primarily for the sake of universal worship because they simply do not know how to exist in any other way. The local citizens have the courage to rebel against the tyrant. And at this point, the protagonist has something in common with the fugitive Yanukovych, who, despite his desperate appeals «Astanavites!», managed to «turn on Ukraine». However, in a negative sense for himself.

Stephen Frears, Jessica Hobbs and Will Tracy worked on «Regime», and they have excellent projects in their filmography («The Queen», «The Crown», «Succession», «The Menu»). This means that these are people who are competent enough to expect sophisticated satire from them that would expose the pettiness of people who imagine themselves to be masters of the world.

For example, the grotesque episode when the Chancellor feels a furious heat wave, while everyone around her seems to be in Roland Emmerich’s «The Day After Tomorrow» but pretends to be summertime carefree. It eloquently emphasizes the absurdity of the completely dominant position of the show’s star. But the brief appearance of the character of Hugh Grant, an oppositionist in prison, seems incomprehensible and almost superfluous.

The whole series is a misplaced swing, including intonation because at times it is really exciting and even makes you smile, and sometimes it gets bogged down in unnecessary plot lines or contrived drama. In the end, all this tossing and turning leads to a completely toothless climax. Kate Winslet, who also served as a producer, is the main reason to get acquainted with the project. The actress shines in this role in every sense and completely steals the audience’s attention. Her character Olena’s temporary obsession with folk medicine, in particular the healing properties of potato steam, makes us think of another Fuhrer and author of the unforgettable «And I’ll show you now where the attack on Belarus was coming from».

From a technical point of view, «The Regime» can be called a filigree work. Here, the authentic setting of a luxurious palace and its rich interiors already emphasize the Chancellor’s extreme egocentrism. The prominent presence of close-ups and super close-ups of faces, Dutch angles, symmetrical shots, play with light, etc. is aimed at focusing attention on the main thing, increasing the tension between the characters or emphasizing their inner state. This significantly affects the perception of the plot.