It’s very surreal watching a comedy drama about a man trying to save Ukraine, just an hour or so after you’ve seen the same man – in real life, not as an actor – on the news trying to save Ukraine.
Such are the trials are tribulations of the fictional Vasily Petrovych Goloborodko in Servant of the People, and his creator Volodymyr Zelensky the current President of Ukraine. Zelensky has been widely seen in his trademark green army gear since the Russian invasion of his country that began in February, speaking to his people, foreign media and diplomats, and in televised messages to the Russian people.
It’s a difficult frame for Australians, not having had a real war on home soil for a long time. Dare I say it neither have we produced a political comedy as sharp, prescient and indeed wildly funny as Servant of the People. While Australia has a steady appetite for sketch comedy, Mad As Hell being the current flagship, we have not really has a long-form series since the controversial At Home With Julia, variously labelled ‘must see’ by fans and ‘ugly’ by Labor partisans.
The series follows the rise and fall and etcetera of history teacher Goloborodko, an ‘accidental president’ elected after a video of his rant about the state of his country goes viral. And what a wild ride it is. While the everyman hero simply tries to put Ukraine on the right track, nearly all organised forces line up agin.
The Prime Minister undermines him, the parliament won’t play ball, his family all but abandons him, his ex-wife is duped by a lover who is out to usurp him, and the oligarchs who effectively run the country try to bribe, slander and even assassinate Goloborodko.
Through it all he survives, some times with dumb luck but a lot of the time with the guile of his own group of insiders drawn from old friends. The writers of the series however do put him through every imaginable hell, from being on the run in disguise as an old woman to being replaced by a cross-eyed doppelganger on the eve of a critical decision.
Along the journey Servant of the People does not shy away from every foible of Ukrainian politics: corruption, naked ambition, incompetence, waste, craven political partisanship, tax evasion, compromised judiciary, electoral manipulation, nepotism, media bias and even the pressure of dealing with international organisations like the IMF and the European Union.
It’s fair to say with the current war as disturbing backdrop I was keenly looking for references to the Ukrainian-Russian relationship. They are certainly there, and some of them are very funny indeed, so I won’t spoil them by laying them all out.
What’s impressive about Servant of the People is the sheer quality. The acting is spot-on, the dialogue is crisp even in translation, and there is a certain bravery in the scripting and the editing. For example when they feel like going slapstick, or Bollywood, or chase movie, they absolutely do without any holding back on the indulgence. The scenes where Foreign Minister Serhiy Viktorovich Mukhin is trying to stall for time with the rather prim Austrian negotiator for the IMF are dragged out over three episodes, yet the running gag keeps getting kicked into higher gears.
There are so many outstanding performances that you’ll probably end up with your own favourite. Chameleon villain Yuriy Ivanovich Chuiko (played by Stanislav Boklan) is incredibly good as the second main character, but my personal love of the series is stern bodyguard Tolya (Heorhiy Povolotskyy) who turns non-verbal communication into high art.
And what of Zelensky himself? The Russians disparage him as ‘a clown’, but so what. As an on-screen clown he’s immensely talented, and his air of quiet determination and insistence on integrity even when things are going pear-shaped is inspiring.
It’s fairly easy to appreciate why Ukrainian voters, after he registered a Servant of the People political party, comprehensively elected Volodymyr Zelensky president in the 2019 elections.
Watch out for the absolutely belting pace of first episode of each season. While most episodes are around 25 minutes, the pilot of each season is much longer and yet still bowls along at rollercoaster pace and incline. As much as I adored the poise and intricacy of Yes, Minister, this is breathtaking.
If I have one small criticism, it’s the third season is delivered at such whirlwind speed it’s over before you know it, leaving a sense that we haven’t spent as much time with some of our old friends as we might have wanted.
Despite its barbs, Servant of the People is also a useful window on Ukrainian culture. And while the brutal Russian invasion has its core the desire for cultural genocide of the Ukrainians, it seems like an act of solidarity that we shouldn’t pass up.
And at a time when democracy is under threat in many countries from all kinds of shenanigans – hello Boris Johnson, hello January 6 Commission – it feels like a tonic to have a hearty laugh at just how flawed and fragile it is. Would that we had similar open-throated cultural analysis of our own politics both on the mainland and here in Tasmania.
You can watch the entire three seasons now on SBS On Demand.
You can donate to support displaced Ukrainians through the Defend Ukraine campaign and the Red Cross Appeal, and learn more about Ukrainians here at Australia for Ukraine.
Alan Whykes is Chief Editor of Tasmanian Times and majored in Media Arts at the then MCAE, now integrated into the University of Melbourne.
