Earlier than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the general public face and voice of a rustic underneath invasion by Russia, he was a comic and actor. Among the many tasks he starred in was a collection known as Servant of the Individuals, a political satire the place he really performed the president of Ukraine. The collection’ 23-episode opening season is now obtainable on Netflix.
Within the collection, Zelenskyy’s character, Vasyl Petrovych, is a daily high-school historical past instructor till a viral video of him ranting concerning the authorities lands him the presidency. Zelenskyy himself then had his personal meteoric rise via politics, and was elected president in 2019 — the identical 12 months the collection ended.
Servant of the Individuals’s first season debuted in 2015. The present ran for 3 seasons and was met with basic success and acclaim. Whereas the present was definitely widespread in its time, it’s grown much more widespread around the globe as Zelenskyy has emerged because the main public figurehead of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.
Because the present’s premise so intently mirrored actual life, gifs and clips from it rapidly started popping up on-line. Social-media customers have shared moments from the present they really feel are significantly humorous, ironic, and even simply related to the invasion. Regardless of the proliferation of memes and references, the present itself wasn’t broadly obtainable in most international locations till not too long ago, and particularly not within the US. Now that Netflix has the rights, Servant of the People is accessible to all US subscribers.