“Putin has been overthrown!” shouts the president of Ukraine, and the noisy mob around him falls silent — he suddenly has their rapt attention.
“很棒，它总是有效的，” Volodymyr Zelenskyy打趣道。
That’s a recurring joke in the Ukrainian TV comedy series “Servant of the People,” which stars Zelenskyy as Vasiliy “Vasyl” Petrovich Goloborodko, a mild-mannered high school history teacher who improbably becomes president of Ukraine, thanks to a write-in campaign engineered by his social-media-savvy students.
“人民的仆人”was popular, running for three seasons (2015-19) and spawning a feature film (2016) before helping propel Zelenskyy, a comedian who earned a law degree, to the country’s real-life presidency in 2019. His political party is called the Servant of the People Party.
The Putin line — funny then, tragic now — is one of many bittersweet moments of the 23-episode first season (2015-16), now available to stream on Netflix.
自2月24日俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京（Vladimir Putin）于2月24日开始对乌克兰发动战争以来，Zelenskyy曾经被认为是政治舞台上轻量级的业余爱好者，已成为国际力量，抵抗和自由的国际象征，继续激励他的国家抵抗入侵的入侵。
到目前为止，它已经有，但是在悲惨的损失中：成千上万的人都死了Ukrainian civilian population首当其冲。他在本周的视频露面中取得了请求在格莱美奖and before at the U.N. Security Council.
Could anyone who watched “Servant of the People” during its run have foreseen Zelenskyy’s performance as a wartime president? Or as the newly elected president in 2019 who refused to be intimidated by President Donald Trump when he asked him to investigate Hunter Biden — the son of then-Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden? (Trump eventually was impeached for threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine already approved by Congress but was acquitted by the Senate.)
There are clues.
该系列确实很有趣，是“先生史密斯（Smith）去华盛顿（Washington）遇到了“办公室”（The Office），以“西翼”（The West Wing）的方式（“人民仆人”的学分的图形设计与“西翼”的图形设计几乎相同）。
Zelenskyy是理想化的,Capraesque普通人瓦西里是核电站tries to reform a government besieged by corruption and run by oligarchs. He needs people he trusts to resist bribes, so he installs friends and family in positions of power, including his best friend (Yevhen Koshovyy) as foreign minister and his ex-wife (Olena Kravets), with whom he shares custody of a son, as director of the National Bank of Ukraine.
为了保持谦虚的根源，瓦西尔继续与他的工人阶级父母，姐姐和堂兄一起生活在基辅的一个破旧公寓中，并坚持要求公共交通工具上班。Noting the size of the government bureaucracy, which he feels leads to corruption (“It’s like a feast during a plague,” he says), Vasyl orders his prime minister (Stanislav Boklan), a holdover from the previous regime, to reduce the size of government.
“I propose 10%,” Vasyl says.
总理回应说：“削减10％。”“我们将开始工作。”
“不。只剩下10％。”
Vasyl的演讲作者制作了一场就职典礼演讲，承诺各种改革，即使是理想主义的Vasyl都知道的，这是他无法触及的，但这就是所有就职演讲的方式，对吗？群众的红肉？但是瓦西尔浪费了演讲和即兴创作。
“I won’t make any promises. … I’ll try to figure it out,” Vasyl says, looking directly into the camera. “But I do know one thing. One should act in a way that doesn’t evoke shame when looking into children’s eyes. Nor their parents’. Nor your (own) eyes, of course. This is what I promise you, the people of Ukraine.”
It must have been a moment of moving sincerity in 2016, but it feels amplified today. It is the way he has communicated with his fellow Ukrainians on a daily basis during the war, with a fellowship and simplicity that says, “We’re all in this together.” President Ronald Reagan, also a former actor, was called the Great Communicator; Zelenskyy is his modern-day equivalent. He’s as media savvy as they come.
There are many amusing moments in “Servant of the People.” At one point Vasyl issues an idealistic order that an aide finds so outlandish she asks if he is serious.
“我看起来像喜剧演员吗？”他反驳。
当他的秘书（Valentyna Ishchenko）提供Vasyl在一次关键会议前与他的严重宿醉作斗争时，她说：“叶利钦的助手曾经与我分享了我的秘密，”指的是1990年代著名的酗酒俄罗斯总统。当寡头试图出发总统任务试图达成交易并在会议上为他提供咖啡时，瓦西尔（Vasyl）拒绝了充分意识到寡头的敌人经常被毒害：“我没有时间喝咖啡……或更强壮的东西。”
But the funniest — and now perhaps also the saddest — moment of the series’ first season is when Vasyl takes a call from then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who congratulates him for being accepted into the European Union, a goal of Ukraine’s that has long stoked the ire of Putin.
除了默克尔拨打了错误的号码；她以为自己正在与黑山总统交谈。
Zelenskyy，现年44岁，看上去可以理解，haggard并带着战时的胡须，他反复使用了他在“人民的仆人”中展示的沟通技巧，几乎是美国总统富兰克林·罗斯福和英国总理的第二次世界大战广播电台讲话版本温斯顿·丘吉尔。在格莱美奖中，希望为救济工作提供资金支持，他问：“音乐更相反？毁灭城市的沉默并杀死了人。”
但是，当今“人民的仆人”最令人心碎的元素之一并不是Zelenskyy，这是克里姆林宫的一个人，他可能随时被杀死，而是乌克兰本身。它主要是在基辅拍摄的，它显示了一个快乐，充满活力的城市，可悲的是，它已经过去了 - 乌克兰最终在当前的冲突中占上风。（为了了解乌克兰前的美好看，请查看sixth episode记者Bob Woodruff’s “Rogue Trip”on Disney+.)
The series ended after season three when Zelenskyy became Ukraine’s actual president. Effectively though, what’s happening in real life feels like season four. Here’s hoping for a fifth season — after Russia is defeated and Ukraine can begin rebuilding under the leadership of this extraordinary person.
“人民的仆人”（TV-14）第一季可以流播Netflix.