Before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the face and voice of a country being invaded by Russia, he was a comedian and actor. Among the projects in which he starred is a series called Servants of the People, a political satire where he actually plays the president of Ukraine. The series’ 23-episode prologue is available now on Netflix.
In the series, Zelenskyy’s character, Vasyl Petrovych, was an ordinary high school history teacher until a viral video of him talked about the government making him president. Zelenskyy himself then rose to prominence through politics and was elected president in 2019 – the same year the series ended.
Servants of the People’The first season debuted in 2015. The show ran for three seasons and has been a general success and critical acclaim. While the show was certainly popular at the time, it was even more popular around the world as Zelenskyy had emerged as a leading public figure of the Ukrainian resistance before Russian invasion.
Since the show’s premise closely mirrors real life, gifs and clips from there quickly began to appear online. Social media users have shared moments from the show that they found particularly funny, ironic, or even just related to the invasion. Despite the proliferation of memes and references, the show itself has not been widely available in most countries until recently, and especially not in the US. Now that Netflix has the right, Peopl’s Servante is available to all US subscribers.
