The eyes of the world are currently on Ukraine as the Russian invasion of that country continues. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has emerged as a respected international figure for refusing to back down to Russian aggression even though his country is severely outgunned by the Russian army. But Zelenskyy wasn’t always a politician. In his previous career as a comedian and an entertainer, Zelenskyy once played a fictional teacher who became the President of Ukraine in the sitcom Servant of the People. Now, that series is back on Netflix.
According to Deadline, Netflix made the announcement on Twitter. Servant of the People originally debuted in 2015 and it ran for three seasons for a total of 51 episodes. Netflix previously streamed the series from 2017 to 2021.
You asked and it’s back!
Servant of the People is once again available on Netflix in The US. The 2015 satirical comedy series stars Volodymyr Zelenskyy playing a teacher who unexpectedly becomes President after a video of him complaining about corruption suddenly goes viral. pic.twitter.com/Pp9f48jutF
— Netflix (@netflix) March 16, 2022
Zelenskyy created the series and headlined the show as Vasyl Petrovych Goloborodko, “an absent-minded high school history teacher who lives with his parents.” Vasyl is unwillingly drafted to run for president after his students film him venting about the corruption in his country. After winning the election, Vasyl attempts to be a worthy president while working to eliminate the corruption within the Ukraine government.
In 2019, life imitated art when Zelenskyy actually ran for president on an anti-corruption platform as a member of the newly created Servant of the People political party. In the second round of voting, he was elected to office with 73% of the vote. Since then, Zelenskyy found himself unexpectedly drawn into American politics when former President Donald Trump appeared to attempt to coerce him into opening a corruption investigation into the son of his political rival, Joe Biden. Trump was impeached for that offense, but was later acquitted by the Republican-dominated senate. Biden went on to win the 2020 election as the 46th President of the United States.
The outcome of the current war in Ukraine is far from certain. But regardless of what happens, Zelenskyy has made his mark on world history and audiences can see another side of him with this show.
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