The Regime - First episode

The latest HBO showpiece is called The Regime and was able to convince Kate Winslet to play the leading role as regent of a fictional European country with an authoritarian regime. A few years ago, Winslet already made it clear that she could also hold her own in TV series. Her performance in the Mare of Easttown was praised everywhere and after the first episode of The Regime it looks like Kate will again win a few prizes at the various television awards that are handed out annually. The way she portrays Chancellor Elena Vernham shows that Winslet is a top actress.



And yet Ms. Winslet doesn't walk away with the top credits. These are reserved for Matthias Schoenaerts (The Taste of De Keyser), who takes on the role of the tormented corporal Herbert Zubak. Schoenaerts is at his best when he plays a character that poses a certain threat. The role of Zubak is tailor-made for him, so to speak.

Let me first briefly outline the most important moments of this debut episode. Zubak is introduced to Chancellor Vernam's entourage by two fellow soldiers. She suffers from a lung disease that requires constant monitoring of the humidity in her environment. Zubak is the man who has to take care of this during the day. This also includes several rules that he must take into account. Only in an authoritarian regime can these rules be adjusted, causing Zubak to fall out of favor and be allowed to perform his job during night hours.

Fortunately for him, there is a miscreant who wants to attack the chancellor one night. Zubak is nearby and manages to foil the attack, bringing him back into favor. The connection that was already there between Zubak and the chancellor at their first meeting is fully restored and Zubak becomes a confidant of the chancellor who seems to be slowly but surely developing into a dictator.



This story sounds like a drama but it is much more than that. The makers of The Regime have added a lot of black humor to the story, which the viewer will certainly recognize in the sometimes absurd events in the story. Some passages seem to push the whole thing towards a thriller. If you take all the events from that first episode together plus the things that are mentioned, but that you as a viewer do not yet have a direct view of, such as the activities Zubak was involved in before ending up in his current situation, then you understand that putting a definitive genre on this is almost impossible. We may even wonder if we'll be able to do that after we finish all six episodes.

I can already conclude that the start of The Regime is among the better work as far as debut episodes are concerned. With Kate Winslet and Mathias Schoenaerts, the makers have managed to get two top actors to portray the main characters. Later in the series, Hugh Grant (The Undoing) also makes an appearance. He will have to come out strong, given his status, to dethrone Schoenaerts.