Well, now I Really pay attention. Second time, System betrayed my expectations System Probably about. In the premiere, Corporal Herbert Zubak, a character with whom our viewers will identify, a comical commoner, is thrown into the absurdist aquarium of Prime Minister Elena Burnham’s titular government and forced out of the water to swim with sharks. I thought it might be the fish that came out.
Instead, it’s revealed almost immediately that Herbert is a power-crazed Rasputin, and by the time this episode begins, he’s joined by a palace staffer in a “1984” Outer Party jumpsuit, He has become a minister wearing what looks like lederhosen, while he himself serves the Chancellor and Chancellor. Her husband Nicky’s teacup was filled with soil for her health. (Herbert: “That’s what we ate when we had nothing.” Nicky: “Yes, but we don’t have anything, do we?”)
So in the first few minutes of this week’s episode, “The Heroes’ Dinner,” I had little reason to expect more of the same. For crying out loud, Herbert is single-handedly running his cabinet, ordering an extensive land redistribution program, and marching with his own SS troops. Admittedly, he and Elena seem a bit out of sync. It seems like she no longer shares his dreams. I mean, she’s not really that into pretending that she shares the dream. But the basic setup – an odd couple set up as dictators, with the odder of the two increasingly taking control – seemed built to work. .
So imagine my surprise when the plan of our little co-conspirators, Nicky, Intelligence Chief Raskin, snobbish Schiff, and cynical Singer, succeeds in their plan to alienate the Corporal. Indeed, this was done at the cost of a major international incident. The Faban Corridor was a no-go zone in the last war, under the protection of a kind of peacekeeping force that could be folded up like a suitcase when troops arrived. However, Herbert is dispatched. He went to the front, and by the time he returned, all of his reforms, from palace uniforms and cuisine to the practice of returning stolen goods, had been abandoned.
It is important to note that Elena is ordering the annexation for reasons as irrational as those presented to her by Herbert. Reading between her lines, it becomes clear that she suffers from a fairly severe mental illness, perhaps schizophrenia. Either this or her direct actions by her autocratic father (played here by Finbarr Lynch in the form of her avenger) killed her. Elena is determined not to end up like that, even when she dreams of Herbert yelling abuse at her father’s corpse about “taking him” – “He’s making you suck his dick, right? Answer me. , you ugly woman!” — She decides to follow her father’s long-held dream of annexing Faban just to prove that she’s not doing what the Corporal tells her to do.
We learn a few things from this fantastic exchange between Elena and Peter Burnham. One is, again, she’s mentally ill. Second, the misogynistic nature of the language he uses to insult and degrade her and her mother indicates that her father was abusive in a way that accelerated the disease. There is. When Herbert grabs her roughly and sprains her wrist, her ease in lying about the cause strongly suggests that this is not her first rodeo involving physical abuse. There is.
This is important. Because ultimately it comes down to her and Herbert’s relationship. Feeling alienated, he sits down to watch a horrifyingly authoritarian and kitschy dance and comedy performance to celebrate his annexation with the country’s notables. Among them was Bartos, a billionaire mine owner who humiliated Elena histrionically. Now that the Americans are out, they will need his money again.
they will do that Also They need their own money, about $1 billion, all of which has been stolen from the country’s coffers and stashed abroad for Elena and her closest associates and advisors to share. Her biggest mistake in this episode may actually be coming clean to Herbert about her corruption, not annexing Faban. Although he is prevented from announcing it to the public as he wishes, he still knows everything about it and it is dangerous.
But when things finally work out, it becomes less so. Alone in her room, he starts complaining about her and she starts needling him. She passive-aggressively insults his nervous snorts. She calls him a fool and a calf. She repeatedly asks if Kate Winslet dreams of her having sex with her, and at one point she almost straddles him, and she says that Kate Winslet is too good to be believed. She is wearing a bold blue dress that would be unbelievable without it. But she says she never dreamed of having sex with him. He used to be fun, but now he’s boring.
Enraged, he strangled her. “I’m not a cow!” he barks. “No,” she said, holding his hand. “You’re a butcher.” Her fearlessness in response to this physical attack is truly impressive. (Agnes, the chief of staff, showed similar mettle when Herbert threatened to feed the lions earlier in the episode.)
So Herbert returns to the party, punches the comedian who burned him, and beats the living shit out of Bartos. The next day, he is arrested and everything returns to normal, including administering old epilepsy medication to Chief of Staff Agnes’ son Oscar. There’s only one problem he has. Oscar has to live with Elena. Perhaps she’s working on her latest project: becoming a mother. After all, isn’t she already the mother of the nation?
System It remains a very entertaining show. Of course, it’s not packed with complicated swear words or lame jokes, but the humor is clever. For example, Elena choosing to sing the harmony of the last line of “Happy Birthday,” or Schif jokingly spouting, “Surely she wouldn’t do that,” this reflects the status quo. It means “reform” in the most literal sense of changing. ” Having her strike a ridiculous pose in the midst of her beet harvest makes her look just as out of place as every politician who claims to be the salt of the earth. It is well known that the Faban parliament has unanimously approved unification, so it cannot be a military takeover. Even the idea that the U.S. government would be outraged by illegal occupation produces dark humor.
But the way Peter’s ghost tears Elena to shreds, the way Elena does the same to Herbert, the way Herbert is clearly in severe mental distress even though he has torn apart a terrifying figure, the disease The desperate plight of Agnes, who has caused her child to bounce from madman to madman – this is all very novel content. This show has some teeth, and this episode went a little deeper into it.
Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) is writing about television. rolling stone, vulture, new york timesand wherever he is, Really. He and his family live on Long Island.
