The political comedy Servant of the People, starring the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, is back on Netflix. US audiences can now watch the first season.
“You asked and it’s back!” Netflix wrote in a tweet Wednesday morning. “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.”
Servant of the People originally ran from 2015 through 2019 and was available on Netflix from 2017 to 2021. Since then, it hasn’t been widely available to stream in the U.S. The series followed a Ukrainian high school teacher caught raging against the government in a viral video, who then becomes President of Ukraine. While the teacher-turned-politician is confused and fumbling at first, he gets comfortable with his new responsibilities and works toward weeding out corruption.
In 2018, an actual political party named Servant of the People was formed in Ukraine, and Zelensky was elected president in 2019.
“The series is a comedy but also an important document of where Zelensky comes from,” said Nicola Söderlund, managing partner of Eccho Rights, the distributor of the series, in a statement about the re-release news. “His fictional president is a normal man, who grows into his role as a heroic and adored leader. While the real-world scenario facing Zelensky and the Ukrainian people is far more grim and appalling than the comedy of the series, there are obvious parallels with the real-world situation, and Servant of the People is a fascinating, important and historic piece of television.”