The Regime is a dark comedy this is how HBO has characterized this drama, Kate Winslet is shown as the Paranoid Chancellor of a central European nation, and the name of her character is Elena Verum. Just to confirm first this review will have some spoilers.
The Regime – Beginning of the Episode
The Regime this episode opened up in a beautiful landscape that almost reminds the Shambam palace that is in Austria. The Butchers of Site Five is the first thing that is shown in the episode there was a group of soldiers who went to kill 12 protesters for protesting against the cobalt mines. These mines are clearly good for the country and the money this can bring in due to Americans being interested in it. It was bad for the people of that area as it was causing them many troubles because of the Dirty water, air pollution created by these mines.
Zubak – The Butchers
Corporal ZubaK was given a new role after the bizarre happenings at site 5, which has shaken the entire nation. All the 12 mine workers who were protesting were brutally killed by Army officials and the state was criticized for this act. It was said that protesting workers became violent and soldiers had to fire shots to control the situation but the actual situation was totally different there was no fault of the workers and Army officials were totally at fault. This is why every soldier involved in this act was called a Butcher. In The Regime Zubak’s new role is to serve the Chancellor and he is hoping that his role will give him some relief from the Site 5 tragedy
Ellena – The Chancellor
In The Regime Ellena Vernam came to power 7 years ago after defeating Edwards Keplinger, During the election campaign Ellena promised people that she would take care of her people and that democracy would also be her first priority. The Opposite was happening from Ellena was elected by the people, because she became paranoid and hard time coping with her anxiety.
The role of Zubak was to roam around with Ellena with a device called a hydrometer that calculates humidity and informs the chancellor if the humidity increases, this was to keep Ellena healthy. This was very strange for a Soldier like Zubak but he never uttered a word and was happy at least he had a job. Ellena never had good relations with her cabinet ministers as she never listened to them and this is why there was disappointment in the cabinet against her.
Ellena Slapping Zubak
Ellena is attracted to Zubak as shown in the first scene itself, she is more confident in him than her husband. There was a party to welcome industrialist Richard Kaiser, in this party, Zuback stopped Ellena from sitting on a table and shaking hands with Richard because the humidity was high. This incident shook up Ellena as her paranoid situation was not known to everyone. After this Ellena took Zubak aside started slapping him and asked Zubak’s manager to give him the night shift.
She comes back to the party, Richard and Ellena now start discussing the contract of refineries and Ellena accepts the terms mentioned by Richard of keeping 30% of the stake.
Ellena forgives Zubak
Ellena’s Palace was under renovation as she wanted the entire area to be spore-free, during the time of renovation one of the builders who was a former minor enters Ellena’s room at night and before he can do anything Zubak notices him and beats him till death. From that time Zubak was given a different role to escort Ellena every time and lead the security of her. She gave more priority to Zubak than her husband in The Regime and after some time her husband had to get permission to enter Ellena’s room. She also started taking his advice in administrative work and Zubak was also fully committed to her.
Plan of Killing Ellena
At the end of 1st episode of The Regime Susan and Dr. Kershaw come to Ellena and ask her to temporarily stay at another palace with all the renovation happening inside the current palace there can be chances of security breaches. Ellena insisted of not moving out and later on also asked Zubak about his opinion. Zubak opened up in front of Ellena and told her that she was completely fine and people like Susan, and Dr. Kershaw were making her feel sick. Zubak then instructs Ellena to take action and prove to her minister that she is capable of handling state affairs. After this Ellena took action and arrested Susan and Dr. Kershaw every minister was taking advantage of Ellena because of her health issues.
End of Episode One – The Regime
Ellena has shown she has come out from her phobia and now she is completely confident but we believe her nervousness will come back again in a later episode. Relation between Ellena and Zubak is one of the aspects of the storyline in the upcoming episodes of The Regime
Watch the trailer of The Regime – Click Here