If you survived toxic and abusive management, Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) will trigger you immediately. It doesn’t help that it also bothers us to see a post-pandemic scenario, an authoritarian and conservative regime omitting its violent measures, and an insecure leader being fed by opposing sources with similar objectives. Perhaps these feelings made it difficult to understand the plot of The Regime and that was the intention of the MAX series.

Sold as a comedy, the first episode didn’t show anything laughable, relying heavily on irony to warn us of all the dangers in politics and how strong regimes are built. Thanks to the talent of the always great Kate Winslet and the intelligence of Stephen Freas, we were amazed by the visually stunning sequence of a suffocating story.

In a fictional country in central Europe, we land in a palace being renovated due to the paranoia and health of Chancellor Elena Vernham, a leader who arouses panic and jokes from her subordinates, who meet her every demand, which is not few or reasonable.

Who explains to us and to Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) the internal rules imposed by the strange chancellor, who redefines the word germophobia. Zubak himself is ‘famous’ for all the wrong reasons. He is a soldier who led violent repression in the country and who caused diplomatic problems and international criticism, therefore an unpopular figure and nicknamed “butcher”. As the action came from the chancellor’s own initiative, Zubak receives unique access to it, which causes insecurity among the team.

With so many commands and an unstable boss, it’s easy for Zubak to stumble, as his opponents openly hope. What they didn’t realize was that they underestimated the enemy. Attentive to details and quick with strategies, the soldier’s turn is the big difference in the future of the nation. We’ll get there soon.

Not all information was contextualized, although it was all made available. Elena’s origin, her meteoric rise to Power, the nation’s economic problems, the health problems, her ideological enemy, the origin of Elena’s desperate concern for her health, it’s all there, now we have to tie the dots like Zubak did.

Elena’s main administrative advisor is Agnes (Andrea Riseborough), whose loyalties are unclear. She knows that the boss is paranoid, she doesn’t agree with the brute force represented by Zubak, but she moves on both sides trying to remain invisible.

The country’s economy and social problems revolve around cobalt mines, a wealth that the United States wants to “help” explore, but which divides opinions. If you give in to the outside, you lose autonomy and internal support, but if you go against it, you need to stifle internal democratic opinions. Who hasn’t experienced this if they’re not American? Yes, in Latin America we have grown and we are still dealing with this impasse.

Some will complain that the insecure and despotic female character is a sexist view of female leadership, just as they complain about Daenerys Targaryen’s ending in Game of Thrones, but The Regime is more about loneliness, isolation, and the dangers that a leader faces both listening to people close to you with personal interests and people you consider “people” and who also have their own goals. The fact that Elena, who tends towards conservatism, makes the wrong choices when she decides alone (changing the main dish at dinner, creating a problem of serving meat to vegans is just one of them) is very clear in her entry into the party for the Americans singing If You Leave Me Now, by the band Chicago, off-key. She is intelligent, she is just suffocated by fears and awareness of the consequences of her choices. She eliminated the space for sincerity in such a way that we are left here watching her being manipulated, on one side and the other.

The decision fueled by a patriotic Zubak sounds consistent with the absurdity that is American mercantilism: Elena refuses to accept the agreement on the terms that were presented and that leaves her at the mercy of foreigners. This turn is constructed by Zubak, so brilliantly that it makes you fear what he might do now.

How did he do it? Being attentive. When he slips the rules and is removed from the chancellor, he luckily saves her from an attack and now has her unrestricted trust. It feeds your paranoia and encourages your firmer hand. The fear is real, but we still don’t know all the players. If you survived the triggers, you’re as breathless as the chancellor wondering what’s to come.

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