Dear Reader,
I don’t say this often, but—damn, that was one good portrayal of OCD in media. I don’t even mind it’s being played for laughs.
The Regime is already on my good side.
Let’s have a round of Trope Bingo with Episode One of The Regime, “Victory Day.” Falling into one of these tropes isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially since this is satire—it’s all in the execution.
And I assure you, there will be lots of executions in The Regime.
Boy Meets (Married, Dictator) Girl
Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) lives in fear of microbes, to the point that her ministers are plotting to sideline her and take control of the small Central European “republic” she leads. Corporal Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), infamous for putting down a rebellion at cobalt mine Site Five, is hired to protect her from mold spores by running ahead of her with a humidity detector. When Zubak interrupts an actual assassination attempt against Vernham and her sweet but emasculated French husband (Guillaume Gallienne), he becomes the Chancellor’s closest confidante, encouraging her to break out of her neuroses and take a hard line against “anyone who would make [her] weak.”
“OCD” is never mentioned as a diagnosis, but all the stereotypical features are there. Vernham has, like Howard Hughes, the power and resources to make everyone else go along with her compulsive sanitizing, dehumidifying, and checking. What struck me as most realistic was the advice given to the newly-hired Zubak that “[Vernham] hates doubt.” For me, that convinced me that someone who actually understands OCD “the doubting disease” wrote this.
Winslet is a delight as Vernham—scheming, competent, neurotic, fragile, and explosively violent in turns. Schoenaerts makes us feel sympathy even for mass murderer Zubak, who has deep self-loathing and looks at Vernham with an adoration that is both patriotic and erotic.
Earlier this week, we reviewed the tropes specifically about women and power we’re looking for in The Regime.
I added in, based on the trailers and educated guesses, some more generic revolution/regime tropes found on TV Tropes, many of which are helpfully gathered in the index “Help! Help! This Index Is Being Repressed!” More on these below.
So, here’s the trope Bingo chart I made before watching “Victory Day:”
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