Kate Winslet stars in new HBO series, “The Regime”

This could be great or really shit. The trailer is not the most promising.

Didn’t she essentially play that role in the awful Divergent films whose only redeeming feature was Theo James?

Theo James can’t act. He’s just really pretty and attractive and charming.

[quote] Theo James can’t act. He’s just really pretty and attractive and charming.

Utterly agree, R3.

R3 someone high up must have fucked him at some point because he cannot act for shit.

Kate looks good.

He’s just perfect looking for the roles he plays, which usually involve him being good looking. Same as Jacob Elordi (although Elordi is not a bad actor by any means). Elordi’s physical appearance plays a part in every single role he plays.

I don’t understand the physical appeal of Jacob Elordi. I think Theo James is much better looking.

Well if you compare them I agree r8 but Theo being better looking doesn’t erase that Jacob is also good looking.

Part of Jacob’s appeal is his height and he has a face that can be shot from any angle.

It doesn't look entertaining, I hope I'm wrong.

Nice to see Milda Pimpleton Tempton, Plimpton, Martha Plumptin whatever her name is get some work. I liked her in the 80s before she disappeared.

She should have changed her name.

It looks depressing, frankly. I have enough dealing with dictators and would-be dictators in real life. I won't be watching.

I'll give it a try just for Winslet. In Triple 9, she was willing to play an entirely unsympathetic character. I'm curious how she plays an autocrat.

Official trailer.

Out March 3rd.

Her character seems a bit uneven? Remember how strong Jodie Comer was in Killing Eve? Maybe she should’ve got this role. Supporting cast looks very very good though.

Kate Winslet is one of those actresses I never tire of.

I'll watch since Kate never lets me down.

It premieres tonight

I'm looking forward to it. Hope this thread catches on. Maybe it's just waiting, but it seems there's usually a big buildup as the show gets nearer.

You can always count on Kate for excellence.

Oh WOW! This looks infuckingcredible. When I read the description I was afraid she might play the character too seriously, or too dour (a bit like Gillian Anderson's Thatcher), but it looks like it has a lot of campy, black humor—almost like a prestige Dr. Evil.

Cannot wait to watch tonight.

From the trailer it has definite DEATH OF STALIN vibes.

Kate is wonderful but the show isn't doing it for me.

Oh dear.

This is AWFUL.

Is Kate Winslet doing a Drew Barrymore imitation?

I like Kate but this looks like a very off follow-up to Sucession for Will Tracey.

Succession

The Iron Lady on acid.

The guy who plays the bodyguard is HOT, Jesus Christ.

The tone is weird and it’s not very funny. I’m surprised HBO green lit a show that bashes the US.

I think with dyed hair and prosthetics Kate would be ideal to play that whore Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem.

[quote]Kate Winslet stars in new HBO series, “The Regime”

Let me guess, in each interview she gives about this series, she talks about weight and acts like she weighs 200 pounds, when she really only weighs about 115 pounds at the most.

I will watch for the bodyguard. He is so hot, so my type, I can hardly stand it.

I'm halfway through the pilot and have no idea how I feel about the actual show. It's bizarre and fascinating and a train wreck and interesting all at once.

Harsh Evita, if Mrs. Peron had lived, even though it's a European country.?

This is a dud.

The first episode was campy and bonkers and dark and I loved it. Laughed out loud many times, especially when Kate was being hauled around in the plastic box.

I won’t watch this show until tonight but really bummed to see so many dislike it. Then again, Datalounge shits on everything so who knows.

I really wanted to love it but it left me cold. I thought it would be like Death of Stalin with a bit of Veep but I didn’t laugh once, I was so disappointed.

Maybe it’s just a bad pilot. I’ll check out 1-2 more episodes before giving up completely. I really hope it improves.

Ok, having watched it, i have to agree it is a big meh. Unfunny satire though it can still get better. I think there is a Marine Le Penn vibe going on.

Kate’s face is getting a little bit distracting though here is on character.

Anyone else think they based her look and hauteur on Madonna?

R39 I can see it with the way the dress fits alone.

Kate profiled in the NYT

R35, we really enjoyed it, too.

It’s a hoot! Kate W is simply fantastic in it. Well, she’s fantastic in everything.

Why does she need a speech impediment? Is that supposed to be funny or add depth? When she started singing it was embarrassing.

[quote]When she started singing it was embarrassing.

It was meant to be

Nicolae Ceaușescu also had an obsession with cleanliness and germs. After he died they found a bunch of weird medical equipment in his palace. Her hideous, OTT palace looks like the one he built in Bucharest.

Her cheesy interior decorating and ramblings about love and dreams remind me of Imelda Marcos.

Plus Ceaușescu also decided to pay off the entire nation's debts

Her singing off key was the best part.

*slap* *slap* *slap* "You made me look like a lunatic!"

Loved it! It’s bizarre and funny and Matthias Schoenaerts can get it.

R50 he's so hot in this it's distracting.

(Though, I looked him up in other things. Not so smoking in other stuff.)

Kate can sing well

That song she performed was riotous. She (the chancellor) has zero sense of self.

Isn’t her bad singing sort of a riff on Imelda Marcos?

I really enjoyed it. The writing loads in every dictator quirk Googleable and Winslet delivers it. The show is good silly.

Kate Winslet in a turban was upsetting for me. And then she sang. Not badly at all. Not at all. I turned it off then and there.

I don't know, r54. I suspect most people, like me, wouldn't get the connection, but maybe that was the inspiration if anybody affiliated with this saw it.

No comments on Episode 2? Martha Plimpton was hilarious.

Typecasting

So, is this show a piece of shit?

R60 yes

It’s mildly interesting to watch, but I can’t say I like it. I’m not sure any of the characters are like able yet, even the rude epilepsy kid. Also not sure if it’s making fun of central/Eastern Europe or not.

*likeable

There's something about Kate Winslet as an actress, I just can't watch her. She's a sort of female Leo diCaprio, so determined to put on a good performance that you can see all the effort but the end result doesn't come together as anything other than a lot of strained effort hoping that something will stick.

Poor things, they do try so hard. And the result is so unwatchable.

Oh, smell you!

[quote]The tone is weird and it’s not very funny. I’m surprised HBO green lit a show that bashes the US.

Where have you been?

Hollywood & Broadway (i.e. California & New York) have been anti-America ever since the 'woke' Marxists usurped control of the U.S. entertainment industry in the past decade.

Many Americans have noticed this trend.

Hence why many are leaving the Democratic Party (and those once-great states).

No one wants leaders who are unpatriotic and ashamed of being American.

Lay off the meth, Trumpy. ^

A thread on an HBO show with less than 100 replies doesn’t bode well.

I was underwhelmed by episode 1 and forgot about episode 2 because of the Oscars. I don’t feel any rush to watch more, maybe I’ll check it out when all episodes are available.

I’m more excited for a season 2 of Mare of Eastown.

Which ain’t ever gonna happen, R68.

I forgot all about it Sunday night, I watched The Academy Awards.

well that's the thing about streaming, r70. Now you can watch.

It is happening R68, but it’s starring Marc Ruffalo. Not clear if Kate will make an appearance.

Is the new series by the Mare of Eastown people really set in Eastown?

Poor Kate made a poop in the punch bowl.

Crazy corporal's slimy cock probably smelled like potatoes after that intense workout.

Why are there non Slavic minorities in this “middle European” country? For instance there would be zero Black people serving in Elena’s government but there are several. Wouldn’t Elena and her minions be total racists? Wrong, wrong wrong.

I like it. I don't know what people were expecting, maybe something like The West Wing but with dictators? It's a fun satire.

I was expecting a fun satire - a mashup of Succession, Veep and Death of Stain - but it’s not even close.

Very disappointing.

R76 - You know the answer to that as well as the rest of us.

I'm also struggling to get into it. I can't decide if it's supposed to be more comical, more serious, dark or what. I wasn't expecting it to be a serious show so maybe that's what's throwing me off. I figured we were supposed to find Elena somewhat serious but also a little bumbling, (more like VEEP maybe?). I don't know. I WANT to love it but can't.

R80, I don't think it can decide what it wants to be. Strongly comic first episode, increasingly muddled as it lumbers along, in my view. But will see it through. Not much else on.

I have never seen such an uneven show. The first half of tonight was hilarious but by the end of the episode I felt like I'd been watching for three hours.

R78 that was my assumption as well. What shows *is* it a mashup of?

It feels a lot like VEEP, but with less coherence. I want to like it, and I admire Winslet, but the humor is just out of reach. It’s really insistently quirky and silly, like the foreign dictator character with all the genetic disorders on 30 Rock. I see a bit of Jennifer Saunders in Winslet’s performance, in terms of strident nonsensical speeches. The off key singing, unhinged mannerisms, implausible reactions to the world around her.

It might also be some Eurocentric production quality, but the color saturation, all this blue tint, looks like the type of visual presentation we saw on Top Gear. It’s an odd combination or writing and characterization. I wish it was a lot funnier. The female character with the short hair and long cloaks, overacts really badly. Maybe it will get better, but I tuned out at the start of episode 2, with some genuinely stupid scenes involving a special diet adopted by Winslet’s character, and her bodyguard looking into her mouth as she chewed some black radish, and smearing mustard on her skin. I call plot elects like these desperately humorous.

Loved the premiere then the second ep bored the hell out of me. I think I’m out.

They left the boy behind, how could they!

I just want Herbert to fuck me into next Tuesday.

Watched the first two episodes this weekend and really liked them. Was a bit trepidatious after seeing so few comments here with maybe half being positive, but I’m in. Interesting, smart story line so far, and Winslet and Mathias have some great fucked up chemistry.

HBO loves KW - is this her third or fourth series (mini-/special event)?

R3, I dunno about that. I thought he did a convincing job playing a hot American douchebro in White Lotus Season 2.

I want my over-the-top game face back

I think she's fantastic but the show is kind of a mess.

Last night played close to drama for most of it. Really bad writing, it's all over the map. Arguably, Winslet's character's efforts to escape should have bordered on slapstick or farce. They should have loaded her into the coffin with daddy and tried to roll her out that way or had her dressed up like some kind of Nutcracker solider trying to slip by rebels. Whoever gave this thing funding, as written, should probably be drug tested.

The show is a huge mess. Kate is working hard, but it’s just not coming together.

I tried but what a bore.

I think it’s occasionally hilarious, but very uneven. The plot seems to be a take on Rasputin as well. We turned it off after the second episode and I feel no real desire to finish it.

I can't decide if they're going to do a Mussolini to her and she's killed by the mob or an Imelda Marcos and she scurries away to a life of luxury (with her husband and her lover, possibly.) That's all I'm watching for now.

I'm enjoying it, but Kate Winslet is one of my favorite actors, so there's that.

I didn't realize this was a comedy of sorts.

It’s wildly uneven, but Kate is carrying it on her back and is giving a fearless performance.

What has Julia Davis (playing the therapist) of Nighty Night fame done to her face?

She dies and Herbert becomes the next corrupt dictator who rolls over for the Americans.

Rasputin, Marie Antoinette themes. Any Evita? Never saw it.

What has Kate done to her face? I’d never have recognised her.

She has something weird going on with her mouth when she speaks in this. Don't know if it's on purpose for the character or she had a stroke.

It's on purpose. She did an interview in The Times and the sag mouth, the lisp under stress, the affected tone, all on purpose.

It was also Winslet who decided that Vernham should have a slight speech impediment, Frears and Hobbs tell me. One side of her mouth droops, too, and she speaks in a petulant baby voice. “One reason was that it wouldn’t have made any sense for me to play her with my own voice,” Winslet says. “I wanted it to be different to other UK television programmes set in palaces, where people look well put-together. I didn’t want people to think it was a model of the monarchy.”

I think with dialect coaching, a brunette wig, prosthetics, and contact lens, Kate could play Gretchen Whitmer in a mini-series or movie.

Her speech pattern in this series reminded me of Jennifer Jason Leigh in the last season of FARGO, with the drooping mouth. Except Leigh does this all the time.

[quote]the female character with the short hair and long cloaks, overacts really badly.

I think you mean the Andrea Risenborough character. I actually thought she was one of the better parts of the show.

I wanted to like the show & the odd concept, but it was just all over the place. It seems like there might have been a nugget of an interesting idea: a small, poor country trying to hold it all together in a world in which they cannot compete. But there seemed to be no compelling reason why the regime needed the Winslet character when she was so nutty, her staff could've easily driven her out the country for "fresh air" and had her shot. It wasn't plausible in any way as even a dark comedy.

I liked Riseborough too. It was a pretty stock character - the hard driven, weary, wary retainer - but she did it well. I wonder if her fate is as it appeared in the last episode. Strangely, I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends. But I'd never watch it again. Succession, for example, was a show I could watch any time. This thing, no.

In the second episode, they seemed to be playing the bodyguard’s history of slapping women around for comedy, at least that’s how I took it.

The writers of this suck. The show doesn’t know what it is.

Kate’s agent must be in danger after this. They plugged a top-tier actress into a pretty embarrassing vehicle.

Not my favorite HBO series by far. She chose power over love which made it all the more disappointing.

What piece of shit.

God, what was this show?

Matthias Schoenaerts was one hot piece in it.

Total drivel.

I guess it was left to us as to whether poor little Oskar survived the palace riot or not.

That was my take away. What happened to Oskar?

[quote]Matthias Schoenaerts was one hot piece in it

Unfortunately, he seemed to be acting in a completely different show than the rest of the cast.

That was so bad and with just six episodes, I can't believe there wasn't a script doctor brought in at some point in pre production or even during to try to fix the thing up. There was a concept there but by the end there were about ten different concepts on screen. Fail, though Winslet was very funny, Riseborough gets an honourable mention for standing out.

On the newest episode and kind of wish this nutty ass bitch would die. "Oh my people, if only they could see me...."

They hate your guts, bitch. She's in a didlfferent world.