The RegimeReview: Kate Winslet Shows Off Her Comic Powers Playing an Out-of-Control Tyrant

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Miya Mizuno/HBO

Miya Mizuno/HBO

The RegimeisKate Winslet’s third HBO limited series, afterMildred Pierce,for which she won an Emmy as a tough, ambitious waitress, andMare of Easttown,for which she wonanotherEmmyas a hard-bitten, small-town detective. Here she’s a bullying, empty-headed European despot, Elena Vernham. It’s — once again — a remarkable performance.

It’s as if she were a conflation ofPrincess MargaretandAnna Nicole Smith.

Elena is a comedic-satiric part, but Winslet, 48, attacks it without a wink of humor. Which is right, since Elena is mentally unstable, endlessly demanding that the mold levels in her palace be tested and measured.

That duty falls to Herbert (Matthias Schoenaerts), a brutal soldier who has the soul of a Rasputin and the physique ofJoe Manganiello. He and Elena become lovers, then ruin the country.

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Winslet with costar Matthias Schoenaerts.Miya Mizuno/HBO

The drawback withRegime —and it’s not a negligible one — is that the story is essentially a setup for Winslet but not much more. What is this show trying to say about politics, about Europe, about authoritarianism, about Putin, about anything?

Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ HBO seriesVeephad a very basic, even facile, comedic thrust: Politicians are children — cunning, evil, profane, egomaniacal, ridiculous, brawling, horrible children (who happen to rule the world). ButVeepmade its point with a battering, swift insistence.Regimeseems to think it has all the time in the world. The Romanovs made that same mistake.

Winslet, though, is enough—more than enough. She has an expansive power and force that are well-suited to these broad narrative arcs. She exerts an undeviating emotional pull, whether she’s going for laughs or tears (or both).

Her performance could be considered a coup.The Regimepremieres Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

source: people.com