Public Development (Syaran TV series)
| Public Development | |
|---|---|
 Promotional image for the show | |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Directed by | Jannig Smoulian |
| Starring | Bilyana Desislavova Toncheva Bale Kazepov Renato Milić Dyakon Atanasov Rusev |
| Country of origin | Syara |
| Original language(s) | Syaran |
| No. of episodes | 62 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Rumen Shapkarov |
| Production location(s) | Syara |
| Cinematography | Lara Milašinčić |
| Editor(s) | Miroslav Stanimirov Pironev |
| Production company(s) | Prism Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | ComNetwork |
| Original release | June 22, 2017 – Ongoing |
Public Development (Syaran: Јавен развој, Javen razvoj) is a Syaran television comedy series by Prism Productions that premiered on ComNetwork on 22 June, 2017. The series follows the working lives of a team in the fictional Ministry of Public Development as they navigate the collision of infrastructure, project development, public relations, and bureaucracy. The series first season ran in 2017 and has been renewed every year since. Public Development met with positive reviews from critics.
Characters
- Nedelya Boikova Varbanova - The Chief of Staff for the Ministry, Nedelya is a veteran civil servant and the "straight woman" of the office, pragmatic and direct. Nedelya is the principle go-getter for the Ministry, balancing the ambitions and often unrealistic goals of her superiors with what is feasible. Though often exasperated with the performance and attitude of her peers, she possesses a genuine love of her work and has a strong ethical and grounded view of the ministrys' role. She comes from a lower class background, which is sometimes used against her by her superiors for her "lack of vision"
- Kostadin Malchankov - The Senior Project Director of the Ministry, Kostadin is a highly enthusiastic and optimistic civil servant with a strong desire to embark on enormous and profound civil projects, but often has little grasp of the feasibility of such efforts. While generally good natured and friendly, Kostadin's antics tend to irritate Nedelya, a fact he remains largely oblivious to.
*Ilyo Jordanova - The Operations Assistant, close friend to Nedelya and in her eyes the most competent person in the office. Ilyo, despite plenty of experience and common sense, is often overruled by his more senior coworkers and is thus forced to spent most of his time trying to enact their unrealistic ambitions and personal pet projects.
- Maja Vrbanec - The Public Relations Director, Maja is responsible for the Ministrys' public image. Highly prone to following fads and trends, she often focuses more effort on "rebranding" the Ministry, often through social media and information technology means she doesn't truly understand.
- Sivo Andreev Tsvetanov - The Minister of Public Development, Sivo is a former radio host whose appointment was largely related to his role as a public affairs manager for the party. Sivo lacks a clear understanding of the role of the Ministry and often is just focused on meeting the expectations of the Executive of Syara. Most of his decision making and opinions are based on what is political viable or popular, which occasionally makes him both a figure of reasonable authority and an attention-seeking politician.
- Kakig Smoulian - Chief Treasurer of the Ministry, Kakig is tasked with approving budgets for Ministry Projects. He is almost wholly opposed to spending money on anything, but due to his introverted nature he is often ignored and overruled by the Minister. Although occasionally an ally of Nedelya, his penny-pinching nature also works against her on occasion.
- Sanja Cvetko - The Executive Assistant to Nedelya, Sanja is well intentioned and cheerful, but also naive and often prone to going with the flow even to the detriment of her superiors.
- Andreev, Adrijan, Anton - The three deputy ministers, they are described in almost all characters save for Nedelya and Ilyo as polar opposites of one another, but in every appearance they always resemble one another to an almost uncanny degree, with similar opinions and mannerisms. In the rare instance they disagree, they resolve the issue to mutual agreement almost instantly, often through rapid and sometimes nonsensical discussions.
- Payl Ezzatian - Director of Personnel Management, Payl serves as the human resources chief of the Ministry and often goes to great lengths to state her interest and desire to improve the working conditions of the staff. In practice however most of her solutions and suggests are either infeasible or serve or real purpose.
Synopsis
The series follows the staff of the fictional Ministry of Public Development, which is tasked with assisting public infrastructure projects, managing public relations with government agencies, and conducting reviews of civil-political engagement on behalf of the Government of Syara (in reality, these duties are split between the Ministries of Administration, Internal Affairs, and Infrastructure). Following an election which places a new government in power (the party affiliation is never identified), the newly appointed staff of the Public Development Ministry are tasked with improving the public image of the department, completing various ongoing and stalled projects, and streamlining the Ministry's' operations. In practice, this typically involves dealing with the various bureaucracies of each government ministry, and balancing the demands of the public and the ambitions of politicians and public figures.
Seasons usually follow a general plot, though most episodes have additional B-plots among various characters. The typical season opens up with a problem or issue that is identified over the first few episodes, which prompts a variety of responses between the various staff members, which are often mutually exclusive. Resolving these differences and coming up with a realistic solution serves as the main story line for each season. Apart from fads and trends brought onboard by Maja, most of the plots shy away from topical political issues and focus on long-running systematic problems like regionalism, centralization versus decentralization, and change against the status quo.