Volha is a comedy-drama television series directed by Jan Pachl. It is based on a book by Karel Hynie called Volha – záznam o provozu motorového vozidla. It starts broadcast o 2 April 2023. The series follows a Czechoslovak television chauffeur Standa Pekárek from 1970s to 1990s. It was filmed to celebrate 70th anniversary of television broadcast in the Czech Republic.
Tropes of the Volha:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Standa qualifies. He acts as a friendly guy but in reality is horrible person who rats on his colleagues, cheats on his wives and seems to care only about himself. In the end he screws up even Horáček whom he seemed to consider o be a real friend.
- Broken Ace: Standa possibly at the end. All people that were close to him left him and he loses his lucrative job as a driver and becomes a night guard at Czech Television.
- Commie Land: The series is set primarily in communist Czechoslovakia.
- Hidden Depths: Míla Vyhnálek seemed just as a normal working man but final episode reveals him to be a dissident working against regime.
- Horáček for others. He seems to be just a normal producer who doesn't want to be involved in anything political but he secretly performs anti-state activity by distributing illegal books.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Director Válová.
- Šlégr possibly. He is a State Security operative ho beats suspects and people fear of him but when Horáček passes out once he presses on him he tries to help him and even tries to calm him down by telling him he has nothing to worry about.
- Honor Before Reason: Director Válová and Horáček's daughter.
- Hypocrite: Standa says that he isn't like his mother because she was selfish despite the fact that all questionable things she did was for her family including Standa while everything Standa did was to benefit himself.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Standa
- Karma Houdini: State Security Agents never get punished for anything they did.
- Nice Guy: Horáček.
- Police Brutality: State Security operatives beat Standa.
- So Proud of You: Horáček's daughter after finding out about her father's anti-state activity.
- Villain Protagonist: Standa Pekárek has no problem to rat on others and has few redeeming qualities but also is the protagonist of series.
