Sedm schodů k moci is a 2023 Czech drama series produced by TV Prima. The series follows the story of Anna Malá - a waitress who decides to build a career in the parliamentary circles - covering her rise from a waitress in the parliamentary canteen all the way to becoming the Prime Minister's right hand and lover, as well as her subsequent fall.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: MP Káša is noted to be a heavy drinker, which Krčka uses against him by having him photographed while sleeping drunk in the parliamentary canteen.
- Ambition Is Evil: Anna's path to success is one of immense ambition, but it comes at a cost of sacrificing her morals and betraying or alienating about everyone close to her and ultimately brings her before a criminal court.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: Prime Minister Dub's fall and replacement with Minister Vichr is met with a wave of enthusiastic celebrations both at the Ministry of Culture and among the common people, one restaurant owner rushing to give Vichr a gift on the house as a token of gratitude when he visits the place with Anna.
- Anonymous Ringer: The President is never named, but he is mentioned to be an extremely heavy smoker, and in the one blurred shot of him that we get during the concert, he is seen to be an old man using a cane to walk, heavily hinting his identity to be Miloš Zeman
, who was the President of Czechia during the production of the series. - Attempted Rape: In the third episode, Anna is sent to Hadraba's office to deliver him a lunch. Instead of Hadraba, his cousin working as his advisor is waiting there, telling Anna to stay away from Hadraba, and while doing that, he violently tries to force her to give him a blowjob to show her who is in control. Anna manages to escape by stabbing his leg with a fork.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: On the outside, Hadraba is a gentlemanly and friendly man who doesn't cheat on Anna, which are all qualities her previous lover, Lachman, didn't have. Later though, it very much shows he's not nearly as nice as he seems, it coming to light that he drugged a fellow politician to gain political advantage.
- Blatant Lies: Several characters resign from their jobs due to "health reasons". It is always a blatant cover-up of their scandal coming to light.
- Hadraba resigns from his MP position due to "health reasons", right after his drugging scandal gets exposed by the internet television journalist.
- Coufalová resigns as the director of the Minister of Culture's office once Anna exposes her dealings with Šíma to Minister Vichr, the public once again getting told it's due to "health reasons".
- Prime Minister Dub is forced to resign after a great number of political scandals get Vichr to coup him as the Prime Minister. Once again, he says it's due to "health reasons".
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Krčka does this every episode, briefly turning to talk to the audience during Anna's trial.
- Butt-Monkey: The lobbyist Lachman could be seen as one, as he gets played like a fiddle not just once, but twice. First time after he forces Anna to get an abortion, she tells Krčka about his and Dub's meeting with godfathers in Italy, with Krčka exposing the story while adding a false piece of information that Lachman was the one who orchestrated the reveal to the media, ruining his relationship with Dub and getting him blacklisted from contacting the Government. Later, behind Vichr's back, Anna offers him a chance to return to prominence if he helps Vichr become the new PM. He does that, but ends up rejected by Vichr and cut off by Anna. When he tries to threaten Anna to regain influence for his efforts, Anna shoots back by getting Colonel Valenta from the secret service to force him to back off. Considering what a Jerkass he is, it's not undeserved.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Netík is one of the few people in the series who sees right through Anna's character and constantly warns Vichr against getting close with her, knowing she will emotionally manipulate him, and in his last warning, he predicticts that she will destroy Vichr's marriage if he employs her in the Office of the Government. Vichr does not heed his warning, and sure enough, Anna spends the last episode trying to get him to divorce his wife so that she could marry him instead.
- Krčka warns Anna not to try to destroy Vichr's family life, knowing that there is nothing to gain and everything to lose. Twice. Anna ignores his first warning and breaks ties with him after the second one. Her attempt to frame Vichr's wife for adultery ultimately ruins Vichr's political career and gets her prosecuted for abuse of power.
- Caught on Tape:
- When Hadraba refuses to hand the journalist the discrediting video of the female MP he drugged, it turns out the journalist had footage of Hadraba putting the drug in her drink on tape all along.
- Coufalová's corruption is recorded on Anna's phone she hid in her office. When Coufalová tries to dismiss Anna's notes of her corruption, she simply plays the voice record.
- Character Catchphrase: Krčka opens every episode with the same quote, introducing himself by saying: "I'm a journalist and a huge swine."
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Anna progressively becomes one towards Vichr. As her career advances, so does her relationship with Vichr, to the point where the two become lovers. The thing is, Vichr is married, and he at times feels guilt regarding the affair. Anna, however, becomes obsessed with the prospect of potentially marrying him, and becomes dedicated to destroy Vichr's current marriage, to the point where she illegally abuses her powers to get incriminating evidence of his wife's potential infidelity.
- Cool Car: Ondra the Chauffeur owns a vintage Corvette and is appropriately proud of it.
- Con Man: Anna's mother ends up befriending and dating a man going under the name Jáchym. He turns out to be a fraudster who robs her blind and flees at the first opportune moment, and with his name likely being false, there is no chance of her getting the stolen possessions back.
- Corrupt Bureaucrat:
- Coufalová on the outside seems like an uncompromising bureaucrat, repeatedly kicking the lobbyist Šíma with his gifts out of the Ministry and seemingly wanting to have nothing to do with him. Behind the locked doors of her office though, she is negotiating secret deals with him.
- Ultimately, Anna herself turns into one when she uses her position to convince Colonel Valenta to illegally have secret service monitor Vichr's wife to gain incriminating evidence.
- Which also makes Colonel Valenta one, for it was he who, in exchange for the promise of career advancement, approved the illegal operation.
- Corrupt Politician: Prime Minister Dub is surrounded by a great number of political scandals - practically every time he makes an appearance, there is a new scandal. This ultlimately leads to his downfall, with Vichr, upon Anna's advice, deciding to replace him.
- Creator Cameo: Josef Klíma, one of the screenwriters, appears as a journalist on TV in the sixth episode.
- Crying Wolf: Downplayed. Considering Anna's mother's history of lying - hiding from Anna her debts, her romantic interest, and pretending being crippled after a previous illness, Anna is very sceptical regarding her mother's claim of having cancer, but does not dismiss the notion entirely, sending her off to a doctor. The cancer turns out to be real.
- Death Glare: Anna and Netík shoot a few at each other, reflecting the utter contempt they hold for one another - Anna for seeing Netík as an obstacle, Netík for seeing Anna for who she is.
- Declining Promotion: Anna's subordinates from the Ministry of Culture outright refuse to get promoted to the Office of the Government, preferring to stay at their original position due to not wanting to deal with Anna's tyrannical behaviour as a boss.
- Dirty Communists: The Communist MP Šebesta is portrayed as a hypocrite saying he's fighting for the good of the public while forgetting to mention the ways the Communist regime did excatly the same thing he's momentaritly fighting against - something Krčka is always quick to point out. Later when Anna meets him to negotiate support for Vichr's plan to become the new Prime Minister, he tells her that he doesn't outright mind Dub remaining in charge because his corruption scandals mean greater support for his party, although he relents and agrees to support Vichr after Anna voices her disappointment in him.
- Dirty Old Man: The rector. He is a man with a silver beard who is willing to grant her an academic degree just because she is willing to sleep with him.
- Downfall by Sex: Vichr's fall is ultimately a result of his affair with Anna, with his reputation blown to bits after the police raid his appartment while he is about to have sex with Anna.
- Drunk with Power: Anna's career rise goes hand in hand with her becoming more dominant in her personality and more and more obsessed with control. By the time she reaches the top, her Mean Boss antics toward her subordinates peak and she becomes willing to commit illegal abuse of power in order to become Vichr's wife.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Anna asks Krčka to fabricate a slanderous article to discredit Netík, even he, a self-proclaimed "swine", is uncomfortable with the prospect of ruining the reputation of an honest man when compared to exposing the scandals of corrupt people who deserve their end. Anna's reassurance that the article never gets published doesn't help him much, with him still feeling uncomfortable with potentially disrupting Netík and Vichr's friendship.
- Evil Is Petty: In the last episode, Anna becomes furious after one assistant of the Mayor of Prague mocks her hairdo online, and demands Vichr to force the Mayor to fire her for this.
- Failed a Spot Check: Hadraba accepts the proposal to discredit a certain female PM from a mysterious man without bothering to check his identity at all, and goes forth with the plan. It turns out the man is a journalist from an internet television, something his cousin discovers immediately after Anna tells him what Hadraba did. While Hadraba tries to save his face by refusing to hand his over his recording of drugging, it doesn't save him, as the journalist got it on tape anyway.
- False Friend: Anna becomes one to Zdena, the waitress operating the atrium buffet. She pretends to be her friend, but in reality, she is only after her place in the atrium, and once she becomes no longer useful to her after the canteen food delivery corruption comes to light, she breaks all ties with her.
- Flipping the Bird: After Krčka warns Anna for a second time to not destroy Vichr's marriage, she essentially tells him to go to hell, informs him their cooperation is over and leaves his car. He immediately tries to get her back, but she only reconfirms her decision to cut ties with him by showing him a middle finger from afar.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Anna rises from a simple waitress to the Chief Director of the Office of the Government and the Prime Minister's lover, arguably becoming the most powerful woman in the country in the process.
- Get Out!:
- In the first episode, Anna's cheating boyfriend and her friend Hanka visit her in her new home after the former is caught while having sex with another girl and the latter is revealed as having known about the affair all along, with the coming to offer a pitiful attempt at apology to Anna. Anna kicks them both out.
- When Anna visits Netík after her ploy with the false slanderous article, ruining both his career advancement and friendship with Vichr, she finds him packing his possessions, discovering he resigned from his position in disgust. Netík only tolerates her presence for a few seconds before kicking her out of his office, yelling at her that doesn't want to see her ever again.
- The Ghost: Kárník, the right hand of Prime Minister Dub responsible for digging up dirt on other colleagues, is mentioned a few times, but he is never seen.
- Gratuitous English: A few lines of dialogue in English are uttered by Šíma and Mr. Jones in English when he two are dealing together. Justified, considering that Mr. Jones is from a foreign agency.
- Henpecked Husband: Vichr is under strong influence of his wife, losing confidence as soon as she calls him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- After a charity gala, Hadraba gets contacted by a strange man who offers him a chance to discredit a fellow MP by simply drugging her in a nightclub. Hadraba accepts the offer and promptly does just that. The catch is, the man turns out to be a journalist from an internet television specialising in exposing corrupt politicians who catches Hadraba Slipping a Mickey on tape, and so in the end, the only person Hadraba ends up discrediting is himself.
- After Coufalová's resignation, the matters of the office of the Minister of Culture are, in a provisorial mode, ran by vote, with Vlasta nominally becoming the leading worker in the office. She however intends to take over control of the office by holding a vote which would give her expanded powers, which she plans to use to fire Anna. Anna learns of the plan, promptly bribes her colleague with a luxurious holiday voucher Šíma gifted her earlier, and when it finally comes to the vote, she spins the vote in her favour, becoming interim director of the office instead of Vlasta. Her first step is then to fire Vlasta.
- In the final episode, Anna is determined to become Vichr's wife. Problem is, Vichr is married. To convince him to get divorced, she tries to paint Vichr's wife as having an affair with her Spanish teacher, and to get evidence, she tasks Colonel Valenta to illegally monitor the wife. The illegal monitoring gets exposed and ends with her and Valenta arrested and prosecuted, and with the arrest exposing Vichr as the adulterer instead.
- How We Got Here: The series start with Anna being brought to her trial, with the trial progressing by a small bit at every episode's beginning and end. The plot of the series covers Anna's rise and fall, and in doing so reveals how she got prosecuted to begin with.
- Iconic Item: Anna's necklace. She finds it in her deceased father's apartment and learns it was a gift she was meant to receive from him as a little girl. She subsequently spends the whole series wearing it.
- Immoral Journalist: Zig-Zagged with Krčka. He is a cynical self-proclaimed swine working for a tabloid and a Manipulative Bastard who isn't above blackmailing his contacts into providing him with with juicy headline material, but he is still interested in exposing political scandals and taking down corrupt politicians.
- Implied Death Threat:
- Downplayed in Václav's interaction with Anna in the third episode when he tries to dissuade her from exposing the corruption in the canteen. While he doesn't threaten to kill her, he takes care to mention what a pot of boiling soup can do to a pretty face like hers.
- Later played straight when Krčka gets kidnapped, beaten up and is made to look as an excavator drops a pile of sand very close to him while he lies on the ground.
- Indignant Slap: Hadraba ends up on the receiving end of one from his drugging victim when his scandal gets exposed.
- Insistent Terminology:
- Coufalová insists on her title being "director", and when Anna unintentionally titles her wrong once, she gets very irritated.
- When Anna later moves to a new position in the Office of the Government, she makes it very clear to her subordinates that her proper title is "chief director".
- Interrupted Intimacy: Anna and Vichr's rapid downfall is kickstarted by a police raid of Vichr's apartment while the two are about to have sex.
- Lethal Chef: Vichr is a very bad cook whose utter clumsiness in kitchen leaves him on a diet of fast food orders. Anna quickly figures out a way to use even that in her favour to win Vichr's affections. He eventually gets better after getting more intimate with Anna.
- Karma Houdini: The lobbyist Šíma never receives any comeuppance for his corrupt dealings with Coufalová nor for bypassing the rules of various tenders with Anna's help. The last we see of him, he watches the news of Anna and Vichr's downfall while dining in a fancy restaurant with Mr. Jones and Lachman.
- Malicious Slander: To move from the Ministry of Culture to the Office of the Government, Anna needs to figure out a way to dispose of Netík, Vichr's close friend and co-worker. However, it quickly turns out that Netík's reputation is clean. This leads Anna to simply have Krčka fabricate an article branding Netík as a Depraved Homosexual Pedophile Priest. While the audacity of the lies infuriates both Vichr and Netík and while the article never actually gets released, the prospect of the reputation blow causes Vichr to not take Netík with him to the Office of the Government.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- Anna is a manipulative bastard par excellence. She manages to climb from the ordinary job of a canteen waitress to a high governmental position, destroys obstacles left and right, orchestrates the fall of Prime Minister Dub and his replacement with Minister Vichr, becoming the new Prime Minister's right hand and lover in the process, all using various tricks, connections and lies. Especially horrifyingly effective is the way she gets to control Vichr himself, emotionally manipulating the man to wrap him around her finger.
- Krčka himself doesn't stand far behind, creating several situations to blackmail Anna into cooperation.
- The lobbyists are viewed to be this in general, with Šíma in particular standing out, using Anna to secure maximum advantage for his business interests.
- Mean Boss: Several.
- Šustrová is a boss who, per Václav, hates female subordinates, and the only one who did manage to find a good place did so because of being a Professional Butt-Kisser. It shows when she fires Anna at the first opportunity for an incident for which she wasn't to blame, and only reconsiders due to Lachman making it seem like Anna has some connection to a higher-up. When Šustrová finds out there is no connection between Anna and the higher-up, she promptly fires her again.
- Coufalová is introduced as a strict and uptight woman who is extremely insistent on people getting her work title right. Pretty much noone likes her in the office due to her harsh leadership.
- Vlasta, when taking over after Coufalová's resignation, quickly becomes just as strict and unlikable as Coufalová.
- Ultimately, Anna, upon becoming the interim director of the Minister of Culture's Office, eventually descends into being so bad that her colleagues-turned-subordinates start wishing Coufalová back and outright refuse to be promoted to the Office of the Government just to get rid of Anna. Somehow, she manages to find a way to become even worse when she becomes the chief director of the Office of the Government.
- Meet the New Boss: The Minister of Culture's Office sees three leaders throughout the series - Coufalová, Vlasta and Anna - and all turn out to be strict and unlikable bosses on a power trip.
- Momma's Boy: Hadraba lives with his mother and is rather reliant on her. Krčka outright calls him one.
- My God, What Have I Done?: One of the few times Anna feels remorse is after her behaviour causes Hanka to quit her job and break their friendship.
- No Ending: Downplayed. The series cover Anna's eventual fall and arrest after her rise to power, but we never learn the result of Anna's trial, the series ending with Vichr's testimony.
- Offscreen Karma: While an arrest is never directly seen, after Anna tells Minister Vichr about Šustrová's corrupt deals regarding food deliveries, police officers are seeing entering the premises of the parliamentary canteen. It is also later mentioned that everyone was fired afterwards, which presumably includes Václav, who threatened to harm Anna if she tried to expose the corruption in the canteen.
- One-Steve Limit: Downplayed. Both PM Dub and Colonel Valenta are revealed to be named Milan, but outside of the PM's televised appearances and a reportage of Valenta's arrest, they are always referred to with their surnames, making it easy to distinguish them.
- Panty Shot: Krčka takes an opportune photo of Anna's underwear while the latter is bent forward at the buffet and then proceeds to publish it in the tabloid he works for. The shot nearly costs Anna her job in the canteen.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": When digging up dirt on Coufalová, Anna finds out the Coufalová's email is locked by password. Krčka advises her about people's unoriginality when it comes to passwords and demonstrates it by guessing Anna's password within three attempts. Anna later manages to easily figure out Coufalová's.
- Phony Degree: To be eligible to apply to become a new director of the Minister of Culture's Office, Anna would have to have a master's or engineer's degree. Anna however only has bachelor's degree. The thing is, earning a master's degree in a legitimate way is something that would take years to do. A rector of a private university offers his help, however - in exchange for sex, he would make her a student and have her earn a degree within weeks while Anna would do next to nothing. He even provides her with a ready thesis and personally prepares her defence.
- Professional Butt-Kisser:
- Zdena is said to have earned her place in the atrium buffet by being one towards Šustrová.
- When Anna becomes the chief director of the Office of the Government, one subordinate immediately tries to suck up to her. In this case, it has no effect.
- Really Gets Around: Lachman. He outright admits that to Anna and forces her to agree to accept that if she wants to keep his relationship with him. Anna pretends she's okay with that, but after seeing Lachman dating a model, she is still hurt by that.
- Resign in Protest:
- After Vichr disappoints him with his decision to postpone his transfer to the Office of the Government due to a false unreleased article, Netík resigns and leaves the Ministry of Culture.
- Hanka eventually resigns as Anna's deputy after Anna becomes so ruthless that Hanka can no longer recognise her as her old friend.
- Resigned in Disgrace: Happens to several characters throughout the series.
- MP Hadraba is forced to resign after his scandal regarding drugging a fellow MP gets exposed.
- Coufalová is forced to resign when Anna exposes her corruption to Minister Vichr.
- Prime Minister Dub ultimately resigns after his pile of political scandals grows too big for Vichr to tolerate it.
- At the very end, Vichr resigns after his affair with Anna is publically exposed.
- Short-Lived Leadership: Due to his affair with Anna, Vichr is forced to resign after what could be estimated as few weeks after rising to the position of the Prime Minister. A news reporter on TV comments that the shortness of Vichr's term sets a record.
- Slave to PR: Minister Vichr, to a fault. Nicknamed "Mr. Clean" by the political scene, he takes care to avoid direct contact with lobbyists at all costs, rejects gifts which he can buy with his own money instead and tries to appear as a humble and pious family man who always takes time to return to his hometown to spend time with his family every weekend and who visits the church there every Sunday. Anna weaponises this against Vichr's friend Netík, fabricating a false tabloid article slandering Netík's reputation which would cause a popularity bomb if released, getting Vichr to decide to preserve his popularity over his friendship. He keeps this attitude even after becoming the PM, refusing to so much as be in a same room with lobbyists, fearing his reputation might come to blow if he is seen. Ultimately though, his efforts are All for Nothing - he is publically exposed as an adulterer, and he is forced to resign in shame.
- Slipping a Mickey: In the third episode, while Hadraba and Anna visit a club, a young female politician collapses after a drink with the two. While it at first seems like her own doing, it quickly turns out it was Hadraba himself who drugged the girl.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Anna and Krčka, while helping each other to career growth and juicy articles, make it very clear throughout the series that they don't like one another much and work together only because it benefits them. Krčka ultimately warms up to her somewhat, even trying to warn her from ruining herself by trying to destroy Vichr's marriage, but Anna sees him as not much more than a tool, and she dismisses him when he stops being useful to her.
- Trauma Conga Line: One happens to Anna in the first episode. She finds her boyfriend cheating on her, then learns her friend Hanka knew about the cheating all along and didn't bother telling her, and ultimately discovers her mother faked becoming crippled after her illness, which was something that caused Anna to never get engineer's degree due to her being forced to stop her studies to take care of her. On top of that, she also finds out that her father loved her but her mother hid all of his letters he sent to her. It's not hard to figure out why Anna chose to burn the bridges and start a new life.
- Ultimate Job Security: The chef Václav mentions to Anna that he is safe from Šustrová's Mean Boss antics, as demonstrated when she tolerates him having an open bottle of beer in the kitchen. It turns out he recorded her dirty dealings and protects himself from getting fired through Blackmail, and panics upon the prospect of the corruption in the canteen actually coming to light, as he would lose his advantage.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: After the plan to oust Prime Minister Dub succeeds, Netík, who by that moment figured out Anna's character, comes to Anna, gleefully telling her that she will be staying as the director of the Minister of Culture's office while he will be moving with Vichr to the Office of the Government. Considering Anna's ruthless nature, this turns out to be a very bad move.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The main plot of the series is heavily inspired by the Nagyová case which shook the Czech political scene in the 2010s, but it is set in 2020s and the characters have certain differences from the central actors of the 2013 scandal.
- The way Anna gains her Phony Degree is a reference to the scandal of the faculty of law in Plzeň.
- The nature of the story is eventually lampshaded by Krčka at the very end of the series.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: After Krčka's kidnapping and Implied Death Threat delivered to him, before releasing him, the kidnapper tells him to remember that he knows where he lives.
- Villain Protagonist: The series follow the tale of Anna, at first somewhat sympathetic girl who, in the pursuit of career, sacrifices all of her morals and uses reprehensible methods to get to the top.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Netík is completely shocked when he realises that Vichr, a married man, had sex with Anna, and rushes to tell him to come to his senses while he still has time.
- After Vichr decides to postpone taking Netík, his closest friend and co-worker, with him to the Office of the Government over an unreleased fabricated article full of slanderous lies due to fears of a potential reputation hit, Netík is visibly shaken and declares his disappointment with the way Vichr chose to do politics.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Anna meets the Dub's chief director of the Office of the Government, she offers her to stay in the Office, saying that she has good recommendations regarding her. Dub's director rejects, saying that she does not have good recommendations regarding Anna.
