The backdrop of a particular film or TV show doesn’t always match the tone of what’s happening on screen, and making period or historical comedy is a tricky endeavor. For it to work effectively, the era needs to feel just right but the characters within it need to behave in a way that speaks to who they are despite the circumstances rather than fully clashing with them. Ponies is an entertaining if admittedly light fish-out-of-water tale of two widows in 1977 Moscow who are of absolutely no interest to anyone, which makes them – theoretically, at least – the perfect candidates to be spies for the CIA.
The show’s title introduces its protagonists: their husbands were POIs, Persons of Interest. They, on the other hand, are PONIs, Persons of No Interest. Twila (Haley Lu Richardson), ever the jokester who doesn’t seem capable of taking any situation seriously, adopts the moniker eagerly, while the more serious Bea (Emilia Clarke) isn’t quite ready to laugh yet. It takes very little time for them both to be deep in problematic situations that could easily lead to their deaths, especially for Bea, who begins a romance with Andrei (Artjom Gilz) to get intel that moves much quicker than she anticipates.
Ponies comes from an interesting trio of minds with plentiful experience on television that ranges from Sons of Anarchy to New Girl to Mr. Robot to The Flight Attendant. Co-creator Susanna Fogel also directs half the season, while co-creator David Iserson serves as co-showrunner with Mike Daniels. Its most direct link to an existing project would be Fogel and Iverson’s 2018 film The Spy Who Dumped Me, but this series works hard to feel like it’s set half a century ago in a place truly emblematic of the Cold War, where American agents operate freely yet any of them could be assassinated at any moment and everyone around them would go on minding their own business as if nothing had happened.
Its look, colors, and sets serve to ground Ponies in a moment of time and a place that hardly feels appealing yet also brings with it a very specific charm. It’s not quite as stark as what audiences might remember and imagine of Moscow in The Americans, but much of its liveliness and personality comes from its characters. Its dialogue is also quite helpful in expressing what kind of show this is, like when Twila barters with a potential source who had asked for a different dessert by asserting that what she has to offer, insisting that it’s at least better than “whatever boiled turnip” she’d otherwise be eating later.
Even if this show’s story often feels a bit silly and the stakes aren’t as high as they should be given the general freewheeling nature of these two spies-in-training, the actresses do sell it. While Richardson started with more serious work, her character in The White Lotus is a better framework to approach Twila, who doesn’t censor anything she has and rarely thinks of the consequences of her actions. She’s wild and predictably unpredictable, and even if it feels like maybe she couldn’t really exist, she’s still amusing to watch. Clarke, on the other hand, is best known for Game of Thrones, and even her comedy work since then, like The Pod Generation, has skewed more understated. Here, she commits fully, still playing the straight woman but allowing her eyes to pop out of her head on a more regular basis as she realizes how severe the mess she’s in has quickly become.
The standout of the supporting cast is Adrian Lester as the straight-shooting CIA station head who has little patience for these women’s antics but develops more depth as his character gets a broader showcase. Gilz has the potential to be legitimately terrifying, adding some gravity to the more suspenseful moments of a show that doesn’t always seem like it’s in a rush to get anywhere. At the end of its eight-episode first season, this show really does feel like a slow burn, unpeeling several layers while not covering all that much ground and leaving many secrets still unearthed. Fortunately, its title sets the perfect expectations. This isn’t high drama and it’s not slapstick comedy either, but rather a middle ground that mixes a little of both for a light watch that never gets too dark or intense.
Series grade: 6/10
