Even though Ponies is supposedly about "Persons. Of. No. Interest." don't let that fool you. These characters are out of sight!
Ponies, which stars Emilia Clarke and Hale Lu Richardson, is set in 1977 Moscow during the height of the Cold War. Clarke and Richardson play Beatrice Grant and Twila Hasbeck respectively. Beatrice and Twila are in Moscow because their husbands are members of the CIA posing as US Embassy workers. From the sound of this, it could be just another formulaic Cold War spy show. But this one has a twist, Bea and Twila's husbands die in a mysterious way. Instead of running home, the two widows want to find out why their husbands are dead. They are so determined that they are willing to become... US spies themselves.
OK this is where your suspension of disbelief has to jump into high gear. the C.I.A. allows two untrained women to become spies. Luckily the writers realized we would need at list a thin tether to reality so they cleverly came up with the idea that these "P.O.N.I.E.S." (people of no interest) could be useful as the Soviets would never suspect them of being spies. OK cool. I like the characters and the dialogue and story is fun so that is plenty to keep me interested. Thanks writers! You're the best!
With that out of the way, the show can now do what it does best, highlight Clarke and Richardson as delightful, funny, smart, endearing characters... who happen to be attempting to be spies. When you add in the really cool 1970s details like fashion and music you have something worth watching. Toss in some cool backstory of some Soviet citizens and you have a really entertaining show.
Another difference between Ponies and the typical Cold War spy show is that the highlight of the show is not the twits, turns and intrigued. yes there is definitely a bigger plot here and there are definitely some surprises, but those are secondary to the dialogue, retro feel, and relationship building. To be honest, there is enough "spy stuff" to make this watchable even if you don't like the characters. And the characters just interacting during a regular day in Moscow would also be watchable on its own. But when you put those two pieces together, you have a very fun show.
As an added bonus (for me at least) this is the first television show to prominently feature one of my favorite people in the world... Vic Michaelis! Vic is a regular on my favorite streaming service Dropout.TV. They are by far one of the funniest humans on earth. Thy have such a quirky mind and delivery. I cannot explain how happy I am for them that they finally landed a big role. It is well deserved and we will hopefully see much more of Vic!
