Despite Its 96% on RT, This New Peacock Show Is One of the Worst Spy Thrillers in a Decade
Although it claims to be serious and dramatic, the series reveals its creative laziness and inability to offer anything new to the well-worn genre.
New Peacock series Ponies clearly demonstrates that a high Rotten Tomatoes score is no guarantee of quality.
Claiming to be a tense Cold War thriller, the project turns out to be outdated and stereotypical. At times, it is downright comical – a spectacle unlikely to be taken seriously by viewers familiar with the historical and cultural context.
What Is 'Ponies' About?
The story takes place in Moscow in 1977. Two CIA agents working undercover at the American embassy die in mysterious circumstances. Their widows, Bea and Twila, decide to return to the USSR to finish their husbands' mission and uncover the truth about their deaths.
After finding jobs as secretaries at the embassy, these complete amateurs in espionage begin their own operation. They contact an informant working at the secret Pegasus plant and confront a ruthless KGB officer.
The idea is that Persons of No Interest is the perfect cover because no one would suspect ordinary secretaries of being agents.
Despite Experienced Creators, 'Ponies' Fails to Recreate the Era or Tell a Good Detective Story
Paradoxically, despite its stellar cast and the experience of showrunner David Iserson, who worked on Mr. Robot and Mad Men, and director Susanna Fogel, Ponies fails at the most basic level: creating a believable world.
Filming in Budapest reveals complete indifference to detail. Moscow in the 1970s is depicted as a dreary, conventional backdrop with clumsily inserted silhouettes of the Kremlin and Red Square, which are meant to convince viewers of the setting.
The interiors, costumes, and atmosphere of the city all lack historical accuracy and artistic credibility.
The plot, designed to keep viewers in suspense, turns out to be a collection of cliches. The main characters' motives are superficial, the mystery surrounding their husbands' deaths fails to generate genuine interest, and the "top-secret information" that they pursue remains abstract.
'Ponies' Is a Straightforward Cold War Spy Flick That Would Work Much Better as a Parody
Ponies earnestly recycles the cliches of McCarthy-era propaganda films. Noble CIA agents confront evil, primitive Soviet security officers and life in the USSR is depicted as a place of hopeless suffering where everyone dreams of escaping to the West.
This black-and-white view seemed outdated 20 years ago and feels terribly anachronistic in 2025. However, it is the character of Emilia Clarke that ruins any possibility of taking the story seriously.
Posing as a local resident, her Bea speaks Russian with such a monstrous accent that it instantly destroys any belief in the story.
Experienced KGB officers tracking spies daily would have spotted the "secret agent" from the very first words. Instead of a tense confrontation, the result is unintentional comedy bordering on parody of the genre itself.
What Did Critics & Viewers Think of 'Ponies'?
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Ponies has 96% from critics and 78% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.
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On IMDb, the series has a score of 6.8/10.
