Slowly but surely, Peacock has been making a name for itself amongst some of today’s biggest streaming services and its new show “Ponies” is another big step toward this goal. Centered in Cold War paranoia and espionage, the series will have you on the edge of your seat from the very first episode.
The show follows Bea (Emilia Clarke) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson) after their husbands, both of whom worked as operatives for the CIA, die under mysterious circumstances. Determined to uncover the truth behind their husbands’ deaths, the two women begin working with the CIA to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and infiltrate the KGB.
Set in 1977 Moscow, everything from the costumes to the color grading adds to a vintage brutalist aesthetic that pulls the viewer in. The show also plays with different film aspect ratios throughout the series, which feels similar to that of something that would have come out during the 1970s.
Adding to the overall ambience of the series is the stellar soundtrack. Featuring artists from that era such as Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and David Bowie, every song brought a certain nostalgia to the show. Whether it was played in a dimly lit Soviet club or over an intense car chase, the music of this series truly helped bring life to this show, especially in those overly stressful action-packed sequences.
And, of course, the obligatory “Rasputin” by Boney M. also made an appearance in the series, adding to the brilliance of this show’s music and truly marking “Ponies” as a Cold War-era spy-thriller.
While the action sequences made this series exciting, the characters kept me invested.
Over the course of eight episodes, you begin to fall in love with the characters of the main and supporting cast. With each obstacle they came across or danger they put themselves in, it wasn’t just like I was watching characters on a screen. Instead, I felt more like I was actively wrapped up in the lives of people who were as real as if I had just met them on the street. Their stories and relationships with one another were heartfelt and funny, even when everything they were doing was dangerous and stressful.
The most compelling of these storylines was Bea and her relationship with Sasha (Petro Ninovskyi), a technician who works on top-secret Soviet technology and becomes a trusted informant for the CIA. Throughout the show, Bea and Sasha work closely together as he gives her information and technology to give to the CIA, and what starts out as purely professional quickly becomes something more.
Now, as far as relationships in this show go, there was no couple I was rooting for more than Bea and Sasha, who repeatedly brought light, loving moments to otherwise grim plots. It’s their slow but steady love story that provides some of the sweetest, and my personal favorite, moments in the show.
Furthermore, as far as actual characters go, I am confident there is really no character any viewer, myself included, will love as much as Sasha. Driven by the death of his sister, Galyna (Sophia Shkliaruk), Sasha makes every decision, no matter how dangerous, out of a love for her, and eventually a love for Bea, too. He’s romantic and it shows; he may not be totally fearless, but he does try to be brave and he’s just nerdy enough to make it all endearing.
If there was one real critique I would make about this series, it is that eight episodes just aren’t long enough. With a plot in need of such in-depth storytelling, I ended up feeling more could have been explored when it came to some of the smaller characters and sub plots. But even with the questions I was left with at the end of the series, I didn’t feel disappointed that it was over. I was excited and extremely hopeful for another season to come out and give me some answers.
For fans of adventure and espionage, “Ponies” is the perfect choice for your next show, and if it does get green lit for a season two as co-creators Susanna Fogel and David Iserson have expressed hope for, you’ll want to get in on the mystery as soon as you can.
