I don’t know what it is, but I like it. That, I think, is the fairest summary I can give to Ponies, the weirdly joyful and bizarrely endearing espionage thriller cum female buddy caper set in 1970s Moscow – filmed like a 70s movie (wipe screen! Split screen! Yellow typing across screen!), written with a modern feminist sensibility, and split over eight parts for TV.
Fans of John le Carré should be warned that this new series, from Susanna Fogel (who also directs four episodes) and David Iserson, has none of the revelling in depictions of tradecraft that stories in his tradition usually prize. The setup is almost embarrassingly absurd and dealt with as swiftly as possible – nothing to see here, just accept it and move on to the good stuff! – as the wives of two dead CIA agents persuade their husbands’ boss to take them on as spies, on the grounds that the KGB will never suspect that women have been recruited. It is my understanding that the real KGB were many things, but not as thick as mince, so I am glad our widows are fictitious.
