“Suspension of disbelief” is a term from the world of television viewing. It describes that magical moment when you are watching a spy series set in 1970s Moscow and suddenly the wife of one of the spies, whose husband was killed under suspicious circumstances, becomes a spy herself. You shout at the TV, “Where did she learn the CIA, on Duolingo?” but your brain agrees to a compromise: “I’ll look the other way if you give me a bit more of that nice KGB.”
Peacock’s “PONIES” is a decent example of that deal. A lot of implausible things happen in it. Two women whose husbands, CIA employees, have just died in a plane crash suddenly become field agents themselves, with no training or background. They skip lightly over the mourning period and move straight into full operational mode: chases, betrayals, conspiracies and surveillance. This is only the first bit of disbelief your brain will be asked to suspend while watching.
PONIES trailer
(Video: HOT)
PONI, short for Persons of No Interest, is an intelligence term referring to people the opposing intelligence service considers completely unimportant. That is a clear advantage if you are a spy. “PONIES” rests on the shaky assumption that the KGB would never suspect the United States of placing women in key roles — a useful premise for espionage, less so for a TV drama.
The first episode of “PONIES,” created by David Iserson (“Mr. Robot”) and Susanna Fogel (“The Flight Attendant”), does not quite settle into the show’s language and style. It feels like a spy drama we have seen enough times to recite the script by heart. I would not be surprised if some viewers drop out after that episode alone. It takes at least two episodes for the comedy to kick in, but one thing is clear from the start: once Bea and Twyla, the two widows, played by Emilia Clarke (forever Daenerys) and Haley Lu Richardson (Patricia from “The White Lotus”), share the screen, their chemistry makes up for almost everything.
Clarke’s Bea is the daughter of Soviet immigrants, educated and fluent in Russian. Richardson’s Twila comes from a small town but is armed with grit and street smarts. They complement each other in the male-dominated world of espionage and plot twists, and viewers are rewarded with an enjoyable dynamic and a softened version of feminism, if not much else.
Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, is clearly placing high hopes on “PONIES.” It is considered one of the more prestigious original productions made especially for the platform and is meant to make Peacock look like a legitimate player in the territory of Netflix, Apple and Disney. In reality, Peacock is still the poor student of the streaming department, mainly trying to stop the financial bleeding. In a survival battle against much bigger players, this is a calculated gamble: a star like Clarke and costly period cinematography in Europe, filmed in Budapest, are meant to convince viewers, more precisely American viewers, that Peacock — which usually relies on sports packages and NBC content — is a legitimate alternative to the giants. It is not.
For now, though, we have “PONIES,” a mostly harmless series built on the chemistry between two excellent actresses and a few solid male roles, including Adrian Lester as Dain, the CIA station chief, and Vic Michaelis, who turns the thankless role of Twyla’s rival secretary into a perfect comic anecdote. The period design is beautiful, even if it means Bea and Twyla wander around Moscow in lavish American 1970s wardrobes, reducing their chances of blending in as intelligence agents to zero.
It hardly matters, since they make every possible mistake anyway, like discussing their missions in English in the middle of the street or returning again and again to the same market stall to ask questions.
A terrific soundtrack from the era accompanies the series and makes the suspension of disbelief much easier. All eight episodes are available for binge-watching, so if you have a few free hours and absolutely nothing else to watch, you may find yourself enjoying a light, undemanding spy thriller.