Ponies Season 1 Review: Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson Charm as Unlikely Cold War Spies

In Peacock’s new spy thriller dramedy Ponies, the term “PONI” stands for Person of No Interest. Fortunately, the show starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson is more interesting than its title suggests.

Bea (Emilia Clarke) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson), two American women of dramatically different backgrounds, find their way into becoming CIA operatives working in the USSR after their agent husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances.

The show is set in 1977, which it rarely lets you forget with a barrage of time-placed needle drops, and reflects a time when women in government weren’t expected to be much more than secretaries. This bias benefits Bea and Twila, as they’re allowed to become operatives mostly due to the fact that the Soviets would never suspect them.

​Although the pilot episode has a lot of setup to get through (the aforementioned husbands are still alive in Episode 1), the show finds its footing once the two women are involved in their missions and their friendship blossoms.

Neither Bea nor Twila are what you’d traditionally consider spy material, and the antics they run into provide a lot of the humor, but don’t think the show doesn’t have a buffet of twists. You’ll find yourself just as eager to find out the truth as the two heroines as they go deeper and deeper into the dark and messy world of espionage.

Without spoiling who, there are, of course, moles and double agents you won’t see coming, as well as people you thought you could trust keeping secrets. You’ll be on the edge of your seat as Bea’s Russian grandmother (played by Harriet Walter) gets involved in their undercover work and is almost captured (yes, grandma undercover!).

Ponies does sometimes overdo it with the amount of subplots and twists, but knows when to refocus on its biggest assets: its stars and their dynamite chemistry. 

Clarke and Richardson, who are charming performers on their own, are even better together. While it’s too much of a dramedy to call the show an odd couple buddy comedy, it comes pretty darn close.

A joke about them being two interchangeable, “young Americans, long hair, big eyebrows,” lands perfectly, but their subtle differences make the pairing’s chemistry spark. Clarke’s Bea is prim, and her emotions boil under the surface until they boil over, whereas Richardson’s Twila is bold and brash, hiding a vulnerable side.

With eight episodes in Season 1, Ponies takes its time to develop its female leads and allows them to be more than just caricatures. It shouldn’t be, but watching a show led by two women who are allowed to have feelings and sometimes be messy but also be competent is refreshing.

The supporting cast rounds out the show well, particularly Adrian Lester as serious Moscow branch boss Dane Walter. Nicholas Podany as Ray, an uptight intelligence employee, provides a lot of comedy and heart as he forms an unlikely partnership with Twila to uncover who is murdering Russian prostitutes.

​Artjom Gilz is properly terrifying as Andrei Vasiliev, a homicidal Soviet agent whom Bea must seduce in order to discover what happened to her and Twila’s husbands. He couldn’t be more contrasting to the sweet puppy-like Sasha (Petro Ninovskyi), Bea’s informant, who has his own personal reasons for betraying the Soviets.

As far as historical accuracy, well… a young Elton John crosses paths with Bea and Twila during his Moscow concert. The show takes its creative liberties, so maybe keep Wikipedia closed while watching.

One final word of caution before you begin your mission: Season 1 of Ponies ends on a massive cliffhanger. Intelligence on a Season 2 renewal has not yet been received. 

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Ponies Season 1 is streaming now on Peacock. 

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