We first meet Bea (Emilia Clarke) in a market in Moscow politely asking a lady for the eggs she paid for. The lady does not seem to understand until Twila (Haley Lu Richardson) tells Bea to curse the woman in Russian, and when she does, the woman sniffs and hands over the eggs.
Ponies Season 1 (English)
Episodes: 8
Creators: Susanna Fogel, David Iserson
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Haley Lu Richardson, Adrian Lester, Artjom Gilz, Nicholas Podany, Petro Ninovskyi, Vic Michaelis
Storyline: Two American embassy wives in Moscow decide to step in to find out the truth about their husbands’ mysterious deaths
Runtime: 47–53 minutes
Bea and Twila are embassy wives while their husbands, Chris (Louis Boyer) and Tom (John Macmillan) are ostensibly doing boring work for the ambassador to the USSR, but they are actually spies for the CIA.
When Chris and Tom are killed in an air crash, Bea and Twila convince the Moscow station chief, Dane (Adrian Lester) that they could be spies as no one in the KGB would pay any attention to a couple of women, “ponies” — people of no interest, as opposed to people of interest. Dane reluctantly agrees seeing the strength of the argument.
A still from the show
| Photo Credit:
Peacock
Soon enough, Bea and Twila are involved in meeting a secret agent, Sasha (Petro Ninovskyi) who prefers the codename Radford (after Robert Redford) to the one the CIA gave him—C.K. Solar. A KGB agent, Andrei (Artjom Gilz), is interested in Bea and Dane asks her to cultivate him.
When Twila discovers that vulnerable women are being murdered, and that the police are treating them as isolated incidents, she decides to investigate, with help from mild-mannered Ray (Nicholas Podany) who also works in the embassy and lets his life be run by his harridan wife, Cheryl (Vic Michaelis).
There are double and triple crosses, missing sisters, and old women working as spies, including Bea’s grandmother, Manya Caplan (Harriet Walter). The period detail is wonderful including the cars and bell bottoms, broad belts and shiny jumpsuits. Adding George H. W. Bush (Patrick Fabian) as the director of the CIA was a nice touch, given that the former U.S. president was DCI for a year in 1976.
The needle drops (each episode title is a ‘70s pop song) including songs by Fleetwood Mac (‘Second Hand News’) Boney M (‘Rasputin’, naturally), Steely Dan (‘Do It Again’), and David Bowie (‘Moonage Daydream’), are thoughtful choices.
A still from the show
| Photo Credit:
Peacock
With Budapest standing in for Moscow, the noir palette, complete with rain-slick streets, grim buildings and the rich, faded grandeur of glorious old buildings is delightful.
Clarke and Richardson have great chemistry and are one of the strongest reasons to watch the show (the music comes a close second). Clarke shrugs off her Daenerys persona from Game of Thrones to reveal her tough side under a silken glove. Richardson, (Portia from The White Lotus) once she stops echoing Natasha Lyonne from Poker Face or Russian Doll, is fun to watch.
There are some cavernous plot holes that one can fly a plane through, but Ponies is such a cheerful show that you are reluctantly willing to let its weird narrative choices go.
The finale with its Elton John (Alistair Mumford) concert, is action packed and twisty, with friends and allies turning into antagonists on a dime. There are more than a few unresolved plot points, and that cliff-hanger to the tune of Billy Joel’s ‘The Stranger’ is suitably jaw dropping. Hopefully, there will be a season 2 or else we will wonder forever about what happened to the probably good/bad guys and girls.
Ponies is currently streaming on Jio Hotstar
Published – January 24, 2026 04:45 pm IST
