Ponies, from a phrase that means persons of no interest, stars Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson as two women living in Moscow in 1977. Both were married to CIA spies. When their husbands died, they convinced the CIA to hire them as spies so they could solve the murders of their husbands.

Ponies is a fun series. It’s not a comedy. But Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson are amazing together as two unlikely spies who don’t have a clue what they are doing but figure things out anyway. That is fun to watch.

The series is definitely a spy story. There are murders and bloody scenes and various sex scenes. Not a comedy.

Bea (Clarke) and Twila (Richardson) convince the Moscow head of the CIA, Dane (Adrian Lester) that the Russians would never suspect women of spying. The Americans agree that women would be incapable of this without realizing that the Russians have been using the idea against them for some time.

As Bea and Twila muddle through the situation in Moscow they are helped because Bea speaks Russian. Her grandmother (Harriet Walter) taught her. Her grandmother gets involved in the story after a few episodes, too.

Bea’s job revolves around seducing a KGB man named Andrei (Artjom Gilz), who is scary indeed. She also works with a Russian man who is helping the CIA. He is Sasha (Petro Ninovskyi). Bea and Sasha get involved in more ways than one.

Twila gets most of her help from a Russian woman in the market, Ivanna (Lili Walters), who can find and sell anything Twila needs for her spying mission. Twila and Ivanna get involved in more ways than one.

Bea and Twila were total opposites. Bea was well read, a college grad. She had a happy life and a happy marriage. Twila came from a hard life. She married as a way to escape her life. Their reactions to the deaths of their husbands was very different. As time went on and they faced so many dangerous situations in their spying lives they developed a strong bond. They looked out for each other and stuck together. This friendship and connection between them was the best part of the series for me. The two actors did a brilliant job with it.

An interesting part of the series is how things get smuggled in the story. Everything from American chocolate cupcakes to videotapes used for blackmail were moved around in unusual ways.

A CIA man Ray (Nicholas Podany) and his demanding wife Cheryl (Vic Michaelis) are important in the story. They have a delicate relationship based on keeping Cheryl happy. The nanny they hire, Eevi (Clare Hughes), makes things worse.

Season 1 of Ponies ends with a couple of big surprise turns and a huge cliffhanger that make me want to petition Peacock for a second season immediately.

The show’s creators Susanna Fogel and David Iserson said that the series is fiction but based on real things that could have happened in this situation in Moscow in 1977. Music from the 1970s filled every scene. They must have spent a fortune getting the rights to all those hit songs.

The women directors were Susanna Fogel and Ally Pankiw. The entire first season is up on Peacock.