Emilia Clarke's 'Ponies' is good clean Cold War fun – Review

It's nice to remember TV can just be fun.

Not shocking or appalling, or overly complicated or computer-generated into oblivion. Just two good old-fashioned American spies, the Soviet Union, the Cold War and a lot of high jinks. And capers. And setting pubs on fire.

Peacock's "Ponies" (streaming Thursday, ★★★ out of four) is that kind of unfussy, easygoing but still absolutely thrilling action series that you can't wait to sit down and watch because it's such a joyous ride. Starring "Game of Thrones" alumna Emilia Clarke and "The White Lotus" Season 2 breakout Haley Lu Richardson, it's a story of two unassuming CIA widows who turn out to be rather good spies themselves when thrust into the cold, killer world of 1970s Moscow. The stakes are high, the KGB agents are handsome, the intelligence is deadly, and the costumes are groovy. What's not to love?

At the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in 1977, there are two types of Americans, as far as the KGB is concerned: POIs, or persons of interest, who are probably undercover CIA officers, and PONIs, or persons of no interest, i.e. all the wives, secretaries, cultural ministers and the like. Bea (Clarke) and Twila (Richardson) are two such PONIs (hence the title of the show), both married to CIA operatives and carving out a little slice of normalcy as strangers in a strange land. But when both of their husbands are mysteriously killed on duty, the women are whisked back stateside with no answers or closure.

But, in seeking those answers, they persuade the CIA's man in charge Dane (Adrian Lester) to send them back behind enemy lines in their husbands' stead, continuing the intelligence work while also figuring out what really happened. Bea is a smart college grad who speaks fluent Russian (she's the child of Soviet immigrants), while Twila is brash and fearless, and Dane sees something in them. They both head back to Russia as secretaries, with some espionage work on the side.

"Ponies" requires nearly a full first episode of plot set-up, but scenes never register as unimportant filler. It takes off at a rapid pace from the jump and keeps flying through the subsequent episodes, which are full of action, sexy turncoats, witticisms and Hostess snacks.

The two divine main actresses settle into their characters like an old friend. Richardson is manic and brash, as far from her skittish "Lotus" character as possible. Clarke's Bea is the buttoned-up one, prim and proper and smarter than everyone else in the room, but is constantly overlooked, also a strong departure from her most famous role on "Thrones." They are ideal foils and delightful to watch as they (nearly) fearlessly fumble their way through an extremely dangerous new career.

The series is somewhat hampered by its title, which makes clever sense in context but might cause casual browsers on Peacock to think it's about horse racing. On a streamer that has only a few breakout hits amid a crowded month of TV debuts with ambiguous titles, "Ponies" is likely to be overlooked. But while it lacks the gimmicks and the flash or the pure sex appeal of recent breakout shows, it is rich with warmth, good storytelling and magnetic actors. You can't help but love and root for Bea and Twila, two misfits who are reminders that everyone is sometimes pretending to be something they're not in order to fit in.

And that's certainly keenly of interest to so many of us watching at home.