Spies

It's Russian, and subtitled but once you get past that the story is engaging and has a good tempo. The actors give a very good performance and the continuity and props are authentic. All in all I enjoyed the series. I hope that the writers make another series based in the Cold War with the same protagonists.

I was generally pleased and impressed with this series. Many Russian productions depict events (fictional or real) transpiring during WWII, and this was definitely one of the more original, "twistier" and entertaining of them all. I especially highly recommend it to all the other "hopeless romantics" out there!

I am usually pretty picky when it comes to TV series. I suppose I have very specific tastes and while I realize that 99% of them are fiction, I really abhor when writers don't even try to make it plausible.

This series is a REAL Gem. Here are the elements they have. Please keep in mind that I watched it in native Russian and subtitles don't do it justice. Not only they miss all the nuanced jargon but also larger parts of the story where say, they say 'ludi' which translates to people, and implies men and women, the subtitles say men.

Here are the strong points:

1. Costumes, mannerisms and writing are all on point. It's really shows up well in the first episode of the Arina character and then throughout the series at a more subtle points.

2. The story is complex and layered. Nothing is as it seems and most of it is plausible.

3. The NKVD and the ussr military leadership are portrayed very accurately. The blackmail, quid pro quo are all accurate and very believable. They rarely gave anyone benefit of the doubt and only pushed their own agenda.

4. The actual spy craft is very good and very detailed and many times it's explained why certain things are done and most of it stems from human nature. In american movies that's very rarely done.

5. There is enough character development to really create a bond with each of the main cast and to try to understand them. They all are portrayed as smart and very good at their job, yet they are very different. Some are very honest to the point of naitette, while others while being very patriotic, realize that the world is not black and white and most of the time, you cannot get your way and that in order to have better chance, you have to be flexible and adjust on the fly.

I only have one negative:

1. No additional seasons. Boooooooooooooooooo

If you are interested in historical drama, old school spy craft, Soviet culture, Russian architecture, Eastern European history and WWII, this series is well worth watching. It is a real shame that it was canned after 3 series.

I watched this in 2022 seeking an antidote to the Russo-phobia campaign promoted by the western media during the NATO-Russia war, which NATO seems to be loosing despite layers of grease paint.

For a sort of a soapy, it worked remarkably well.

The directing, writing, acting, cinematography, locations and the attention to detail in the sets and settings are spellbinding.

For a western English speaking audience the subtitles are a bit frustrating - it is evident that so much is lost in translation. Still, grateful thanks to the subtitle editors who made this fine work addressable to a non-Russian speaker.

This is not a mega-budget Hollywood production but the overall product is very good and well worth watching particularly if you are interested in Soviet history and WWII. The acting is very good from the main characters to the supporting cast. The two female leads represent the two ways Soviet citizens reacted to the society and the system around them: idealistic patriotic fervor and deep investment in the ideology on the one hand, versus cynical self-interested survivalism on the other. Though the various members of the Soviet clandestine operations team often clash with each other, they all have believable motivations and the characters demonstrate how they are changed by their experiences. Russian sensibilities might not tolerate a realistic depiction of the brutal excesses of the NKVD, and none of the main characters embody the depraved inhumanity of a Yezhov or a Beria - but there is acknowledgement that the Soviet system the characters inhabit is capable of savage injustices against its own people. The characters regard this in much the same way we regard the weather: a reality that we must acknowledge and try to cope with as best we can. The series also pays acknowledgement to the ambiguous and conflicted relationships between the people of "liberated" states like Poland and their new Soviet masters. The series takes some liberties with historical accuracy - like the ease with which the operatives cross and re-cross enemy lines and the relative rarity of their deaths - but nothing about the production shatters the necessary suspension of disbelief and it does succeed in creating a plausible versimilitude toward the world it depicts. There are enough surprising plot twists, new threats, and ongoing suspense to keep up the viewer's interest; as the series progressed I found myself caring what happened to these characters.

- The version I watched had the original Russian audio track with English subtitles - which is my strong preference for watching movies originally made in other languages.