Emilia Clarke’s Cold War thriller ‘PONIES’ is finally here
Emilia Clarke’s Cold War thriller ‘PONIES’ is finally here
Set in Moscow in 1977, the espionage thriller turns two overlooked women into unlikely operatives.
Get ready for some fresh Cold War paranoia. Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson star in “PONIES,” a Cold War espionage thriller set in Moscow in 1977. The new Peacock show follows two American Embassy secretaries who are dismissed as “persons of no interest” (PONI… get it?) until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances inside the USSR. What starts as grief quickly turns into something far more dangerous. All episodes drop on Thursday, Jan. 15, and here’s how to watch.
How to watch ‘PONIES’
- When: Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, 12:01 a.m. ET
- TV: Peacock
- Stream: Watch with a subscription to Peacock
- From anywhere: Watch with a subscription to a VPN.
Everything you need to know about ‘PONIES’
When will episodes of ‘PONIES’ come on Peacock?
“PONIES” premieres Thursday, Jan. 15 on Peacock. All eight episodes of Season 1 drop at once, which makes this an easy binge if you want to sink into a tense spy story without weekly waits. Once it goes live, the full season is there.
Why do we recommend Peacock for watching ‘PONIES’?
Easy answer. It’s the only place the show lives. “PONIES” is a Peacock exclusive, so every episode streams there and nowhere else. You’ll need either the $11 per month Premium plan with ads or the $17 per month Premium Plus plan if you want to watch ad-free. Peacock’s been building a solid run of thrillers lately, including their most recent one, “The Copenhagen Test” and this fits right into that lane.
Can you watch episodes of ‘PONIES’ for free?
Nope. Peacock doesn’t offer a standard free trial right now, so you’ll need a paid subscription to watch. The upside is that the entire season drops on day one, which means you can sign up for a single month, binge all eight episodes, and cancel if you want. That’s usually the move for limited series like this if you don’t want to hang around with the streamer.
Peacock
Peacock is a subscription video streaming service from NBCUniversal that includes original shows, blockbuster movies, and classic television series. Peacock is home to “Yellowstone,” “The Office,” and original hits like “Poker Face” and “Bel-Air.” You can also watch live sports and NBC programming, including the NFL, MLB, WWE, the Olympics, the Premier League, NASCAR, the French Open, college football and basketball, and the PGA Tour. Premium Plus subscribers can stream their local NBC feed in all 210 markets.
Watch a teaser for ‘PONIES’
What is ‘PONIES’ about?
“PONIES” is set in Moscow in 1977, deep in the Cold War. Bea and Twila work as secretaries at the American Embassy, written off as harmless and unimportant in intelligence terms. They’re classified as “persons of no interest,” which makes them invisible in a world built on surveillance.
But that all changes when their husbands are killed under suspicious circumstances inside the USSR. With no clear answers and nowhere to turn, the women are quietly pulled into the CIA and trained to operate in the shadows. Bea, played by Emilia Clarke, is an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Twila, played by Haley Lu Richardson, is a blunt, fearless small-town transplant who brings raw nerve to every situation. Together, they begin uncovering a much larger Cold War conspiracy while trying to figure out who targeted their families and why.
After you watch the first episode of ‘PONIES,’ let us know what you think in the comments below.
What other thriller TV shows can you watch on Peacock?
If “PONIES” works for you and you want to stay in that tense, uneasy headspace a little longer, Peacock has some good follow-ups. “The Copenhagen Test” is probably the closest match. It’s another paranoia-fueled spy story, built around an intelligence analyst who realizes someone can see and hear everything he does, which turns every conversation into a performance. “The Resort” goes in a different direction, mixing thriller and mystery, as a vacationing couple gets pulled into a cold case that refuses to stay buried. It starts light, then slowly tightens the screws. And if you want something more classic and slick, “The Day of the Jackal” delivers a straight-up cat-and-mouse chase between an elite assassin and the people trying to stop him, with that constant feeling that everything could blow up at any moment. All three are easy ways to keep the suspense going without leaving Peacock.
PONIES
In 1977 Moscow, two “PONIES” (“persons of no interest”) become CIA operatives and uncover a Cold War conspiracy their husbands were killed for.