If ‘PONIES’ is your kind of spy show, watch these next
If ‘PONIES’ is your kind of spy show, watch these next
From Cold War tension to modern conspiracies, these shows scratch the same espionage itch.
If you’re drawn to spy stories where ordinary people get pulled into something way bigger than they ever signed up for, “PONIES” is built to scratch the itch. The series follows two women working at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow during the Cold War who suddenly find themselves tangled up in espionage after their husbands die under mysterious circumstances. Peacock dropped all eight episodes on Thursday, Jan. 15, so if you find yourself burning through them and suddenly looking for the next spy thriller to dive into, here are four shows that live in the same place.
PONIES
In 1977 Moscow, two “PONIES” (“persons of no interest”) become CIA operatives and uncover a Cold War conspiracy their husbands were killed for.
Loved ‘PONIES’? Watch: ‘The Copenhagen Test’
“The Copenhagen Test” starts from a terrifyingly simple idea. What if your own senses couldn’t be trusted? The show follows an intelligence analyst who realizes his mind has been compromised, meaning someone else can see and hear what he does in real time. From there, everything becomes a performance.
The reason this pairs so well with “PONIES” is that same feeling of being trapped inside a system you don’t control. In both shows, the leads aren’t flashy field agents chasing bad guys. They’re people forced to learn espionage rules on the fly, while trying not to tip their hand. I’ve never seen a story where the spy’s own body is the surveillance device they have to fight against, so this is a cool twist.
The Copenhagen Test
When an analyst discovers his eyes and ears have been hacked, he’s drawn into a controlled world designed by his agency to draw out their enemies.
Watch next: ‘The Americans’
Tara and I started this show years ago, and we were both hooked. On the surface, “The Americans” is about two Soviet agents living undercover as a married couple in suburban America during the Cold War. In practice, it’s about identity, loyalty, and how long you can live a lie before it starts to feel real.
If the Cold War Moscow setting of ‘PONIES’ is what caught your attention, this is the deeper, slower burn version of that world. It’s obsessed with tradecraft, moral compromise, and the emotional cost of espionage. I love spy stories where agents are in a foreign country forced to sell a settled, domestic life to the people around them, and this show does that better than almost anything else. The tension doesn’t come from explosions. It comes from dinner tables and quiet conversations that could end everything.
The Americans
Set during the Cold War period in the 1980s, The Americans is the story of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and their neighbor, Stan Beeman, an FBI Counterintelligence agent.
Don’t miss: ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’
“Mr. & Mrs. Smith” is the lightest show on the menu, but don’t let that fool you. At its core, it’s still about people being assigned identities and then slowly realizing how dangerous that can be. Two strangers are paired up, given a fake marriage, and sent on missions for a shadowy organization that never fully explains itself.
What makes this a great follow-up to “PONIES” is how it uses intimacy as a weapon. Trust is always provisional. The cover relationship becomes its own trap and builds entire episodes around the tension of all the different relationship phases. It’s funny, awkward, and quietly stressful in the best way.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Meet the Smiths: two lonely strangers, John and Jane, who have given up their lives and identities to be thrown together as partners – both in espionage and in marriage.
Next up: ‘The Night Agent’
“The Night Agent” packs the most punch of any show on this list. It starts with a low-level government job that no one thinks matters, until one phone call yanks the lead into a sprawling conspiracy at the highest levels of power. Suddenly, survival depends on who you trust and how fast you can adapt.
The connection to “PONIES” is that same ordinary-person-to-espionage pipeline. No training montage. No gradual easing in. Just immediate danger and the realization that institutions can’t always protect you. I love spy thrillers that feel like a sprint, and this one shows you what happens when the covert world moves fast and loud instead of quiet and calculated.
The Night Agent
Brought together by a midnight phone call, an FBI agent and a cybersecurity expert must unravel an ever-growing web of political conspiracies.
More to watch after finishing ‘PONIES’:
‘The Agency’ | Paramount+
The Agency
Covert CIA agent Martian is ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to London Station. When the love he left behind unexpectedly reappears, their romance reignites, pitting his career, his real identity and his mission against his heart while hurling them both into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage.
‘The Recruit’ | Netflix
The Recruit
Recruited out of law school by the CIA, a daredevil young attorney leaps unprepared into the dangerous world of international espionage.
‘Slow Horses’ | Apple TV
Slow Horses
Follow a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents—and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb—as they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.
‘Rabbit Hole’ | Paramount+
Rabbit Hole
Nothing is what it seems when John Weir, a master of deception in the world of corporate espionage, is framed for murder by powerful forces with the ability to influence and control populations.