Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Faux-'80s Romanian cop series is a thought-provoking hoot.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Comrade Detective
What's the Story?
COMRADE DETECTIVE is not, a lengthy prologue informs us, a modern satiric comedy filmed in Romania with Romanian actors and then dubbed by American stars. Instead, it's a 1980s-era Cold War artifact, created to shore up capitalist values. And so begins the tale of Gregor Anghel (Florin Piersic Jr., dubbed by Channing Tatum), a tough cop who's saddled with kinder, gentler partner Iosif Baciu (Corneliu Ulici, dubbed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) on a murder investigation they both take very personally. Will they find the killer, who hides his identity behind a Reagan mask and seems to have links to the American embassy? As Gregor Anghel says, "You don't become a good communist by going to meetings or memorizing manifestos: You do it with your fists."
Is It Any Good?
Stuffed with knowing jokes about America and capitalism, this deadpan faux-vintage series is destined to become a classic. How can a series pretending to be so old be so fresh? The show's co-creators, Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka (also the team behind NBC's very different sitcom Animal Practice), were reportedly inspired by 1980s American cop series, which would frequently have a stereotypical Russian character as the bad guy. Meanwhile, over behind the Iron Curtain, they were making cop shows with American villains who were just as exaggerated.
And so, the Americans in Comrade Detective are hamburger-pounding football fans who adore money so much they sniff their ill-gotten gains. Meanwhile, Gregor and Iosif and all the ordinary Romanian citizens around them are glued to chess games at bars, and when Gregor and Iosif want to understand a training tool of capitalism, they solemnly examine a Monopoly set. "Take all the land, and all the money ... and let your neighbors starve," they sum up the game's aim. Ouch. They have a point there.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why the prologue that introduces Comrade Detective presents it as a show from the 1980s. Did you believe the ruse? Does it make the show funnier? Is the humor meant to be ironic?
Have you ever seen any cop/crime shows from the 1980s? How close does Comrade Detective come to replicating them? Is it better or worse in any notable ways?
How would this show change if it were set in America? How would the characters be different? Would anything else change? Are there any ways you can tell if a show is set in a locale outside the United States?
TV Details
- Premiere date : August 4, 2017
- Cast : Channing Tatum , Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Jenny Slate , Jason Mantzoukas
- Network : Prime Video
- Genre : Drama
- TV rating :
- Last updated : September 26, 2020
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