Comrade Detective

I gave this show a brief paragraph in my blog on Gentlemen Comrades.  That show, running two seasons, covers a pair of Moscow Militia detectives in Russia in 1918.  It seems the nascent Bolshevik police force is short of experienced detectives, so it deigns to hire a previous detective, Varaksin, highly experienced if somewhat aloof and aristocratic.  His high intelligence, affable manner, and street smart experience endear him to his Baltic Fleet sailor partner, Sokolov (“friggin’ soot!”) and his hammer & plough superior.  That is in Russian with English subtitles.  Timing wise, this was during the Russian Civil War, which doesn’t seem to be mentioned at all, nor the Great War still waging in the west until the Armistice on November 11. 

This is a completely different animal, the only common factor being the political orientation of the subject country.  What the producers of this one did was to create a fictional Romanian police drama set in Bucharest in the mid 1980s, back when Reagan was our President and Ceaucescu was running Romania into the ground.  The actors are Romanian and speak Romanian, but it’s overdubbed into English – by A-list American actors, including Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the main pair.  So far it’s only six episodes, all on Amazon Prime.

As it’s pretending to be a Romanian show during the Cold War, naturally the Ceaucescu regime is implausibly praised and everything associated with the US and the West is equally disparaged.  The US Ambassador and her subordinate are sleazy, slutty women.  Monopoly, the board game, is smuggled in – and Gregor’s imprisoned sources explain to him how the game works and its ideological significance: “to indoctrinate American children into capitalism at a young age.”  America is slagged as a country full of crime, poverty, and everyone has AIDS.  Jordache jeans cause pandemonium, and Western radio – with its degenerate rock music (far more entertaining than the propaganda and classical music the Romanian radio broadcasts) – is described as capitalist propaganda hidden in the words and music, to surreptitiously brainwash whoever listens to it.  For its part, Romania’s health care system is “the best in the world”, and its Fiat-copied national car, the Dacia, is likewise described in glowing terms despite its obvious faults.  In fact, even the police (“MILITIA”) use it.  Oh, and fascination and obsession with chess (!!!) is widespread.

The net result is a humorously cartoonist attack on the US and capitalism by a corrupt communist system which comes nowhere close to delivering on its own promises.  US citizens are free to read Marx, Engels, Lenin etc. and many colleges have brazenly leftist faculties.  But Romanian citizens were forbidden to even play Monopoly and aggressively encouraged to inform on each other to the police. 

I’ve noticed many items in our country are well made, some are not-so-well made, and some are outright ripoffs.  One place selling suits now has its suits made overseas and are not to the same standard, but are sold at the same price, as the better made suits.  So I found another place which charges less for better suits.  You do your homework and seek out the best value.  Under communism, however, you had no choices: everything was poorly made crap (except maybe the weapons).  And if you complained about it or wanted a higher wage, off to the gulag.  So yeah, capitalism has its share of fraud, deceit and bravo sierra, but as imperfect as it works out in practice, it’s still light years better than communist countries.  Anyone who has experienced communism first hand knows this.  As Reagan said, we don’t need a wall (Berlin) to keep our people IN. 

Characters (Voiced By…)

Gregor Angehl (Romanian actor: Florin Piersic Jr/English voice by Channing Tatum)

Iosif Baciu (Romanian actor: Corneliu Ulici/English voice by Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

            The main two characters (Gregor on the right above)

Captain Covaci (Romanian actor: Adrian Padruraru/English voice by Nick Offerman)

Daniel Craig, Bobby Cannavale, Kim Basinger, Debra Winger, Fred Armisen, also have voice-over roles.

Bucharest.  Back in 2006 I visited Bucharest and spent some time there.  On one hand, the romantic adventure did not end well, on the other hand I did enjoy it while it lasted, so I can’t complain too much.  My subjective impression of Bucharest is that it’s a decrepit, run down communist version of Paris, France, and even years after Ceaucescu was overthrown, the city still remained dirty and run down, though the downtown area was a bit nicer.  I can’t say what it’s like now, or what it was like back in the mid-80s.  Others who visited had a considerably more generous impression than I did.  As it was, for me the most attractive part of the city was the female companionship I enjoyed (waves at Gia across the Internet).

The show certainly reminded me of Bucharest and my brief visits, and should give viewers some idea of what the city is like, even as of 2006.

Season 2.   I don’t know yet whether we’ll see a second season, but here’s my 2 RON (Romanian currency).  Don’t set the next one in Bucharest: set it in East Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, etc. – one of the other East Bloc capitals.  Each has its own unique charm and its “comrade detectives” can echo their respective nationalities.  Wouldn’t that be nice?