Review of the series "From the Cold" - a Netflix spy project with Stasya Miloslavskaya and Margarita Levieva.
A new Netflix project about a Russian spy from the author of Supernatural.
Jenny (Margarita Levieva) arrives in Spain with her daughter for a figure skating competition. A European vacation is thwarted when the CIA comes out and reveals a woman's past life as a Russian spy. For her daughter's safety, Jenny is forced to remember her long-forgotten superhuman abilities in order to prevent a series of mysterious crimes.
In recent years, the film industry has been paying homage to women in film by placing them at the center of the traditionally male genre, the spy thriller. From the insane and addictive Villanelle in Killing Eve to the superhero sisters in Black Widow, new time projects shatter the masculinity of secret agents. Jenny Franklin, on the other hand, adds to the number of strong (both physically and dramaturgically) women in blockbusters, which, however, does not guarantee the success of the Netflix show. Like most spy films, Out of the Cold relies solely on the lead actress. The series is filled with the attributes of the genre: a former CIA agent eager to reveal the truth, a series of terrorist attacks, a Russian spy and a top-secret weapon, the features of which capture the handwriting of Adam Glass ("Supernatural"). It will not be a big spoiler to say that Jenny is an unusual agent, she is able to change the shape of her body like a chameleon. The sci-fi element sets the show apart from other similar projects, but it takes a special amount of endurance and patience to get used to the nature of the story, where the spy appears almost superhuman.
"In from the Cold" unfolds in two storylines separated by decades. As the story progresses, the viewer moves to the events of the past, where in Russia in 1994 Jenny's career began. Here it is worth finally mentioning the performers of the main roles - Margarita Levieva and Stasya Miloslavskaya. Of course, we are ready to watch how Florence Pugh effectively swears in Russian, but the inclusion in the project of actresses who are fluent in the language of the country where most of the events of the series take place cannot but please the domestic audience. But no matter how pleased the native “cranberry” is, nevertheless, the alternation of time periods sometimes turns into a heap of lines and a confusion of moods. It is only towards the end of the season, when the hour of climax comes, that the present and the past come together and the picture finally sticks together.
The paradox of the series is that it manages to keep the momentum, even when the matter of history is bursting at the seams. The mother-daughter conflict is quickly overshadowed by the theme of the radical right, the villains lose their motivation on the way from the Russia of the past to the Spain of the present, and the mood of the entire show varies from pitch-black darkness to thrilling escape and surveillance scenes. But all this tinsel and disposability do not interfere with experiencing an obsessive desire to reveal all the cards and finally satisfy the audience's curiosity. Ultimately, watching a series can be a rather strange cinematic experience: one step from annoyance to genuine interest, and eight episodes from conquest to rejection.
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