Comrade Detective
A satirical lost Romanian Cold War cop show.
Comrade Detective is a 2017 American buddy cop series on Amazon Prime Video, created by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka. It masquerades as a lost Romanian television show from the Cold War, originally commissioned by the Communist Party to spread communist ideology. Each episode was shot in Romania with local actors, then dubbed into English to sell the illusion. The show parodies 1980s American action films and cop-buddy TV, presenting itself as a propaganda tool opposing Western capitalism and imperialism.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Buddy cop; Meta historical fiction
- Creator
- Brian Gatewood; Alessandro Tanaka
- Director
- Rhys Thomas
- Composer
- Joe Kraemer
- Cinematography
- Sam Goldie
- Starring
- Florin Piersic Jr.
- Corneliu Ulici
- Adrian Paduraru
- Olivia Nita
- Florin Galan
- Diana Vladu
- Ion Grosu
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Channing Tatum and Jon Ronson frame the series as a rediscovered 1980s Romanian propaganda show, originally produced by the communist government to counter Western capitalism and imperialism. After being lost for decades, the episodes were supposedly found and restored by a fictional preservation society, then dubbed into English. The story follows Gregor Anghel, a hardened Bucharest detective, who disobeys his captain during a drug bust. A killer wearing a Ronald Reagan mask murders his partner right in front of him. Anghel is paired with a new partner from the countryside, Iosif Baciu, and together they investigate the murder. Their probe uncovers a Western conspiracy aimed at infecting Romanian society with capitalism and religion.
Cast
Each character is portrayed by a Romanian actor, as well as an English-language voice actor. The show was first filmed using Romanian actors speaking Romanian. Actors then over-dubbed every role in English. Main cast: Florin Piersic Jr. as Gregor Anghel, with Channing Tatum as his English dub; Corneliu Ulici as Iosif Baciu, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as his English dub. Recurring: Adrian Paduraru as Captain Covaci, with Nick Offerman as his English dub; Olivia Nita as Jane, with Jenny Slate as her English dub; Florin Galan as Dragos, with Jason Mantzoukas as his English dub; Diana Vladu as Sonya Baciu, with Chloë Sevigny as her English dub; Ion Grosu as Stan, with Jake Johnson as his English dub; Tipsy Angelo as Tipsy, with John DiMaggio as his English dub and several other miscellaneous voice parts; Channing Tatum as himself; Jon Ronson as himself. Guest stars: Richard Bovnoczki as Father Anton Streza, with Daniel Craig as his English dub; Cristian Popa as Nikita Ionescu, with Beck Bennett as his English dub; Odin Neilsen as Andrei Baciu, with Colleen O'Shaughnessey as her English dub; Vali Pavel as Petre Bubescu, with Bobby Cannavale as his English dub; Radu Romaniuc as Orzan, with Fred Armisen as his English dub; Ille Gâliea as Vasile, with Tracy Letts as his English dub; Ruxandra Enescu as Sally Smith, with Kim Basinger as her English dub; Silviu Geamanu as Coach, with Mahershala Ali as his English dub; Ana Ciontea as Iona Anghel, with Debra Winger as her English dub; Cornel Ciupercescu as Vlad Anghel, with Richard Jenkins as his English dub; Paul Octavian Diaconescu as Nastase, with Jerrod Carmichael as his English dub; Mihai Stefan as Sergiu, with Bo Burnham as his English dub; George Burcea as Todd, with Mark Duplass as his English dub; Magda Dimitrescu as Tatiana/Trisha, with Katie Aselton as her English dub; Nicu Banea as Stefan, with Mark Proksch as his English dub and several other parts; Madalin Mladinovici as Markos Miklos, with John Early as his English dub and several other parts; Cozma Eugeniu as New York Degenerate, with Bobby Lee as his English dub.
Production
When first conceiving the series, executive producer Channing Tatum asked the creators to bring him the worst ideas they could think of, with the reasoning 'When you try to find something that is not working, you figure out what's cool about it, and you can find some really hidden gems.' Gatewood and Tanaka pitched a satire series that spoofed Communist propaganda from the 1980s. The two had become fascinated with Soviet propaganda television after seeing a mid-1980s PBS documentary on Soviet broadcasts. They initially looked into dubbing over real Eastern Bloc television shows but realized it would be easier to make their own show rather than procure the rights. The series takes inspiration from the Czechoslovak show Thirty Cases of Major Zeman. They also took inspiration from the idea that growing up, American 1980s movies like Red Dawn served as both entertainment and propaganda. It also took inspiration from the East German series Polizeiruf 110 and the American film Lethal Weapon. By making the propaganda and inaccuracies obvious to a western audience, they hoped to make the subtle nature of modern propaganda more clear. Tanaka stated that the goal was to create the inverse Soviet equivalent of the type of Russian-villain entertainment common in 1980s America. Episodes were initially written in English before being translated into Romanian. The shows were filmed in Romania with local cast. Other than the director of photography, writers and director, the entire cast and crew were locally recruited in Romania. The English-language actors were only cast after the series had been filmed and edited.
Reception
Comrade Detective received mostly positive reactions from critics. Rotten Tomatoes indicated that 82% of critics gave the series a positive review. On Metacritic the series received a score of 66 out of 100 based on 12 critics. Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the show a positive review, calling it a sharp satire. He focused in on the show's goal of deconstructing propaganda, claiming, 'They're not simply here to make you laugh. They're not here to upset you. They're here to make you think differently and enjoy your time doing it. By that gauge, Comrade Detective is a roaring success. By the basic metric of thoroughly engaging television, it's still a winner.' James Poniewozik of The New York Times gave it a less enthusiastic review, claiming that the show committed too much to its initial joke and ran too long. He concluded, 'It's a brilliant idea. But it's not much more than an idea.'
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