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In the thick of 1980's Cold War hysteria, the Romanian government created the country's most popular and longest-running series, Comrade Detective, a sleek and gritty police show that not only entertained its citizens but also promoted Communist ideals and inspired a deep nationalism. The action-packed and blood-soaked first season finds Detectives Gregor Anghel and Joseph Baciu investigating the murder of fellow officer Nikita Ionesco and, in the process, unraveling a subversive plot to destroy their country that is fueled by-what else-but the greatest enemy: Capitalism.
This six-episode series is meant to make us question the ways propaganda and slogans can infiltrate and influence society; a timely message wrapped tightly within an effective comedic conceit.
You could call Comrade Detective a one-joke affair, but that could also be said of Airplane. Inside that one joke, series creators Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka have built a deep reservoir of comedy.
The result is a kind of Mad magazine parody of tough-guy 1980s cop shows crossed with a Marxist-Leninist version of Woody Allen's hilariously counterfeit Japanese spy thriller What's Up, Tiger Lily?
The jokes are more prickling than hilarious, though I do cherish the recurring gag of the extras -- street vendors and security guards -- being given the dopiest lines, voiced by the weakest actors.
And yet for all its off-the-wall wackiness and occasionally rococo caricatures, Comrade Detective is, in its own unique way, quite a serious little bit of telly.