Posted in: Netflix, Review, TV | Tagged: adam glass, In From the Cold, Margarita Levievna, Marvel Comics, netflix, Review, spy thriller

In From the Cold: Clichéd Spy Show Nearly Saved by Margarita Levievna

In From the Cold is a new female-driven spy action thriller from Netflix that's very Netflix-y in its cartoonishness. Margarita Levievna plays a Jersey soccer mom escorting her teenage daughter to a high school ice skating competition in Spain who gets outed by a rogue CIA agent as a former Russian spy with a superpower and forced to help him uncover a Created and written by Adam Glass, who had previously written DC Comics and scripts for shows like Supernatural, the show feels like a comic book version of a spy thriller with some over-the-top action and cheesy dialogue where everyone speaks Exposition.

The show is slickly shot and acted with the exoticism of its locations that might have been approved by the Spanish Tourist Board. The problem is it goes through every spy thriller cliché and "twist" that comes in pretty much the way and the time you've come to expect if you've watched enough movies and TV. We're back to Cold War propaganda where the Russians are evil again. The dialogue feels like it comes from old Marvel Comics where everyone speaks in the same way except the black hacker best friend (Charles Brice in a thankless role) who gets a bit more slang just because he's black. Characters keep telling each other things they already know. It also fetishizes how bloody and bruised the heroine keeps getting. CIA agent Chauncey (Cillian O'Sullivan) comes off initially as such a stereotypical CIA douchebag that you immediately know he's going to soften and become sympathetic later.

The heroine just has to have a teenage daughter (Lydia Fleming) as a device to torment her. Call the kid Chekov's Teenage Hostage Daughter, because it's pretty much 100% guaranteed that a thriller hero's teenage daughter will be put in peril at the climax of the story. Fleming has the other thankless role as Troubled Teen daughter and hostage-to-be whose story looks like it might take an interesting detour early on when she suddenly autopsies a dead bird, hinting a storyline where she might be a sociopath or potential serial killer before that strand of her story is completely dropped so she can become the bad guys' hostage later. The story feels like a reworked pitch for a Black Widow or Mystique series with the serial numbers shaved off. The question here is do viewers like to watch a spy show when every genre cliché is trotted out like yesterday's warmed-over leftovers because it's undemanding comfort food or is that reserved for sitcoms like Friends or The Office?

If there's a reason to watch all 8 episodes of In From the Cold, it's our lead Margarita Levievna, a criminally underrated and underused actor who had been in The Deuce and had guest spots on various TV shows. Every once in a while, a project becomes an actor's whole thing. It showcases everything they're capable of as an actor, a virtual autobiography of their talent, skills, and personal struggles. For all the cartoonish writing and clichéd genre tropes and predictable "twists" in the scripts, Levievna seizes her chance and sells every line, every move, every fight with absolute conviction. The cast is full of very good actors who have to work very hard to sell very awkward dialogue and speeches, and English not being their first language just shows up how awkward the writing is. For all the faults of the writing – its lack of surprise or freshness – Levievna steps over them and makes it her show.

In From the Cold is streaming on Netflix.

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