Abstract
The objective of the paper is to solve the interpretative controversies around Comrade Detective, one of the most original TV entertainment productions of the recent years. This production is a pastiche of American buddy police films. The plot refers to the reality of the socialist Romania in the 1980s and presents in a satirical way the local militia’s fight against the American threat. We have attempted to prove that its not only deriding the reality of the political system, but the series constitutes also a satire on American propaganda films. Although the humour in the series seems vulgar and absurd, it has a dialectic character as fun is made of both the capitalist and the socialist systems. Furthermore, we have attempted to solve the controversy connected with political interpretations of the series. Its ambiguity ensues from the use of an artistic strategy which is close to the postmodern artistic strategy defined as retro-avant-guard.
Highlights
Comrade Detective was released by Amazon Prime in 2017
It was allegedly made in the early 1980s during the decisive stage of the Cold War and it was to be a reply to American films presenting the communist threat
The question is whether they, just like other critics of Trump’s politics from Hollywood, did not lose to him just because the latter, being unfamiliar with such nuances, was able to provide the masses with ready-made answers, to those provided in American cold-war movies
Summary
Comrade Detective was released by Amazon Prime in 2017 It was written by Brian Gatewood and Alex Tanaka, and directed by Rhys Thomas. The series presents Romanian militiamen dealing with the underground aiming to introduce capitalism in the country, and it “promotes” a communist world-view. This caused serious controversies in publicists’ and reviewers’ discussions concerning the world-view promoted by the series and the targets of its mockery. We think that this target was old socialist cinematography, and mockery of American cold war propaganda movies, and modern neoliberal politics. The paper will end with general conclusions concerning the character of the production
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