A series of issues dealt with by the Romanian police in the 1980s are shown in a dramatic drama series. These powerful events begin with a large murder case being investigated by Bucharest investigator Gregor Engel, who is collaborating with new investigator Joseph Paseo to search for the mysterious murderer. On the other hand, the case reaches a dead end, so Gregor must reconsider the unfavorable part of his past and is entirely related to the case, which will reveal a very large capitalist conspiracy.
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.
