mjdjunk I really wanted to like this.I thought the premise was great, take an old series and produce again current translated dialog. Unfortunately it doesn't work as well in practice as theory. Its dated enough that it is no longer a good period piece, it doesn't really work as satire as so much is really true. Much of the camera work is good, its take on the buddy cop shows of the time were good. I don't know if the original dialed was so bad or if its the translation, but it just doesn't work.

daniele-iannarelli An interesting (as a very anti-American / anti-Western/Capitalism) curio. Ruined by dubbing and consolidated with (let's be generous and say ) 'less-tham-good' acting and corny dialogue it's, in fact, strangely worth watching.Frankly, I'm not quite sure how to describe "Comrade Detective". If it's intended as a satirical spoof it's quite good. If it's serious it's bad, with multiple contradictions and faults. If it's intended as a comedy it's not bad.A line of dialogue in the first episode goes: "There was a time when I'd line up everyone here against the wall and shoot 'em... just on the off-chance they were the killer. Awwwh... the whole world is going to s--t, Gregor".Now, if that piece of dialogue was intended as comedy or a spoof/satire *against* Communism it's quite funny. If it was intended seriously it's a pretty bad self- assassination on behalf of the Romanian production.Contradictions include the initial tussles between the new partner (a Borat lookalike) and the protagonist (a clichéd reference to a Film Noir hard-boiled, - lifelong-loser - detective. The Borat lookalike is apparently a wrestling champion, and yet he's constantly gotten the better of by the protagonist. Strange.Also, it's mentioned that "we're not used to crime in Romania. It's not part of our national character, and so we find ourselves completely overwhelmed". Then a new addition to the department is introduced as a "secret police officer sent from the 9th division". If they're not used to crime, how come they have a 'secret police section' let alone a police force at all...???However, whatever it purports to be, it's certainly Cold-War propaganda whether tongue-in-cheek or not.Although I grew to like it more and more as the series went on, I just couldn't shake off the dubbing aspect. Dubbing just doesn't sit right with me... especially when it's of an American accent while obviously set - in this case - in an Eastern bloc country and during, at the time, the Cold War. You have American accents pursuing an anti- American/Capitalism agenda. Perhaps a better choice (for contrast's sake) would have been the use of a British accent... if dubbing was indeed deemed an absolute necessity, that is.Before episode 5, they absolved themselves of the crime of dubbing by saying that "no-one reads anymore". Well, what a load of tripe. OK, yes, some people (and I have a few friends that way) don't like subtitles and avoid watching subtitled foreign language films. However, many of us purists (and there are a lot of us), including myself, prefer the original language. As mentioned before, the essence of the actor is his voice. This is even better, of course, combined with body movement and facial expression. When you have another actor superimposing any part of this holism, you get a jilted unbelievable mismatch. It's not as bad as others I've seen but it's a good deal less effective than the best of ineffective dubbing such as in the Italian film industry. Fact of the matter is, in my opinion, that it was an ego thing... they simply wanted 'to be part of' this 'cult' series. So, they've let their egos supersede originality. They obviously felt guilty otherwise they wouldn't have felt the need to excuse themselves.I did like the series overall. However, it loses considerably with the removal of the original actors' voices... after all, as I've said before, the essence of an actor is his voice. I would love to see the original (not dubbed) production, with English subtitles.As it stands, I give it a 5/10 rating because of it being dubbed. Had it been kept as original, but with subtitles, I'd have awarded a 7/10. Overall though, worth watching for curio's sake.

Charles Herold (cherold) The intriguing premise of Comrade Detective is that a hit Romanian detective series of the 1980s has been dubbed for an American audience.There is little attempt to make this persuasive; the show is shot in wide-screen, the show looks better filmed than even American TV series of the period, and the constant swearing seems like it would be no more likely in Romanian series of the period than in American ones. (I don't know what to make of the numerous user reviews that seem to believe this series really is an old Romanian series; it doesn't strike them as silly that Romanians in the 80s wouldn't even know what blue jeans are?) The most amusing part of the one episode I saw were those that had characters spouting propaganda points, as when the detective lectures drug dealers on the CIA bringing drugs into black neighborhoods or tells his commander that he knows there can't be a mole in the police force because there is no corruption among the Roumanian police. It's also amusing to see two cops eagerly watching a chess tournament or the portrayal of the U.S. embassy chief as a conniving, overly-made-up woman in a ridiculous fur coat.I found myself never really understanding what Comrade Detective was trying to do. It had some of the style of '80s series, but it didn't hit the era's tropes all that hard and doesn't come across as much different from today's cop shows. The political satire is fitful, as though the series keeps forgetting it's supposed to be a parody of something. It feels like the creators felt that once they had the basic idea the series would write itself, so they just let it spool out without ever deciding what kind of thing they were making. It's not quite satire, not quite parody, not quite cop drama. It's not quite anything.If you want to see someone who gets east European parody, find the user review of this series by ferdinand1932 called "Historical materialism." He wrote his review in fractured English that is full of badly- expressed communist nonsense So far it's gotten all down votes, probably by the same people who don't know the series is a fake.

j_mmccabe I think it's a terrible shame that what looks to be an exciting and engaging series has been dubbed vs. showing this in it's original language with subtitles. I wish it was at least available to watch in Romanian with subtitles but instead one is supposed to suffer through the dubbing - it's almost painful to listen to.Hopefully they will see sense and release the original as it was intended vs. this monstrosity. The official Amazon description is so terrible: "digitally remastered and dubbed the original into English for the modern world." For the modern world? Seriously? Like Romanian is somehow not 'modern' and needs fixing? Insulting and pathetic, especially as the very people who are drawn to a show like this are the people who thrive on foreign drama/cinema; part of the purpose of watching this stuff is escapism and the foreign language is part of that escapism. 'Fixing" it to English is in such poor taste and fundamentally destroys the show's authenticity. I hope this errant and wayward decision to dub isn't a sign of things to come from Amazon.