Large action scenes, fights, intense scheming, and an intriguing plot—all components of a great Marvel movie. 

However, Marvel has been busy these past few years turning out show after movie after movie, including Black Widow and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. As Marvel fans await the next installment of the universe, Moon Knight, another show can fulfill their need for adventure and exhilaration: In from the Cold. 

In from the Cold was released on Netflix on Jan. 28th, and it has wasted no time as it is currently in the top ten most-watched section of the streaming service.

The show follows the life of Jenny Franklin (Margarita Levieva) and her daughter Becca (Lydia Fleming) as they travel to Spain for the ice skating world championships in which Becca is competing. 

In the beginning, they seem like the normal family, but soon into the first episode, Jenny gets kidnapped by the CIA. We then learn that Jenny is a former Russian spy, and she is enlisted to the CIA for a project by Chauncey (Cillian O’Sullivan).

Throughout the show, we see how this affects Jenny and her relationship with her daughter and watch the spy life intensify and grow into violence and lies. 

We also learned more about Jenny’s past life through flashbacks with the appropriate noise of spy music as the scene shifts from present to past. We learn all about her training as her real name, Anya Petrova (Stasya Miloslavskaya) and her secret powers and how they came to be.

Apart from the fitting music, this show had all of the necessary components of a spy show—men in suits and sunglasses, people in all black breaking down windows, a fake identity with only a change in hair, and a lot of fighting—but it was carried out in a way that didn’t make it cringey or make it feel tired. 

Black Widow blew my expectations out of the water

Despite the feeling of new, there were many parallels to some beloved shows like those mentioned earlier. During half of the flashbacks and fight scenes, I saw Natasha Romanoff instead of Anya or Jenny. With their entire childhoods being about serving Russia, their fighting and background were so similar, and sometimes, I did a double take on whether or not it was actually Scarlet Johansson instead of Margarita or Stasya. 

Not only was there this parallel, but also during the flashback scenes, we see how she gained her powers. It was acquired in a very similar way to how the flag smashers got their powers in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Not only was there this parallel in action, but there were also points throughout the show where Chauncey and his right hand man, Chris (Charles Brice), reminded me very much of the bond between Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes.

So, as I personally await for the next installment of Marvel, In from the Cold was a beautiful, intriguing show to fulfill my action show needs.