Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Green Glove Gang’ On Netflix, A Polish Comedy About Veteran Thieves Waiting Out Some Heat At A Retirement Home

We love seniors doing things that younger people do, don’t we? From The Golden Girls dating and having fun to sitcoms about retirement communities that are more scandal-ridden than a big college campus, we just find something funny in supposedly “old” people not acting their age. A new Polish comedy on Netflix shows three older women who don’t act their age, mainly because they’re active criminals who are pretty good at what they do.

THE GREEN GLOVE GANG: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A vintage car sits outside of a luxury home. Three older ladies dressed in black break in.

The Gist: Zuzanna (Anna Romantowska), Kinga (Malgorzata Potocka) and Alicja (Magdalena Kuta) have been a team of thieves for many years, often stealing from the wealthy and giving to the poor, a la Robin Hood. For all of these years, they’ve evaded police; to the media, they’re “The Green Glove Gang.”

But something goes wrong during their latest job; Alicja, who’s big into things like tarot cards, sees a card that predicts a problem. Almost immediately, a news report comes out with a picture of a tattoo that’s on Kinga’s arm; apparently they didn’t disable and delete all the security video feeds. As they panic and try to figure out what to do, Zuzanna has a plan.

They all meet at a place called “Second Home,” a nursing home. The idea is that they move in there and lay low until the heat dies down. Kinga is especially galled at this idea, as she doesn’t consider herself old; in fact, she slept with twins recently. Kinga doesn’t want to be the “blind” one, but she figures she’ll adapt. Via a recently vacated room and a roll of bills dropped on the desk of the home’s director, Marzena (Beata Bandurska), the three of them get the two available rooms.

Kinga agitates to leave, so Zuzanna and Alicja grab her and force her to drink some sort of concoction Alicja created. Sufficiently high, Kinga makes out with Igor (Andrzej Grabowski), the resident Lothario, and pours booze into people’s tea, which is against Marzena’s rules.

In the meantime, Alfred (Miroslaw Zbrojewicz), the local police commissioner, investigates with a younger detective, Officer Gujska (Karolina Rzepa). The owners of the house claim that a rare diamond necklace and a significant amount of cash were stolen. Gujska seems to feel she’s better off investigating without her boss, but Alfred has his own methods of coming up with answers, which he practices at his local pub.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Green Glove Gang takes the “they’re old but they’re not dead” ethos of sitcoms like B Positive and The Cool Kids and puts three veteran thieves in that kind of retiree environment.

Our Take: The Green Glove Gang is kind of gimmicky, but it mostly works because the the show’s three stars make the viewers believe that they’ve been friends and colleagues in burglary for many years. For instance, when Marzena asks them each whom to contact at their death, they all name the other two, almost instantly. That kind of one for all, all for one camaraderie can definitely be felt in that scene and in ones where the three of them argue with each other about how they messed up their last job.

Of course, the series is also likely going to be how these three women bring some youthful energy to Second Home. But they’re also going to find some things out about their temporary residence that will likely have them set up yet another heist.

It’s the type of show that is likely a bit funnier if you spoke Polish or watched the English dub. For some reason, a lot of the humor just doesn’t work great in subtitles. But when there’s physical humor, like Kinga being stoned, you start to understand the tone that is being set. As the trio figure out how to avoid the cops and figure out what the home’s dirty secrets are, it should be fun to see the three of them turn the world of this nursing home upside down.

Sex and Skin: Kinga gets her share of nookie, but it’s either implied or shown fully clothed.

Parting Shot: As Kinga gets dragged out of the main room for causing trouble, she says to Marzena, “just wait and see what comes next.” One of the residents, a silver-haired main named Henryk (Olgierd Lukaszewicz), turns his head and smiles.

Sleeper Star: The retirement home Lothario is always a fun, albeit small role, and we want to see more of Andrzej Grabowski’s Igor, who can still somehow make his pecs dance at an advanced age.

Most Pilot-y Line: The head of security of the house that was burglarized looks at Gujska and says condescendingly, “Can I go now, or are you going to arrest me?” Gujska sighs after he leaves, because we’re sure that this isn’t the first time some dickhead hasn’t taken her seriously as a detective because she’s a woman.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Sure, we love shows where seniors are doing very un-senior-like things, but The Green Glove Gang is more about the longtime friendship of the three thieves and how they shake up a stodgy nursing home than about the thievery itself.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.