YMMV / Spies are Forever

• Crosses the Line Twice: Anything concerning Baron von Nazi, but "Not So Bad" in particular. Especially Baron von Nazi's call/response section:
  Baron von Nazi: Now say it with me! And I'll be watching for the ones who don't obey! Nazis are not so bad.
  Baron von Nazi/Henchmen: Nazis are not so bad!
  Baron von Nazi/Henchmen/Audience: Nazis are not so bad!
  Audience: Nazis are not so bad!
  Agent Curt Mega: (to audience) WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!
• Draco in Leather Pants: Owen/The Deadliest Man Alive tends to get this treatment a lot within the fandom, despite (within the timeline of the show) clearly being a thoroughly bad person and his relationship with Curt clearly being something of a mutually destructive one.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Cynthia - probably thanks to her being a walking Cluster F-Bomb, and being played by Lauren Lopez wouldn't hurt much either.
• First Installment Wins: This was the Tin Can Brothers' first full-length stage production, and the one by far most commonly referenced by fans, until Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye finally came out in 2020.
• Foe Yay Shipping: An interesting one-sided variation between The Deadliest Man Alive/Owen and Curt, especially during "The Torture Tango". Taken up to eleven in the Reloaded concert version where, due to a lack of props, The Deadliest Man punctuates his lines in the song by kissing Curt's ear.
• Fridge Brilliance: Many people have pointed out that upon rewatch, the lyrics of "The Coldest Goodbye" aren't so much an inaccurate, ironic description of Curt as they are a description of Owen, after he becomes the Deadliest Man Alive.
• Harsher in Hindsight: A lot of the show falls into this category when you take the twist into account:
  • Curt's decisions throughout the show are primarily based around what he thinks Owen would want him to do.
  • At first, it's unclear exactly what The Deadliest Man Alive's seeming vendetta against Curt is about, especially since Curt is initially unaware of his existence and has been off-duty for four years. Watching it through a second time, the vendetta becomes outright heartbreaking.
  • Curt's four-year Wangst over Owen (as well as his Beard of Sorrow), and everyone else's annoyance at it, becomes even harder to watch once you know that Curt was effectively grieving his boyfriend at a time when doing so publicly would have been illegal.
• He Really Can Act: As Joey Richter himself said, when he started working on Spies Are Forever he thought he'd "never played a character as cool" as Owen. It's especially a Bait-and-Switch when Owen dies and we see him again as Sergio, a character in his wheelhouse as Comic Relief... only for him to turn up as the resurrected Owen in Act 2, as a terrifyingly Played Straight sociopathic villain. Many fans consider this foreshadowing for him playing Uncle Wiley, a similar Satanic Archetype villain in the Hatchetfield series.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Baron von Nazi is a childish megalomaniac who allies himself with a Russian to help him gain power, delights at the prospect of eating cheeseburgers in bed and is little more than a puppet for his Dragon-in-Chief. Even though this show was produced during the 2016 US Presidential elections, this particular aspect has only gotten more hilarious since then.
  • "Nazis Are Not So Bad" got a ton of Memetic Mutation as a response to Donald Trump's assertion there were "very fine people" on both sides of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017.
  • Owen's line "You're a caveman, and I've just invented fire" is completely Played for Drama in this show, and pretty Hilarious in Hindsight after Team Starkid's Firebringer came out later that year.
  • The Informant's gender fluid disguises and Susan's unusual for his gender name both took on a different dimension after Esther Fallick transitioned in Real Life.
• Ho Yay: There's a lot between Owen and Curt in the prologue. Turns out to be completely intentional.
• It Was His Sled: The main thing the fandom loves about the show is The Reveal that Owen is the Big Bad and that Curt and Owen were once lovers. This is why when Spies Are Forever is recommended it's almost always with a caveat to watch it as soon as possible without looking at online discussions.
• One-Scene Wonder: Sergio, the bomb salesman. Also, Dick Big - the Eagleland Southerner Curt and Tatiana meet in the casino.
• One True Pairing: Curt/Owen dominates in the fandom, with most of the Spies fanfic on Archive of Our Own being Curtwen. And for good reason...
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The Title Track "Spies Are Forever" sounds a lot like what the melody of the famous James Bond Theme Tune would sound like if rewritten as a Torch Song.
  • In terms of the instrumentation and arrangement it's very similar to the Title Theme Tune "Skyfall" by Adele.
• Tearjerker: Pretty much everything from Owen being revealed to be alive to Curt killing him.
• Wangst: In-universe. Curt's four year mourning period for Owen is regarded as this.
• The Woobie: Agent Curt Mega really gets put through a lot...

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