The British espionage series blends dark comedy with action and a thrilling holiday-themed mystery.
Plot: It follows Helen Webb, a quick-witted, down-to-earth, dedicated wife and mother — and professional spy. For 10 years, she’s been passing on her politician husband’s secrets to the shadowy organization she works for: the Black Doves. When her secret lover Jason is assassinated, her spymaster, the enigmatic Reed, calls in Helen’s old friend Sam to keep her safe. Together, Helen and Sam set off on a mission to investigate who killed Jason and why, leading them to uncover a vast, interconnected conspiracy linking the murky London underworld to a looming geopolitical crisis.
Review: It feels like the last couple of years have been heavily populated by espionage dramas. In the last few weeks alone, we have reviewed multiple series about spies and the various agencies that employ them. The latest addition to the genre is the British series Black Doves. Set during Christmas, the limited series blends a darkly comedic sensibility with a timely plot involving international incidents between the United States and China, with the British stuck in the middle to mediate. Led by the solid acting duo of Kiera Knightley and Ben Whishaw, Black Doves is a familiar and conventional political thriller that is elevated by stellar performances from the two leads.
Black Doves has just six episodes, far shorter than most streaming series. The shortened series length means the story is far tighter than other recent shows, and it shows. Each episode is chock full of character development, twists, turns, and all manner of intricate plotting that never lets up through each hour-long chapter. By the time I reached the finale, I was convinced I knew where the series was headed but continually came up surprised at how well this series is made. The opening chapter does not take long to dive right in as the body count immediately piles up within the first minutes. We quickly meet Helen Webb (Keira Knightley), the wife of a well-connected member of the British government who is also a spy working for Reed (Sarah Lancashire) at the title organization. When one of those killed turns out to be Jason (Andrew Koji), Helen’s lover, Reed calls Sam (Ben Whishaw), a trained agent and close friend of Helen, to help sort out the mess.
Right away, Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley successfully show their characters as the closest of confidantes. In Sam’s time away from London, Helen married and had twins while maintaining her cover. With a desire to avenge the death of Jason, Sam must reintegrate himself into his old life, including running into friends and his former lover. The balance of their work and professional lives makes both Helen and Sam intriguing as they must switch their masks instantly to face whichever angle they must contend with, sometimes whipping back and forth between the two to navigate hostile situations. Helen’s emotional state makes her a liability to Reed and the Black Doves, and Sam must protect his friend and his employer simultaneously. Sam must also deal with the fallout of the event that forced him to leave London a decade earlier, and he still feels a profound sense of trauma and guilt.
While the implications of why Jason and the others were killed are larger than just personal, the scope of Black Doves keeps itself focused on Helen and Sam while still incorporating several supporting players. Isabella Wei is as solid as Kai-Ming, the Chinese ambassador’s daughter, and Gabrielle Creevy, who has a solid turn as Eleanor. Still, Andrew Buchan’s role as Helen’s husband, Wallace, is a satisfying character that could have otherwise been a throwaway role. There are also great performances from the great Kathryn Hunter and Tracey Ullman as key players in the series’ overall story. Everyone gets ample opportunity to stretch themselves with the series, incorporating action and drama in equal measure with a biting sense of humor that helps alleviate some of the story’s darker elements. Even the Christmas setting is a nice shift from the expected espionage formula.
Both Alex Gabassi and Lisa Gunning directed three episodes of Black Doves, which are directed by creator and showrunner Joe Barton. Barton is best known for writing episodes of the sci-fi series Humans and Netflix’s action-spy movie The Union starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry. Barton is next working on a miniseries adaptation of Amadeus, followed by a second season of Black Doves. I cannot state whether the second series of Black Doves will be connected to the first, but Barton has created a solid fictional world that could expand to showcase any number of spies or undercover agents. I would be hard-pressed to say they could do better than Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley, neither of whom have portrayed characters like this before. Knightley has been involved in spy projects, and Whishaw notably played Q in the Daniel Craig James Bond films, but both get to do work here that they seem to have been born to play.
Black Doves is a far more interesting character study of Ben Whishaw’s Sam and Keira Knightley’s Helen, both of whom are damaged people who complement each other perfectly. Usually, spy series turn the leads into romantic partners, but platonic best friends who look out for each other make for entertaining storytelling, and removing any sexual tension between the leads helps make both characters solid individual creations. I loved watching Knightley and Whishaw kick ass while also giving layered, human performances in a genre that often overlooks that part of the story. Black Doves is an entertaining drama that is also funny and has just enough action and intensity to keep you wanting more. At six episodes, it is a quick binge and one that will surely entertain many over the long holiday weekend.
Black Doves premieres on December 5 on Netflix.
