Original illustration by Jeff York of Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley in the Netflix series BLACK DOVES (copyright 2024)
It’s entirely appropriate that the Netflix series BLACK DOVES takes place during Christmas time in jolly ol’ England because the spy thriller couldn’t be more of a gift this season. Premiering December 5, the show became an instant hit and it’s easy to see why. It’s a smart, frolicking action-adventure full of twists and turns, as one would hope for a spy series, but it also knows how to make the most of its stars, expand upon an audience’s expectations, and even riff cleverly on current events in our topsy-turvy world. Do you think the world has gone mad electing strongman after strongman as the various citizenries vote against their self-interests? Well then, this is the show for you!
The premise of BLACK DOVES plays right into today’s politics in its very premise. The two main characters, Helen Webb (Keira Knightley) and Sam Young (Ben Whishaw) are Brits who just so happen to be spying against England to ascertain information to be sold to those countries with deep pockets on the international stage. That’s right, to the black ops they work for, state secrets are transactional, and the goal is profits, not necessarily patriotism. Thus, Helen and Sam are immediately compromised characters, dare one say, traitors. Still, despite such antiheroes at the center of the show, this isn’t a dark, menacing series like THE AMERICANS. Helen and Same may be mercenary, but they do have certain ethics, even if it takes the series a while to showcase the more pro-Brit side of their characters.
Helen, in particular, is in a very unenviable spot as her job requires her to gather worthy secrets from Britain’s defense secretary who just happens to be her husband of 10 years. She’s even more conflicted because she admires her husband Wallace (Andrew Buchan) and loves the two kids they’ve had together. Still, such feelings haven’t prevented her from having a torrid affair on the side with a man who just so happens to get murdered in the first few minutes of the premiere episode. Is Helen’s secret lover’s death connected to both her husband’s job and the recent murder of the Chinese ambassador in London? As the Brits would say, “Quite.”
It’s fun to watch how Knightley plays all these conflicting emotions, one minute being the perfect mom carting her kids off to a Christmas pageant, the next getting splattered during a murder gone wrong with so much blood it would make prom queen Carrie jealous. Few play posh vulnerability as well as Knightley and she does some of her best work here, playing coy one minute, doting maternity the next, a kick-ass killer shortly thereafter. And her banter with the drolly amusing Sarah Lancashire as her handler Reed is an absolute hoot. Even when Reed warns Helen that a screw-up could start a war between England and China, Knightley’s steely gaze and stiff upper lip give it all real cheek. Who says betrayal can’t be laced with a bit of farce?
Luckily, Helen has Sam around, a man who’s not only a fixer, a crack shot with firearms, but her BFF too. In flashbacks taking place a decade earlier, we see how Sam tutored Helen through her spy training and shooting practice, and their brother/sister banter is one of the highlights of the show. Friendship isn’t a trope you often find in the spy genre, but the filmmakers here place the relationship between Helen and Sam front and center suggesting that it takes a buddy system like they have to not only pull off such complex capers but to keep each other from going mad during all the intrigue and violence.
Whishaw is great, as he always is, but his Sam is an especially layered character. Sam may be an unhesitant, brutal silencer when needed, but he’s also a kind and loving gay man who loves dinner parties, cuddling, and gossiping just as much as his professional endeavors. Whishaw makes you buy into even the most outrageously scripted moments in the series too because his acting style is so grounded. There’s one set-piece where outside assassins break into the apartment of Sam and his London lover Michael (Omari Douglas) attempting to rub them out and Sam has to dispatch all the perps while guiding his terrified partner to safety through their dark apartment. It’s a scene that is both hilarious and rather heartbreaking too. Michael didn’t sign up for any of this, but he’s sure glad his lover is as capable a killer as Sam.
The talented writers and directors of BLACK DOVES excel at turning many spy cliches on their ears and it’s a credit to the show’s writer Joe Barton and its two directors Alex Gabassi and Lisa Gunning that they can make even the most cra-cra scenarios truly play here. The narrative never lapses into outright lunacy but it also never takes itself too seriously either. Without being meta or overly showy, the show seems to be both toiling in the spy genre and satirizing it too. And audiences across the globe are eating it up with a spoon. No wonder Netflix ordered a second season almost as soon as the first one dropped.
Spy series have come back in vogue big-time with THE AMERICANS and SLOW HORSES leading the way, and everything from THE DIPLOMAT to the remake of THE DAY OF THE JACKAL riding the trend on their respective streaming platforms. Do such series resonate more now because one government after another across the globe is turning farther right or even authoritarian and becoming harder to trust or believe in any propaganda? You bet. Indeed, the talented folks working on BLACK DOVES are pushing the envelope of their story’s ‘who do you trust’ gamesmanship because the real world has so spectacularly raised the bar for them. That’s kind of a hoot unto itself, but it’s also more than a little unsettling.
Quite.
