12/13
Helen begins a passionate affair with a man who has no idea what her secret identity is. Caught in the crosshairs when her lover falls victim to London’s dangerous underworld, Helen’s employers call on Sam to protect her. Bingo, the owner of the guitar shop where Sam buys his guns, is played by Rat Scabies, a member of the band The Damned. Appeared on The Graham Norton Show: Cher/Keira Knightley/Michael Fassbender/Josh Brolin/Jalen Ngonda (2024). New York Fairy Tale Written by Jem Finer, Shane MacGowan Starring The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Fair ** Poor * Terrible “Helen Webb” (Keira Knightley) lives with her husband, Wallace (Andrew Buchan), the Secretary of State for Defence. They have two children. Everything seems idyllic until her former commanding officer, Reed (Sarah Lancashire), returns to her life to tell her that her secret lover, Jason (Andrew Koji), has been killed along with two others, forcing her to resurrect her former life as a secret spy, on a quest for revenge. Reed reconnects her with Sam (Ben Whishaw), a hitman and her former trainer, and together they navigate a complex web of political espionage and murder. The spy thriller has lost its appeal over the years, but it still has the potential to work in new and different formats. Black Doves emerged from nowhere to great fanfare, becoming Netflix’s latest major production to top the charts and aim to revive the genre in the modern era. The result is a real mixed bag, with eight pleasantly concise episodes that keep the viewer engaged but don’t hide the flaws of the script. Overall, it’s a fairly standard spy story, with some fairly standard tropes that anyone familiar with old spy adventures will recognize and even embrace fondly. The big problem is the uneven tone. The script jumps erratically between a wry, tongue-in-cheek action comedy and a dark, hard-hitting spy thriller, leaving you too flustered to really absorb it. But it makes up for it with some stylish and flashy action sequences, and Whishaw and Knightley make a convincing pair, supported by the icy and aloof M-type commander Lancashire. The spy thriller has limitless potential, and Black Doves, despite its flaws, is a solid addition to the main cast, with an interesting mystery at its center, some strong performances, and action. ***