TL;DR – This was a series that was full of equal parts fun and suspense, and it shows that one of your best strengths is just letting your cast do what they do best.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Black Doves Review –

I love a good spy mystery with betrayals, twists and turns, and some good quality suspense. A lot of countries can make this work, but few do it as good as the Brits. So, when I heard there was a new series coming out and then that it was headlined by Keira Knightley & Ben Whishaw. Well, I had to check it out.

So, to set the scene, it is Christmas time at an English pub, and the vibe is cheerful, with people singing along to the carols and ignoring the death of the Chinese ambassador on the news. However, there is one person, Jason Davis (Andrew Koji), who is not having an enjoyable time. He is moving at speed because he thinks someone is following him. It turns out he was right, as all of his friends are murdered, and he is shot making one last call. That last call was to Helen Webb (Keira Knightley), the wife of the now Defence Secretary, Wallace Webb (Andrew Buchan). It is odd that someone would spend their last moments calling another person’s wife, but even odder when Reed (Sarah Lancashire) shows up to the Christmas party and we discover that Helen is not what she seems. We will be looking at the season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Black Doves is a series with two halves. The first that brews the mystery, as we jump back in time to see how everyone came to be the spies that they are. Then the show reveals its hands, and things escalate fast. This shift allows you to get pulled along by the narrative, as everything is constantly compelling. At the core is this most fascinating choice in a world and genre that is full of good spy agencies and bad spy agencies and all the messy world in-between. Black Doves positions itself as a purely neutral organisation collecting information to sell to the highest bidder. That shift immediately places the show in a different place because who are the enemies and friends shift based on who has the biggest chequebook.

You then take that interesting scenario and fill it with complex, fascinating characters. Keira Knightley captivates every scene she is in, and it is nice to see her work in a space where I have not seen her before. Helen is someone that you absolutely buy as this avenging angel reaps havoc across London, even before we get the flashback of her training. Ben Whishaw could have been just the odd side-kick character that we have seen in so many films before. However, he transcends that label by being full of agency and complexity. His is a world full of pain, regret, professionalism, and a code. Then we add to the trifecta with Sarah Lancashire, who spends the entire series barely keeping control of the chaos yet making you feel like she is in complete control.  

Along with the core three, we have a supporting cast that is fundamentally interesting. We only really see Andrew Koji as Jason Davies alive in the first moments of the show, yet he brought a presence that meant that he still had an impact in the closing moments of the series finale. Having Kathryn Hunter in your show is always a good idea, and nowhere lets you see that more than here. Ella Lily Hyland and Gabrielle Creevy made this perfect odd couple team, who you could guarantee will always draw you into whatever they are saying, no matter how absurd. Then you bring in Tracey Ullman right at the end, who brings to life every line of dialogue she is given.

The action scenes are all excellent. I think the shot of a heavily pregnant Helen gunning down a bunch of attackers is one of those moments of the year, as was the totally reasonable response to a shotgun. They always like to mix the action scenes up, so you can get people trying to fight in quiet not to wake the kids up, infiltrating the US Embassy, or a calamity of violence that could be heard for miles around. While I did enjoy my time with Black Doves, I will say that towards the end, it started to lose some cohesion. I was beginning to get concerned there for a moment until the gravitational weight of the narrative pulled everything back into place.  

In the end, do we recommend the first season of Black Doves? Yes, we would. I had a blast with the story and characters. I liked how they explored this very murky world where Helen was forced to weigh her past commitments with the organisations, her current obligations as a mother, and the revenge that she was for the death of her lover. Have you seen Black Doves yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Black Doves
Directed by – Alex Gabassi & Lisa Gunning
Written by – Joe Barton
Created by – Joe Barton
Production/Distribution Companies – Noisy Bear, A Sister Production & Netflix
Starring – Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, Sarah Lancashire & Tracey Ullman with Andrew Buchan, Andrew Koji, Omari Douglas, Kathryn Hunter, Sam Troughton, Ella Lily Hyland, Gabrielle Creevy, Isabella Wei, Agnes O’Casey, Molly Chesworth, Paapa Essiedu, Finn Bennett, Adell Akhtar, Adam Silver, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett & Hannah Khalique-Brown and Will Joseph, Thomas Coombes, Lizzie Hopley, Ken Nwosu, Rat Scabies, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Justine Mitchell, Finn Bennett, Tai Yin Chan, Dan Li, Claudia Jolly, Eniko Fulop, Charlotte Rice-Foley, Taylor Sullivan, Steve Wall, Julian Wadham, Philipp Christopher, Andy Cheung, Billy Hickey, Willian Hope, Jennifer Armour, Luther Ford, Adam Best, Sam Parks, Angus Cooper, Thomas Chaanhing, Timothy Harker, Ebony Francis-Peddie, Jayne Aguire & Callum Coates
Episodes Covered – To Love Then, A Little Black Dove, The Coming Night, Go Bang Time, The Cost of it All & In the Bleak Midwinter