Keira Knightley is well-known for the numerous interval dramas and romantic motion pictures that dominate her filmography, however a model new Netflix spy drama — the action-packed, six-episode collection Black Doves, created by Joe Barton — goes to present the actress an opportunity to shine in a manner she by no means has earlier than: As a chilly and ruthlessly environment friendly spy, one who’s each a loving spouse and mom and in addition extraordinarily lethal with a gun.
As a shameless devotee of the espionage style, I’m nonetheless compelled to concede that should you’ve seen one spy present, you’ve seen all of them. Be it a present like Slow Horses, The Americans, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, or the acclaimed new Paramount+ with Showtime hit The Agency, these tales typically brim with each intrigue and the imperfections of women and men whose career roots them within the secret world. Even the very best of those exhibits, in different phrases, aren’t essentially revelatory; for all of the fascination with what’s on the opposite aspect of the trying glass, it’s the folks you’re in the end drawn to.
To that finish, Knightley was an impressed selection for Black Doves’ Helen Webb, a lady who for 10 years has lived a double life as an unassuming tradwife whereas concurrently passing alongside the secrets and techniques of her politician husband to the shady group she works for, the so-called Black Doves. This group, in flip, sells off the secrets and techniques it acquires to the very best bidder. As if that wasn’t sufficient, Helen additionally has a secret lover. Quite an inventory of flaws, while you tally them up — assassin, adulterer, thief of secrets and techniques. But when Knightley flashes that million-dollar smile, you don’t maintain any of that in opposition to her. Dare I say, you really root for her character — bloodied visage and John Wick-style gunfights be damned.
I had no thought it will be this satisfying to look at Miss Elizabeth Bennett herself on the middle of gunplay, gang fights, and all method of spy-adjacent mischief. Speaking of which: Black Doves has already racked up a slew of rave critiques forward of its streaming debut. So many, that it arrives on Netflix with an ideal 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“When her secret lover Jason (Andrew Koji) is assassinated,” Netflix explains, “her spymaster, the enigmatic Reed (Sarah Lancashire), calls in Helen’s outdated good friend Sam (Whishaw) to maintain her protected. Together, Helen and Sam set off on a mission to analyze who killed Jason and why, main them to uncover an unlimited, interconnected conspiracy linking the murky London underworld to a looming geopolitical disaster.”
Geopolitics, the London underworld, spies, conspiracies, and secret lives? Say no extra, Netflix. Black Doves has already bewitched me, physique and soul.
