50/36
Helen embarks on 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 in Sam to protect her. Bingo, the owner of the guitar shop where Sam gets his guns, is played by Rat Scabies, a member of the band The Damned.. Featured on The Graham Norton Show: Cher/Keira Knightley/Michael Fassbender/Josh Brolin/Jalen Ngonda ( 2024). Fairytale of New YorkWritten by Jem Finer, Shane MacGowanPerformed by The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl. STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very good *** Good ** Poor * Terrible’Helen Webb’ (Keira Knightley) lives with her husband, Wallace (Andrew Buchan), the Secretary of Defense, and their two children. Everything seems idyllic, until her former commander Reed (Sarah Lancashire), returns to her life and informs her that her secret lover, Jason (Andrew Koji), has been murdered, along with two others, causing her to relive her former life as a secret spy, on a course for revenge. Reed reunites with Sam (Ben Whishaw), an assassin and her former trainer, and together they navigate a complex web of political espionage and murder. The spy thriller has been one that has fallen out of favor over the years, but one that still has the potential to work in new and different formats. Black Doves arrived out of nowhere, with a massive advertising campaign, and has become the latest big Netflix production to hit the top of the charts, aiming to revive the genre in this day and age. The result is a truly mixed bag that keeps your attention through its eight pleasantly succinct episodes, but can’t quite cover the bumps in the script. Overall, it’s a pretty standard spy story, with some pretty standard cloak-and-dagger clichés that anyone familiar with old-school spy capers will recognize and even embrace fondly. The big problem is the uneven tone. The script jumps unevenly between tongue-in-cheek action comedy and dark, heavy espionage thriller that leaves you too much to really take in. It’s made up for, though, with some stylish and brilliant action sequences, with Whishaw and Knightley creating a convincing pair of mismatched professionals, with strong support from Lancashire as the detached and icy Type M commander. The spy thriller remains one with boundless possibilities, and Black Doves, despite its flaws, is a strong addition to the base, with an interesting mystery at its heart, some strong performances, and action to match. ***