‘Black Doves’ Review: Netflix Spies Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw Make the Most of Blue Christmas
In the second episode of “Black Doves,” a new spy series (this one on Netflix), the woman we’ve come to know as Helen Shaw (Keira Knightley) is seen in flashback interviewing for the job she’s now working. Well, kind of.
“Daisy” (her name at the time) answered an advertisement for a position as a translator, but as becomes clearer as her questions continues — sharing details about Helen’s personal history that no typical hiring manager should know — she’s not being asked to convert German to English. She’s being asked to decode identities, intuitions, and ideas. She’s being tested to see if she has the emotional capacity to hide in plain site, to react calmly to obvious provocations, and to get more out of the person sitting across from her than he gets from her. She’s being asked to become a spy.
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But, quite notably, she’s not technically asked. Rather, she’s told — told to call a woman named Reed (Sarah Lancashire), who will then tell her she’s “lucky” to be given such an optimal opportunity. Reed makes Daisy feel special, teasing an exciting life filled with danger and offering succinct praise framed as keen insights. “When most people look at you, they see a beautiful woman,” Reed says. “But me, I see a coiled spring, I see a weapon.” Daisy’s original interviewer said he saw something, too. “I think I found one,” he said, and when Daisy, or Helen, or whatever name she wants to go by asks what he means, he says, “A little black dove.”
Seduction is part of any good spy story, but Daisy’s seduction isn’t sexual. It’s professional. Who doesn’t want to be singled out? Who could resist such a carefully tailored invitation to join an elite secret club? Who would turn their back on the chance of a lifetime? Well, fast-forward to 10 years later, when Daisy is now Helen — married with two kids, a beautiful house, and the requisite social life of a politician’s wife — and the sheen is starting to wear off. She doesn’t feel so special anymore. The exclusive club is more of a constricting prison. Her chance of a lifetime has become just another job — a job with outsized influence over everything she does, and a job where even the slightest mistake can mean immediate death.
Sound fun? It mostly is, thanks in no small part to Knightley and co-star Ben Whishaw’s endearing characterizations and deft command of a tricky tone. It’s also fitting that, among the many genres juggled in Joe Barton’s darkly comic, earnestly romantic, and oft-dramatic spy thriller, one of them is a holiday special. The plot housing it all starts when Helen’s paramour is killed, and she seeks out those responsible during a snowy December in London. Even though there’s no ticking clock requiring she wrap everything up before her family unwraps their presents, the backdrop of a blue Christmas fits the real-world parallel her fantasy profession invites: We’re all just cogs in the machine, we all know the machine is killing us, and we’re all running short on answers for what to do about it. But hey, at least we can try to have a nice holiday, right?
Maybe Helen was tricked into taking a job that’s ruining her life, or maybe it just feels that way for everyone outside the corner office, struggling to survive in a capitalistic society. Either way, “Black Doves” astutely identifies and movingly captures the human sparks we cling to amid the cold demands of the daily grind. Helen insists her affair wasn’t part of the job or even a casual fling. She was in love, and losing that love — losing one of her life’s few pure, profound pleasures — drives her to seek righteous retribution against whoever snuffed it out. (Her husband is always seen as an assignment, not a partner.)
Meanwhile, Helen’s best friend Sam (Whishaw) is in a similarly forsaken state. Returning from a self-imposed exile, Sam is “trigger-man” back in town specifically to help Helen, yet he can’t resist the silent pull from his own absent beau, Michael (Omari Douglas), who he had to abandon under mysterious circumstances nearly a decade prior.
Together, Sam and Helen are cheeky and cute. They banter about arduous assignments and lost loves like old buds, which they are, even if Whishaw and Knightley do a better job explaining why than the story itself. Joining them from time to time are a hodgepodge of other assassins, all of whom mirror our stars’ irrepressible vitality despite being asked to act as if they feel nothing at all. Williams (Ella Lily Hyland) is a freelance hitman (Sam says such titles are gender-neutral) who pushes people away with cynicism (and psychopathic behavior) out of emotional self-defense. Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy from “Three Women”), another day player, hides behind a black sense of humor, dropping clever catchphrases like “Go bang time” before walking in front of a hail of gunfire. Elmore (Paapa Essiedu of “I May Destroy You” fame) is closer to the businesslike professionals seen in so many movies, but even he can’t hide his humanity in a brief but revealing back-and-forth with Helen.
Where the blue collar killers are framed with compassion, their handlers are largely hollow suits. Reed is aptly difficult to suss out (aka hard to read), but her introduction to Helen should tell you everything you need to know. (When Helen asks who the Black Doves work for, Reed says, “We’re a capitalist organization, not an ideological one” — to which Helen sagely replies, “Well, capitalism is an ideology.”) Helen’s husband, Wallace (Andrew Buchan), is a defense secretary and member of the conservative party, who toes a fine line between complicit villain and naive do-gooder, without ever risking anything more personal than his reputation. Various other politicians and government officials pop in and out, including the British prime minister (Adeel Akhtar) and an American CIA agent (Finn Bennett from “True Detective: Night Country), but by the time they turn up, “Black Doves” has trained you to identify whether they’re one of us (the workers) or one of them (management).
Sporadically violent and consistently entertaining, Season 1 crafts a solid mystery out of its familiar allegory while making the most of its two leads. It’s not exactly breaking new ground — Sam and Helen should set up a happy hour with their fellow disillusioned London spies, Martian and Jackal (both codenames) — but for anyone looking to commiserate via TV during a truncated Christmas break (or who simply crave even more espionage in their entertainment), “Black Doves” will take you under its warm, tender wing.
Grade: B
“Black Doves” premieres Thursday, December 5 on Netflix. The drama series has already been renewed for Season 2.
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