Review by C.J. Bunce
The Gentlemen had the movie-quality production value. The third season of Guilt delivered the surprises and perfect finale. The Day of the Jackal had the style. True Detective: Night Country brought the mystery. Fight Night had the retro fun. The Night Agent had the promising spy plot. Tokyo Vice brought the gritty crime (Tulsa King, too, but to a lesser extent). And the heist-revenge series Culprits had components of each. This has been a banner-year for suspense-thrillers on television, but Netflix slipped one final series into consideration for what was is the best just in the nick of time. Black Doves stars Keira Knightley as an undercover operative for a mercenary operation and Ben Whishaw as a triggerman getting too old for the job. When they are brought back together again, it could only be part of an international plot to bring about World War III. The year’s most engaging, intriguing, and exciting suspense-thriller, Black Doves, is now streaming on Netflix.
Oscar-winning and other acclaimed and popular actors and actresses invaded the small screen this year. We had Jodie Foster, Colin Farrell, Gemma Arterton, Lashana Lynch, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Hart, Michelle Yeoh, Olivia Williams, Emily Watson, and more. The best performances weren’t at the movies, but on many great TV series. We’d normally find Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw in blockbuster movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean and James Bond movie series. Both actors dig into what has become an overused trope–bad guys who decide they want out of the life of crime. It’s the question asked by almost every spy series: Can a killer, a triggerman, a mercenary ever do their job when they have loved ones that can be used against them?
Knightley plays Daisy, who applies for a job only to learn that she is wanted by a mercenary group with supposedly no government affiliations–top bidder wins. Her unique background and relationships get her recruited by Sarah Lancashire’s cold and (James Bond’s M-esque) Mrs. Reed to cozy up to just the right man, Andrew Buchan’s Wallace Webb, a rising star in UK politics destined to be the next Prime Minister. Knightley plays her part in flashback scenes, and learns the ropes from guy-in-the-car Sam (played by Whishaw), including how to defend herself and kill. Daisy becomes the next badass Atomic Blonde (an Atomic Brunette?). When she is pregnant with twins she wants out, but fate steps in and her protection of a friend keeps her sucked in the crime world, seemingly for life.
Since Knightley played Natalie Portman’s character’s double in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, her career has always been compared to Portman. In many ways this role in Black Doves is more than a subtley named answer by Knightley to the dramatic work by Portman in Black Swan that won her an Oscar. Genre movies rarely win Oscars, and this is TV anyway, but Knightley proves she is an actor on par with anyone in 2020s cinema.
You can also go back to Ben Whishaw’s stunning work on The Hour (reviewed here) to see that he has the acting chops to land an Oscar one day. His new take on Q in the James Bond movies showed how likeable and modern he could be. Similar to Nicole Chamoun’s Amanda in this year’s season of Troppo, Whishaw’s triggerman Sam is a mess–born with a father who was a killer, he only achieved some kind of normalcy when he found the love of his life. But that ended far too soon. Whishaw looks like he could be literally shaken out of his skin as he tries to express his feelings in one scene. His performance through the six episodes of the series never veers. This is stunning work.
Supporting performances fill in a tightly written, beautifully filmed series with all the tension of the best classic thrillers. Ella Lily Hiland is Williams, a scary and quirky hitman that makes shows like this fun. Warrior star Andrew Koji is a man full of secrets. And rising star Finn Bennett, who was brilliant this year in True Detective: Night Country, is back as another great supporting character. Plus Tracey Ullman!
For the women-led hitman genre, like Red Sparrow and Killing Eve, count Black Doves as taking the #1 spot and top choice for your next spy-fi fix. From writer-creator Joe Barton (Humans) and directors Alex Gabassi (The ABC Murders) and Lisa Gunning (The Power), don’t miss the best thrills of 2024. All six first season episodes of Black Doves are streaming now on Netflix. Best of all? The series has already been renewed for a second season.
