Black Doves Review: Keira Knightley Makes a Welcome Move to TV in Netflix's Appealing Spy Thriller

Black Doves might make you realize you missed Keira Knightley. In the years since she received her second Oscar nomination, for 2014's The Imitation Game, Knightley has experienced a career downturn. She has worked consistently, but none of her movies have stood out. Perhaps this is due to a decline in the market for the type of mid-budget, adult-oriented period dramas she's known for, or perhaps the compounding combo of lack of box office and awards buzz and her intentionally low media profile means people kind of forgot about her as a movie star. Whatever the reason for her career recession, she's found a way to try to move past it. Like so many movie stars before her, she's turning to television to remind audiences who she is. Netflix's spy thriller Black Doves is her first regular TV role, and it's a reassertion of Knightley's unique appeal no matter what setting she's in.

Knightley stars as Helen Webb, a London-based undercover operative for a mercenary spy organization known as the Black Doves, where she's handled by an enigmatic woman known as Reed (Sarah Lancashire, who's big in Great Britain for starring in the excellent crime drama Happy Valley). She's married to Minister of Defense Wallace Webb (Andrew Buchan), with whom she has two children she loves dearly. But her whole life is a secret mission, and the purpose of her marriage is to feed government intel to the Black Doves. Her real romantic relationship is with Jason Davies (Andrew Koji), a civil servant who, in the show's thrilling opening scene, is sniped from across the Thames by an unknown assailant. Using her skills as a spy, Helen sets out to find out who killed him and why, uncovering a vast conspiracy in the process. 

Helping her on her mission is her friend Sam Young (Emmy winner Ben Whishaw), a professional assassin with relationship problems of his own. He has just returned to London after years abroad and is trying to avoid his ex-boyfriend Michael (Omari Douglas), whom he has not seen since their sudden, shocking breakup. Whishaw gets equal billing in the credits with Knightley, and he's great as always, droll and soulful and perfectly coiffed, but this is Knightley's show. 

8.2

Black Doves

at Netflix

Like

• Keira Knightley is back
• Fun world
• Looks beautiful

Dislike

• Plot loses momentum
• Gets too preposterous

In a memorable 2018 essay about Knightley's career, the writer Anne Helen Petersen described the characters Knightley typically plays as embodying the idea of "women ostensibly performing a version of proper womanhood — all while quietly negotiating, or cracking under, the weight of doing so." That's exactly what she does here, in an even more literal sense than usual. Helen Webb plays the role of the politician's wife, doing the things that are expected of her — raising her children, hosting Christmas parties, listening to her husband complain about his job — while maintaining her extremely demanding career in secret. When we meet her, she has reached the point where the ongoing negotiations between the compartmentalized parts of her life are breaking down, and she's starting to crack. But she's Keira Knightley, so even when she's cracking, she remains resilient and poised, glamorously dressed and ready with a witty remark. Helen Webb is a clever spin on Knightley's persona, putting her in a heightened and darkly funny contemporary setting. 

Black Doves' London is sort of like John Wick's New York. It's populated by an elaborate network of non-governmental spies and quippy contract killers hiding in plain sight. It's the kind of place where a character played by Kathryn Hunter, a British character actress with a distinctive croak of a voice, operates a murder-for-hire brokerage out of a fish-and-chips shop. The humor, with its ironic banter and surprising bursts of violent action, is a little bit Tarantino-esque. The show is created by Joe Barton, a prolific and versatile writer who previously created the acclaimed crime thriller Giri/Haji and the underrated fantasy thriller The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself for Netflix. Barton is clearly well versed in the spy thriller genre, and while he doesn't do anything particularly novel with the genre's cliches, like the killer with a code and the spy who's in so deep she doesn't know who she really is anymore, he deploys them well. When they're finally ready to reboot James Bond, the producers will want to hear Barton's pitch. 

Black Doves is directed by Alex Gabassi (The Crown) and Lisa Gunning (The Power), who make it look beautiful. Most shows like this have a washed-out color palette, but Black Doves is colorful. It's set at Christmastime, so there are a lot of warm lights and bright reds on the screen. It's one of Netflix's best-looking shows of the year. 

The biggest knock on Black Doves is that it loses momentum as it goes along. It starts out very strong, but the longer it goes on, the sillier it gets. The story gets weighed down by a lot of side characters and subplots. The last episode feels twice as long as it actually is thanks to a string of false endings. It has too many things to wrap up. Helen Webb is the best part of Black Doves, and going forward the show would do well to keep a tight focus on her and her relationships with her family, Sam, and the Black Doves.

Overall, though, Black Doves is a very strong effort. It's not exactly fair to call it Keira Knightley's comeback vehicle, because she never actually went away, but it is certainly the most attention-grabbing thing she's done in years. It could be the start of a new chapter in a career that still has a long future (she played older when she was younger, and she's still only 39). Black Doves has already been renewed for a second season, so she's officially a Netflix TV star. There are worse ways she could spend her time until she starts booking Oscar-contending roles again, and this is the first step toward getting there. 

Premieres: Thursday, Dec. 5 on Netflix with all six episodes
Who's in it: Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, Sarah Lancashire, Andrew Buchan, Ella Lily Hyland, Gabrielle Creevy, Omari Douglas, Kathryn Hunter
Who's behind it: Joe Barton (creator/writer), Alex Gabassi and Lisa Gunning (directors), Jane Featherstone, Chris Fry, and Keira Knightley (EPs)
For fans of: Christmas thrillers, Killing Eve
How many episodes we watched: 6 of 6