Here comes “Black Doves,” premiering Thursday on Netflix. How is this thriller different from other thrillers? It does what most do, in terms of action, suspense and complicated plot, and it does it very well, but what's more interesting is that it is also what you could call a “thriller of the heart.”
For starters, it's Ben Whishaw (he's played Hamlet and Richard II (and Marilyn Monroe, too)), and Keira Knightley, who you've loved since “Bend It Like Beckham,” and Sarah Lancashire (“Julia,” “Happy Valley”), who, like Knightley, is an OBE, or officer of the Order of the British Empire, I'm sure Whishaw will eventually become one if he so chooses.
And it's a Christmas story, not a “Die Hard” Christmas story, but a legitimate, if twisted, Christmas story with arcs, in their own unusual way, appropriate to the season. Sentimental without irony, he manages to balance relatable relationships with hot and cold blooded murders. (It's kind of a feat.) There are also Christmas trees, Christmas presents, Christmas music, children in a play about nativity, and a scene in which three characters tied up and in danger of losing their lives talk about Christmas movies, and one in which a person Lonely woman looks wistfully through a window at an ex-boyfriend's happy family, as if “Love Actually” were full of murders and kidnappings and Bill Nighy's character had a supporting role in the murder.
It is also, perhaps primarily, a love story. Almost everything that is not dedicated to developing its central mystery, or mysteries, which keep becoming different mysteries, as mysteries will, has to do with love, friends and family, and friends who are as good or as good. better than family. (Keeping people safe is a motivating factor.) When things aren't exploding into choreographed hand-to-hand combat or noisy gunfights, there's plenty of discussion about feelings and relationships, to the extent that double lives allow. (It's an emo thriller.) The fact that the series is bracketed next to the Pogues' “Fairytale of New York,” a Christmas story of love between broken people, might tell you something.
Knightley plays Helen, who is married to Wallace (Andrew Buchan), the British defense minister.
(Ludovic Robert/Netflix)
Knightley plays Helen, married for almost 10 years to Wallace (Andrew Buchan), the British defense minister and candidate to become the next prime minister; They have twin sons and, when we meet them, the family seems a model of comfortable, ordinary domesticity, where we talk about inhalers and advent calendars. However, it is quickly established that Helen is not Helen (she was previously called Daisy, but was called something different before), and that she is a Black Dove, a member of a secret organization that, in the words of her boss, Mrs. Reed (Lancashire), deals “in the currency of information. We collect it and sell it,” to the highest bidder, whoever that may be.
“We are a capitalist organization,” Mrs. Reed tells Helen, in a flashback to her job offer. “It is not ideological.”
“Well,” Helen replies, “capitalism is an ideology.”
Early on, Jason (Andrew Koji), with whom Helen has been having an affair, is shot dead on London's South Bank, one of three murders that appear to be linked. This leads Mrs. Reed, aware of Helen's connection to Jason, to at some point call her “trigger” Sam (Whishaw), who has been out of the country for seven years, returning from Rome to stay with Helen, with who has a relationship. Deep, secure connection. (Sam is a sensitive type of killer, who sometimes worries that he is a psychopath.) Until now, Helen's life as a spy has been uneventful, routinely funneling information obtained or stolen from her husband to Mrs. Reed. All that is about to change.
Meanwhile, just to give Wallace something to worry about, the Chinese ambassador has been discovered dead and his government is dissatisfied with British authorities' conclusion that it was an accidental overdose. What's more, his partying daughter, Kai-Ming (Isabella Wei), has disappeared.
The heroes, such as they are, are also villains by conventional standards, but there are worse villains by contrast. They all seem willing, though not necessarily eager, to do terrible things; everyone works for money or personal satisfaction or for revenge, which is a form of personal satisfaction or an attempt to protect another person. If there is not so much light between the factions, morally speaking, we know who and what to support at any given time.
Sarah Lancashire plays Mrs. Reed, Black Doves operator, and Ben Whishaw plays Jason, who is sent to protect Helen.
(Netflix)
At the same time, “Black Doves” is often fun, making even some of the “worst” characters good company. Rat Scabies, drummer for pioneering punk band The Damned, has a nice cameo as the owner of a music store that also sells guns. But the designated clowns are associate assassins Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy) and Williams (Ella Lily Hyland), who work for Lenny (Kathryn Hunter), who runs a group of assassins. She is gaunt and dark, while Mrs. Reed is blonde and rosy-cheeked; where Mrs. Reed is soft and motherly; insists on “Mrs.” — Lenny is tough and practical. (Women run the show in this series; Tracey Ullman appears in a later episode as another person in power.)
Eleanor: Why don't we bomb his house? I have a rocket launcher.
Williams: Since when do you have a rocket launcher?
Eleanor: Since last Christmas.
The characters don't always act in a way that one would consider reasonable (love is usually the reason), but the entire series is a kind of fairy tale, abstracted from reality. (The only black doves we see are Helen and Mrs. Reed, like a handful of soldiers representing an army in a Shakespeare play.) The mysteries can be difficult to track across six episodes filled with people and things that seem different from the real thing. are. (“I'm not who you think I am,” Helen tells Jason, who is not what she thinks he is.) Players are forced to switch sides or join forces, so it's not always easy to remember who you work for. whom. When someone mentioned a character named Elmore Fitch (Paapa Essiedu), some time after his appearance, it took me a minute to remember who he was and why, or even if, he was important.
Despite the 30 seconds on the Spanish Steps to place Sam in Rome and the China angle, it is, spy stories say, decidedly local. There is no terrorist threat, nor is the clock ticking until a bomb destroys half of London. Do not jump from planes or ride a motorcycle up the steps of the National Gallery. There are no elaborate lairs where spies do their business; The characters simply meet in restaurants or cars. Basically, it is a detective series, in which the protagonists try to discover who killed who and why, while various parties fight for control of a black box, like a crazier, bloodier and more emotional version of “The Maltese falcon.” It's as good as it sounds.
