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Black Doves Is Everything You Could Want From a Spy Thriller


You thought Dune: Part Two had the best knife fight of the year? Incorrect.

They’re an at-the-highest-bidder’s-whims group that sells secrets and information all around the world, and Black Doves focuses on deep-cover spy Helen (Knightley); her triggerman, driver, and best friend Sam (Whishaw); and their handler Reed (Sarah Lancashire, giving Margo Martindale a run for her money in the unimpressed-older-mentor department). With the pair reunited and Reed lurking over their shoulders, Black Doves sprints and tumbles through a pleasantly complex series of mysteries, with flashbacks illuminating how the three initially came to work together, action sequences that will make you go, “Damn, Paddington is good at murdering,” and an excellent ending that sets up Netflix’s already-ordered second season. Black Doves wraps its story up pretty effectively via a solidly twisty series of reveals that is mostly delivered via Reed’s exposition and a flashback montage, but it’s anchored by Knightley’s face, which flickers through shock, despair, fear, and finally wistfulness as she realizes who was responsible for killing Jason and how she got dragged into it.

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