Review of Black Doves Season 1

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

About a year ago (at the time of typing this) I quit my job as a professional film critic to explore what was out there in the world when it came to publishing about the movies and books I wanted to see, not just what was popular in the moment. Digital media and working within it can be fun and all, but it can be grinding when you’re just chasing after all the latest trends and clicks for SEO.

I started this blog four years ago, during the pandemic, but never really took it seriously beyond the occasional post here and there about what I was up to. In 2023 I began to realize the impact this blog was having on me, and other people were reaching out about reading it, so I expanded. Once I quit my job, I decided to focus on the blog more while job hunting, as I do make a few pennies here and there from the display ads on the screen.

Since the job hunt after graduate school really took longer than expected, it meant that I was going to have even more time than anticipated to go through and watch all of these shows I wanted to. I also read a ton of books during this time, which means I have such an incredible backlog of book reviews I need to plough through the rest of the year.

Anyways, today’s blog post is dedicated to Black Doves, which is something I was watching religious while it came out. This blog post is coming out much later due to my time constraints, and the fact I took a break from writing blog posts to keep myself somewhat sane, so if you’re procrastinating on this show like I am with writing this, we’re in the same boat!

Let’s get into the review. I can already feel myself rambling a bit.

The wife of a high up political figure secretly works as a spy, leading to consequences.

Keira Knightley stars in this show as Helen, who we first meet in her public facing role. She’s the wife of England’s Secretary of State for Defense, and while she smiles pretty nicely at government officials and hosts nice little parties for her fellow political elites, she has a dark side. We learn pretty quickly after the parties that she has a secret role: she’s a spy.

Specifically, she’s a spy who’s entire public front is kind of a lie, but we’ll get to that later. Helen also has a lover within her secret life, but everything is about to be completely messed up for her when he’s killed by other nefarious actors in London’s underground scene.

That leads to the revelation that her own identity might be compromised, as things are not as loosely isolated as they thought it would be. When she realizes this, an old friend, Sam, appears to try and get her out of the mess she’s now found herself in. Or, well, the organization they work for (Black Doves) sent him to amend the situation and get her out alive.

This series is only six episodes long, but there’s quite a bit of action and tension packed into those six episodes. The entire plot of the series revolves around the fact that these characters are stuck in an extraordinary situation and are in incredible danger. Their lives are never secure; they are always on the run.

In order to free themselves from the cycle driving the season’s conflict, they need to take down the figures who started it in the first place. This is where the show leaned more generic to me, and I found myself watching more for the action and characters themselves than the problem.

We also get to learn quite a bit about Sam during these six episodes, including the fact he himself has a lover who has no idea what exactly his beau does for a living. There’s a dramatic moment when he does come to learn that, and the consequences of what that means, but it further shows how these characters are living a lie in some ways and are stuck in-between two worlds.

Overall Thoughts

For me, this was just an okay series. I didn’t find it distinguished itself much from other series with the same premise, and didn’t feel original in that way either. Whishaw and Knightley do a good job in their roles, but I would be more surprised if they didn’t considering their resumes.

I do find it interesting that an action thriller show was openly going with the LGBTQ+ elements, which was the breath of fresh air for me. We don’t typically see that in spy shows or movies, and I’m glad we at least got that form of representation into this show, even if the show itself might not be rewatchable.

All in all, I say go watch this one if you’re interested. It’s fine, it’s entertaining, but it might not be entirely memorable in the long run. Or it might be for you—taste is so incredibly subjective, and that’s alright!

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