Black Doves - Netflix 6 episodes

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Anyone starting this today? All 6 episodes released today.
It's with Keira Knightley, Ben Wishaw and Sarah Lancashire - spy thriller.

I've started the first episode but had to stop and may go back to it tomorrow.

Yes I did wonder myself why nobody seemed to recognise her.

Because the whole show would fall over, if we started applying logic?
I mean, all those empty streets, car parking available all the time, gunfire and no one twitches a curtain?

Actually reminded me a bit of a late-version James Bond film.

Lazy writing and plot holes you could drive a bus through. It was a waste of time.

@Crinkle77 TBF I am not sure I could pick John Healey's wife out of police line up!

Really wanted to like it as love Sarah Lancaster but it was ridiculously silly and after 2 episodes I gave up.

You can't take this show in a serious way . It's a spoof. I have never liked Keira as an actress - all that wrinkly cute nose stuff - but I have to say I really liked her in this role. It was mad and crazy and different. Yeah there are masses of plot holes 😂

It is silly, but it is stylish and fun so I'm sticking with it.
Loving the London locations, even if the Hollywood Parking is laughable.
I do keep hearing Paddington Bear, which doesn't really go with being a hard hit man.
Also: what is Helen doing with the proceeds of selling state secrets?

@VeronicaBeccabunga I think that is the big question, what is Helen gaining from being a traitor? She slept with a man and had children with him and has been with him for eight years! That's going deep and is obviously morally dubious. Is she being paid millions to retire on? And when and how does she stop?

I think she continued because Reed was Co-ercing her after Sam had to be rescued and his partner protected

It wasn't great but I've seen worse. I really don't rate Keira Knightly and thought she was terrible in what should have been a great role. She was totally unbelievable. Someone like Anne-Marie Duff would have nailed the role and made sure we were satisfied with the tongue in cheek plot line.

Sarah Lancashire was totally wasted in her role... but the two female assassins totally stole the show. Loved them.

I think I'd call it camp: knowingly theatrical.

I thought opposite. I thought she was actually very good in the fights making the punches look hard hitting etc. BW on the other hand as highly trained John Wick wanna be? Come on. He was great in the non-action scenes but when he was supposed to be in expert killer
mode - nahhh

I didn’t think BW came across as a John Wick type at all or was meant to. He had a heart after all & didn’t he just shoot, no hand to hand combat? With regards to KK I meant the whole idea she would hunt you down & tear you apart with her hands, just didn’t buy it.

If anyone else watched Shetland, it reminded me a bit of the unlikely Annie being magically trained up into being a super-spy. Except Shetland is supposed to be serious. This, not so much.

Honestly no, but i kept thinking she looked like Winona Ryder which isn't something I've noticed before

Tribelimpet - Knowingly theatrical - I like that. I feel I will be able to use that phrase going forward. Thank you.

That’s exactly what it is. Perfectly put.

@HenryVIII my husband said exactly that the other night.

I have just finished this so can read the whole thread (didn't want any spoilers!)

I enjoyed it, but I really agree that if you can't think too hard about it. Round about episode three, I forgot what they were doing/their goal/who they were meant to be chasing/ the plot etc. So I just enjoyed it for what it was. Mainly London at Christmas. (Except strangely devoid of people!)

I think bigging up the baddies (The Clarks) and then featuring them in parenthesis, so to speak, just to get a cameo from Tracy Ullman (who was v enjoyable, tbf) is a bit of a cheat.

Also, Kiera/Helen had that interview which highlighted her translation skills as the reason she was hired. And then proceeded to do no translation whatsoever. I would have liked a cleverer spy/language/code kind of vibe, rather than so much killing.

Plus, I would have liked to know her cover job. There is only so many times she can go 'shopping' to justify a full-time Nanny, not to mention the night work.

A simple 'how was the office' 'oh, you know what Marketing is like,' or some such, would have sufficed.

I usually like Ben Wishaw, but I didn't enjoy him in this. He was too pouty and the just drinking prosecco thing irritated me. It felt like the info on this part of his story had been cut from the script.

Helen and Wallace's house is in Crystal Palace, apparently (the exterior anyway)

I lost the plot a bit too ! I often do with these kind of 'caper ' type dramas.
I Hope Tracey Ullman is in other Netflix things next year and the one who played whispering Lenny the hit woman

Was I the only viewer who could have done without things like the Sam character's bar pickup & bumming scene?

Just wondering if it brings audiences in.

I don't really like KK, not sure whether it's the mouth thing she does or the cutesy look, it's in every film she does and it's very irritating. I like the two assassin girls, chip shop lady and Sam. I don't understand why they need to show bumming scenes or Sam's dating scenes though which isn't relevant to the show. I don't think full sex acts are relevant to any show really.

I think it’s just a gay version of a stereotypical pickup scene in an action film. And shows a contrast to what he’d had with Michael? Now it’s all a bit empty.

I'm in the minority, I enjoyed it. Daft but fun.

And I like Keira Knightly. BW's hair was the worst part for me.

Just finished it.
Loved the 2 girl assassins. Nice bit of comedy
I wonder if the US Embassy had internal CCTV so they could see who entered a particular lift when the guard got knocked out.
Do MI5 follow up on the US Embassy incident?

Loved the idea that an undercover spy could be "trapped" by another undercover spy and think that he is in love with her. Did she mean anything to him or not?