Keira Knightley’s spy thriller ticks so many boxes

Black Doves ★★★★
Netflix

Black Doves is the British spy thriller I didn’t know I needed. That’s because as well as being a story about covert spooks, it’s also a melancholic examination of desire’s hold, a body count banger with John Wick vibes, a ticking clock geopolitical drama, a farcical comedy of English manners, and a meditative dialogue about the killer’s creed. There’s probably another element or two I missed, but every time Ben Whishaw’s triggerman greeted Keira Knightley’s undercover operative with a “hello, darling!” I stopped keeping count.

Keira Knightley in Black Doves.Credit: Ludovic Robert/Netflix

Yes, that’s quintessential English rose Keira Knightley and the voice of Paddington Bear, Ben Whishaw. The casting of this six-part series is unconventional and to the credit of all involved it’s the narrative that changes shape, not the stars. After a tension-filled cold-open, where a trio of Londoners connected by an unknown thread is done away with, Black Doves takes shape around survival and vengeance. But from the second episode on, it keeps opening unexpected new fronts. This caper is eclectic to the point of recklessness.

Knightley plays Helen Webb, the note-perfect wife of Tory cabinet minister Wallace Webb (Andrew Buchan). Helen has been spying on her own husband since she met him a decade prior, but when her lover is among the trio coldly killed, she goes in search of vengeance even if it means her own exposure. Helen’s worried boss, Reed (Sarah Lancashire), recalls from exile Helen’s old friend, contract killer Sam Young (Whishaw), to protect her. Soon they are trading bon mots and leaping from the window of an exploding building.

The show was created by Joe Barton, who previously made the quietly gripping Netflix crime drama Giri/Haji. What kept me watching was how seriously he treated each element, no matter how frayed the plausibility grew. The story is invested in Helen’s doubt about her true self. It’s also invested in Sam’s longing for his former lover, Michael (Omari Douglas), and Sam’s memories of his father and how he came to take lives for a living. Infiltrating the US embassy somehow squeaks in as well.

Sarah Lancashire and Ben Whishaw in Black Doves.Credit: Netflix

I suspect my liking of Black Doves will put me in the minority, but it eschews convention by being in turn bittersweet, gung-ho and philosophical. It doesn’t strain for effect – unless you count the rocket launcher – and the characters share dialogue that is never boilerplate. Plus, a pair of diffident female assassins steal every scene they’re in. That this all transpires in the lead up to December 25 might be its final defining twist. Perhaps after everything else, this caper is also a Christmas movie?

KB (Kyriana Kratter) and Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) in Skeleton Crew.Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew ★★★
Disney+

A coming-of-age adventure that’s thankfully light on lore, the new Star Wars series has few impediments to a young audience jumping onboard. Set in the New Republic era – post-Darth Vader and the Empire – its protagonists are a group of pre-teens from a planet so sedate and orderly that the biggest risk they face is failing their careers test. The only lightsaber battle scene is two kids play-acting while waiting for the school bus.

When the mismatched quartet – headstrong rebel Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), daydreaming optimist Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), punk techie KB (Kyriana Kratter) and anxious alien Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) – makes an unexpected find, the four end on a spaceship that jumps to hyperspace. Stranded far from home, they’re adrift in the realm of pirates. It’s all near misses, grumpy droids and questionable decisions – the one adult looking to help, Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law), is not quite the hero Wim believes he is.

The three episodes previewed were directed by co-creator Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and fellow filmmaker David Lowery (The Green Knight). They have the adolescent energy of 1980s adventure movies such as The Goonies, and a bustling tactile feel – many of the creatures encountered appear to be made using practical effects instead of digital images. It’s nostalgic, but not in the usual Star Wars way. That’s a promising start.

Earth Abides
Stan

Most post-apocalyptic dramas tend to focus on the horrors of survival after the fall of humanity, but this American series, adapted and updated from George R. Stewart’s 1949 novel of the same name, is more concerned with the perils and philosophy of rebuilding. Alexander Ludwig (Heels) plays “Ish” Williams, a young man who returns from a wilderness trip to discover a pandemic has seemingly killed everyone. Nothing is rushed, as isolation eventually gives way to a budding new community, and the show stoically focuses on the difficulties, both practically and ethically, of restarting a society.

The Sticky
Amazon Prime

A sweet heist comedy so Canadian that the crooks are after maple syrup stocks worth millions, The Sticky gives a deserved lead role to Margo Martindale, the veteran character actor who has elevated The Americans and The Watcher among numerous shows. Here she plays Ruth, a syrup farmer so disgruntled with the local collective that buys her product that she decides to rob them. The snowy eccentricities can’t help but suggest the Coen Brothers, but this limited series is more of a ramshackle ride, complete with side missions and a daffy dynamic.

The body of the six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found in the basement of the family home in 1996.Credit:

Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey
Netflix

Directed by Joe Berlinger (the Paradise Lost trilogy), there’s thankfully an actual purpose to this true-crime docuseries about the still unsolved 1996 killing of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in her family’s Boulder, Colorado home. The case was an American obsession, and across three detailed episodes Berlinger examines how the media’s overwhelming attention and the narrow focus of the Boulder police distorted the investigation. JonBenet’s now 80-year-old father, John, as well as a key former detective on the case are interviewed, but just as telling is watching the shamefully lurid coverage from the initial aftermath.

Gavin and Stacey.Credit:

Gavin & Stacey (seasons 1-3)
Binge

In preparation for the Boxing Day debut of the show’s final Christmas episode, Binge has added all three seasons (plus the previous Christmas specials) of James Corden and Ruth Jones’ beloved British sitcom, with Gavin (Mathew Horne) and Stacey (Joanna Page) as the everyday protagonists whose workplace interaction turns into a romance. As each introduces the other to their eccentric family and friends, chief among them Corden’s Smithy and Jones’ Nessa, the show originally aired between 2007 and 2010. It remains immensely relatable, skilfully drawing humour out of the mundane and plausible setbacks.

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