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Black Doves Season 2 earns 94% on Rotten Tomatoes as Netflix spy caper returns
The Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw thriller premiered Nov. 5 to strong reviews, with critics calling it one of the most enjoyable spy capers of the year despite some gripes about the scripts.
Black Doves Season 2 premiered Nov. 5 on Netflix to a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 15 of 16 critics giving the spy thriller a positive review.
The Financial Times called it “one of the most enjoyably daft spy capers of the year.” LeisureByte praised it as “fantastic.” The series returns Keira Knightley as Helen Webb, a woman whose secret life is exposed when her lover is killed, and Ben Whishaw as Sam, the trigger-happy friend sent to protect her.
Sarah Lancashire, Tracey Ullman and Andrew Koji round out the cast. Joe Barton created the series. Season 2 runs six episodes.
Not every critic was convinced. The lone negative review on the Tomatometer called the scripts “awful.” Another review, counted as positive, described the plotting as “pedestrian” even while praising the performances.
What the coverage missed
Rotten Tomatoes aggregates reviews but does not explain why the show works. The answer is in the casting.
Knightley plays a woman who is not a spy but is married to one. The tension in Black Doves comes from the gap between her domestic life and the violence that surrounds it. Whishaw, who played Q in the Daniel Craig Bond films, is cast against type as a soft-spoken killer. The pairing is the engine.
Netflix has struggled to build spy franchises. The Gray Man cost $200 million and got a sequel, but the reviews were middling. Heart of Stone had Gal Gadot and disappeared. Black Doves costs less, shoots in London, and relies on writing and acting rather than set pieces. The 94% rating reflects that approach.
The show’s second season arrived 11 months after the first, a fast turnaround for Netflix. The streamer has been criticized for long gaps between seasons. Black Doves avoids that problem.
What I think
The rating is real but the sample is small. Sixteen critics is not a consensus. It is a first read.
The show deserves the positive notices. Knightley and Whishaw are good together, and the writing is sharper than most of what Netflix puts in this genre. The complaints about the plotting are fair. Black Doves is not le Carre. It is a caper with good actors and a sense of humor about itself.
The question for Netflix is whether the audience shows up. A 94% rating does not guarantee viewers. The streamer will know within a week whether the show landed. If it does, expect a Season 3 announcement before Christmas.