Keira Knightley goes for the jugular in new Netflix drama co-starring James Bond’s bestie

There’s a new show getting a lot of buzz and it looks like it’s getting it for all the right reasons. For starters, it features Keira Knightley back in a starring role, and she’s co-starring with none other than James Bond’s trusty geeky sidekick Q, Ben Whishaw. It’s called Black Doves. Cool title!

It’s a six-episode spy thriller on Netflix that arrives on Dec. 5. In addition to the two aforementioned actors, it also stars Sarah Lancashire, Andrew Buchan, Ella Lily Hyland, Gabrielle Creevy, and Kathryn Hunter.

Knightly plays Helen, a normal, everyday wife married to a government minister named Wallace, portrayed by Buchan. In one scene, Knightley has a dicey back-and-forth with an assassin who’s hired to murder her for reasons that involve espionage and global safety. She gives him a warning:

“I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher. I have a peeler. I have skewers. I have a kettle. I have a NutriBullet.” The show, which was created by Joe Barton, does a good job illustrating the hilarious contrasts between Helen’s family, and her home life versus her spy life.

Since it’s the holidays, she’s prepping for all sorts of official government and personal to-dos, including a school pageant for the couple’s twins, played by Taylor Sullivan and Charlotte Rice-Foley. Of course, there’s a pesky global incident to deal with while all this is going on.

A Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom is suddenly dead and his rebellious daughter has disappeared. Oh, and the person Helen was having an affair with was also murdered, along with two of his associates. Lots of death! It’s not the holiday TV season without some good old-fashioned death and mystery.

This brings us to the name of the show. Black Doves is a private spy organization headed by a woman named Reed, played by Lancashire. Helen has been using her husband for information for years, making her one of the most valuable members of the organization.

“We’re a capitalist organization, not an ideological one,” Reed tells Helen. “Well, capitalism is an ideology,” Helen replies. Whishaw plays Sam, a fellow Dove who’s been out of the picture after he fled to Rome seven years ago and left behind a boyfriend and a debt to a fellow spy named Lenny, played by Kathryn Hunter.

Knightley is in full form in this one, and it’s great to see! In the scene above, she learns that Jason has been murdered. Helen trying to keep her composure after learning the man she’s fallen in love with has died is worth the price of admission alone.

The show also has a fun quirk involving its cartoonish violence. Instead of quickly moving on, the show lingers on those post-death moments while participants are drenched in blood. Sometimes both people are covered in spatter. Per a review in The Hollywood Reporter, in these moments the characters are “freed from sexual tension to build their bonds around trauma, professionalism and compassion.” However, some of the show’s strongest scenes come from simple dialogue between Helen and Sam. This makes sense considering Whishaw was such a good sidekick in Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die. Happy bloody holidays!