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Tale
Helen embarks on a passionate affair with a man who has no idea what her secret identity is. Caught in the crosshairs when her lover falls victim to London’s dangerous underworld, Helen’s employer calls on Sam to protect her… Starring Graham Norton and guests: Cher/Keira Knightley/Michael Fassbender/Josh Brolin/Jalen Ngonda (2024).
Meet Helen Dawson (Keira Knightley) just a normal mother of two who is married to a politician, right?
Err, she was actually a spy right before she met a politician and was giving national secrets to a spy organization called the Black Doves, who have been selling them to the highest bidder for years. Unfortunately for Helen’s boss, Helen has begun having an affair, and when Helen’s new lover is murdered, she sets out on a mission of revenge to find his killer. As Helen embarks on her mission, she soon discovers that her lover’s murder may be connected to the death of the Chinese ambassador.
I also enjoyed the witty lines that both Helen and her spy partner Sam (Ben Whishaw) deliver very well
She’s also involved in plenty of shootouts (which reminded me of Shoot ’em Up and John Wick), hand-to-hand combat (which showed that she’s definitely not a damsel in distress), and explosive lucky escapes (which will keep you on the edge of your seat.) It’s these great action scenes that kept me very interested throughout the series. And I didn’t even get bored during the flashback scenes that showed how Helen first started spying, because even those scenes had good shots. For example, after an explosive lucky escape, Helen dislocates her shoulder and has to push it back into place by slamming her arm into a wall.
Despite these minor issues I would definitely watch season 2 and would also happily watch this series again and buy it on DVD
After he does, Sam says, “That was pretty impressive.” And Helen says, “You should have seen me push two human beings off of me in the same afternoon.” But while I never got bored and I definitely didn’t feel like this series dragged on and would have done better as a long film, I think the last episode could have been about 10-20 minutes shorter and towards the end of the series I thought it was a bit too convoluted. I understand they were trying to set up the last episode for series 2, but I still think they could have done that if they had made the series a little shorter. I also think that if they do a season 2 of Helen’s husband Wallace (Andrew Buchan) should be presented as a stronger character because throughout the series Helen has to keep sneaking out to investigate her lover’s murder, but even when Wallace starts to get suspicious, at the end of the series he never confronts her about her secrecy.
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