As we approach the final month of the year, Netflix certainly has some major releases in store for subscribers. We’ve covered many of them here already, like the highly anticipated second season of Squid Game coming the day after Christmas. In this post, however, I’m going to highlight two Netflix standouts that are just days away at this point.
One is a series and the other a movie — and while they couldn’t be more different from each other, I’m convinced that both will drive significant viewership. Especially since the film will drop in the weeks leading up to Christmas and dramatize the story of the birth of Christ.
Here’s a closer look at both upcoming Netflix releases:
Black Doves (Dec. 5)
First up is an action-packed Netflix spy drama set against the backdrop of London at Christmastime, and starring Keira Knightley as you’ve never seen her before.
Black Doves, created and written by Giri/Haji‘s Joe Barton, stars Knightley as a mother, wife, and professional spy named Helen Webb. She’s been slipping the secrets of her politician husband to a shadowy group called the Black Doves for over a decade — and when Helen’s secret lover Jason is assassinated, Helen’s spymaster calls in her old friend Sam (played by Ben Whishaw) to keep her safe.
Per Netflix, Sam is a “suave, Champagne-drinking assassin. But having been out of the game since a failed job with disastrous consequences, he’s come home to a London that has moved on without him. As his past threatens to catch up with him, his task is to protect Helen as she investigates who killed Jason and why.”
Helen and Sam set off on a mission that will take them into the heart of darkness, otherwise known as the murky London underworld that’s connected to a looming geopolitical crisis. Spies, crooked politicians, a feral female heroine like Knightley smoking bad guys with ease — the show is basically a grab bag of all the good stuff you want in an espionage drama.
Mary (Dec. 6)
As for this next Netflix release, a coming-of-age film adapted from events in the Bible, Mary tells the ancient story of the birth of the Son of God. Starring Noa Cohen as the mother of the Messiah, this original movie from the streaming giant dramatizes — and we need to put a big line under that word, dramatizes — events surrounding Mary’s immaculate conception and her eventual fugitive status along with her husband Joseph.
It’s pretty much a rule, though; almost anytime Hollywood wades into Biblical content, the pendulum is going to swing too much in the direction of entertainment rather than on the accuracy of the material. You can see what I mean yourself by checking out the trailer below, but the long and short of it is the Bible doesn’t say much at all about the lives of Mary and Joseph. And there are definitely some anachronistic, modern ideas that have been inserted into the film (not that I’d expect anything less from Netflix).
I know it sounds like I’m nitpicking, but I think anyone for whom this is an important story is very much allowed to nitpick — especially when the director here is known for a movie about a serial killer (2007’s Disturbia). Having said that, I can certainly appreciate the movie for what it’s trying to do. The broad strokes of the story are certainly there. “Love will save the world” is certainly a powerful line coming from the mother of Jesus.
