This article was published on 12/12 and republished on 12/14.
Black Doves, the highly-rated Keira Knightley spy thriller spent a week at #1 on Netflix’s Top 10 list and has already secured a second season. Now, it’s gracefully stepping down in favor of a new show at the top of the list, albeit a comedy special, not a scripted series.
That would be the new Jamie Foxx special, “What Happened Was…” an hour long set that of course is very funny, but also dives into a serious medical issue Foxx went through, unknown to most. An excerpt from his story via Instagram:
“My vitals were so bad, they were going to lose me. And that’s when a miracle happened, and that miracle was working through my youngest daughter. She’s 14,” he said. “I didn’t want her to see me like that, but she snuck into my hospital room with her guitar. And she says, ‘I know what my daddy needs.’ “And they said, when she was playing, my vitals went down.”
This happened in 2023 where he had a brain bleed that led to a stroke, which put him in a coma for weeks. Now, thankfully, he seems fully recovered enough to do a top-rated Netflix special. The show will likely not last that long on the top of the list given that it’s only an hour long, but it’s good to see it there in any case.
The rest of the list has scripted series like The Madness, still not renewed for season 2, Man on the Inside and The Later Daters. Unscripted shows are The Ultimatum, The Kings of Tupelo, The Great British Baking Show, Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey and Sabrina Carpenter’s Nonsense Christmas special, where I’m a bit surprised it didn’t get higher given her immense popularity this year. It never hit #1-3 as far as I can remember.
Circling back to Black Doves, it’s a series I can really highly recommend. It’s a great spy series somewhat in the vein of Apple TV+’s Slow Horses (albeit not that good) and it has already landed Keira Knightley a Golden Globe nomination for her first TV show in the last 20 years. Not a bad start. It’s also set during Christmas, so you can be in keeping with the holiday theme. It’s a surprisingly heartfelt series, not just an action spy thriller, though of course it is that as well. It touches on something spy dramas rarely do, relationships between characters, both romantic and otherwise. It’s very good, and I’m looking forward to season two.
Update (12/14): Circling back to the list, there have been some further changes. The new series starring ‘00s icons Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, No Good Deed has debuted at #2 on the list. Here’s what that’s about:
“It tells the story of three very different families vying to buy the very same 1920s Spanish style villa that they think will solve all their problems.”
This is made by the creator of Dead to Me, Liz Feldman, so that’s obviously a great start right there, as that show was excellent.
Another new addition is La Palma, a disaster movie about a tsunami made by the guy who did The Wave. I guess he really likes water-based disasters? I mean hey, everyone needs their thing I guess. This is show, not a movie, however. The Wave was highly rated but La Palma is so new that it doesn’t have a score yet. I’d say it’s worth checking out, most likely.
So, No Good Deed is probably the pick to watch this weekend, and we’ll see what everyone makes of it. Chances are it’s probably pretty good.
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