Black Doves

Spies, London, Keira, Ben, quality cinematography, lovely soundtrack - what could go wrong? Plus I already know this is my favorite genre and will overlook whatever deficiencies may come. But when Episode 1 dialog ran slow, several moments lingered too long and scenes with attempted Quinten-esque dialog left me flat, I tried to console myself. Surely they are just developing characters and setting a unique tone. I was wrong. As the episodes dragged along, I realized this series was not going to deliver. Not just disjointed, but with few-to-no characters I really cared about. I honestly don't know how the magic happens, but I was drawn in deep with the stories and characters in Slow Horses, The Americans, Le Bureau, the Diplomat, and even The Old Man - despite all their flaws. Add to that a lack of stakes and numerous misses on basic details, and the annoying:intrigued ratio became too high to be enjoyable. Yes, all the core spy elements are here in Black Doves, but somehow there was no salt in the recipe and by E03 I was already increasing playback speed. I'm so sad at what could have been.