Black Doves (serial)

Keira Knightly plays the titular Black Dove, a deep cover spy working for a non-governmental agency who deals in information for sale to the highest bidder. Pure capitalism - or at least that is the idea. But information is power, and the political interweaving of this power with corruption and the requisite mistrust that accompanies state actors (China, England and U.S. in this case) means that more is at stake than just money. This series is exactly what serial story telling should be. Coming in at 6 episodes, we have plenty of time to have plot depth, character depth, intrigue and several interweaving storylines. And at 6 episodes, we don't have time for fluff. There isn't even one interstitial scene to just fill time and make another episode. More creators could learn from this editing. Not much gets 5 stars from me these days, but this I loved. 

5 stars (out of 5)

Captain Nova

From the Dutch film industry, Nova is an astronaut from the future. A post climate change apocalyptic future. She travels back in time to intercept one of the tipping point events that takes place in 2025. Sort of a 12 Monkeys for climate change. Pretty basic in many ways, but the plot device of time travel leading to actual time change for the traveler (she travels back 25 years, so she becomes 25 years younger) is great. Lots of fun behind the scenes thinking about the implications of this mechanism. 

4 stars (out of 5)

The Six Triple Eight

Historical fiction telling of the WWII unit of soldiers who were sent to England to fix the army's mail problem. Mail was deprioritized by the leadership, with the result being a massive backlog of deliveries (17 million pieces) and the associated low moral that comes with being cut off from communicating with family. The 6888 delivered all of this mail, while simultaneously fighting sexism and racism since they were an all black, all women company. I am sure that this telling glorifies the work and overlooks the awfulness of war. But it is a feel good, crowd pleaser in the end. 

4 stars (out of 5)