Sarden

Eye-opening documentary shedding light not just on Netanyahu but also on the background to the tragic events in Gaza and some deeply disturbing elements of Israeli society.

Unlike what some have written here, the documentary is not based on hearsay, but on police interviews with the involved parties and the movie makers' interviews with some key characters connected to the upper echelons of Israeli society.

So the sources are primary, and this lends credence to the accusations against Netanyahu being put forward, but, more importantly, paints a picture of some of the motivations behind Netanyahu's and wider Israeli society's gruesome treatment of Gaza.

Spend 1½ hours to better understand contemporary Israel and the events in Gaza. The editing and storytelling will keep you interested, and enlightening films such as this one can play an important role in putting an end to catastrophes such as the one unfolding in the Middle East right now.

If you're the "a bit of fun for the holidays" type of person, this might be for you.

But if you like spy shows / thrillers that take themselves a little seriously, it won't be.

Quick example, not really a spoiler:

Female protagonist finds herself trapped and unarmed upstairs in a building with two armed assassins coming up the stairs to take her out. They're just seconds away. Her phone rings. What does she do? She answers it and has a video call with her child about going to bed.

I think this was meant to provide an element of absurdity, Tarantino- style. But it falls utterly flat.

As others have written, the show meanders between being serious and (vaguely) thrilling and being more of a satirical pastiche.

One and a half episodes in, I couldn't watch it anymore and stopped. The writing is just too insulting to your intelligence if you want something that at least hints at some realism.

I dislike 'Slow Horses' for the same reason. Both productions are fantastic, but the seemingly new British need to add some Hollywood cartoonism to spy thrillers with rather weak plots ruins any illusion of severity. It just makes whatever is going on seem insignificant.

'The Day of The Jackal' went in a different direction and deserves praise for it, despite not being perfect. It's a kind of villain James Bond without the kitsch humour, and it works.

I hope for much more of this in the future, and much less of the poorly written silliness that is Black Doves.

4 stars for production value, but why not tell the story as it is? If you want to make fiction, make fictional characters that do fictional things back in the day. Fine. But this film purports to be a 'historical drama' with depictions of real people, real politics and real battles. Yet what you will be watching is a complete distortion of the truth. Henry V was not some morose, pacifist teenager with daddy issues who only reluctantly invaded France because he was provoked again and again. He ascended the throne willingly and simply wanted more power and to exploit internal strife in France. The real history is fascinating, so why turn it into this Anglo-apologetic nonsense? 9 out of 10 historical dramas are like this, perhaps because the producers fear reality is not engaging enough, despite mostly being far more interesting than the twisted garble being churned out. I can recommend the podcast "The Rest is History" for those who want to hear the real story about Henry IV and V.