3 shows to watch after Netflix's 'Black Doves' season 2, from twisting espionage capers to intense political thrillers
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Led by a gun-toting Keira Knightley, "Black Doves" was a hit for Netflix pretty much straight out of the nest: When the spy thriller premiered on the streaming service in late 2024, it quickly reached No. 1 on Netflix's global charts and accumulated 10.8 million views during its opening week. So it wasn't a surprise that the streamer greenlit "Black Doves" season 2 , nor that the new eps—which hit the platform on November 5—have reached No. 2 on Netflix's weekly TV charts.
The second season sees Knightley's Helen Webb balance her clandestine career as an undercover spy with her husband Wallace's (Andrew Buchan) new role as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Helen's old pal Sam (Ben Whishaw) is blackmailed by Patrick (Sam Riley), an operative working for a rival underground organization.
It's plenty of drama for a six-episode run, so we wouldn't blame you if you've already sped through the recent season. If you're still after some more action-packed thrillers, political dramas, and the like, however, here are three shows to check out after you've finished "Black Doves" season 2.
Like the Knightley-led "Black Doves," this Apple TV spy thriller stars another British acting icon, Gary Oldman: The Oscar winner plays Jackson Lamb, the foul-mouthed, chain-smoking head of Slough House, a sort of administrative purgatory for spies who’ve made career-ending mistakes. (That disgraced team includes the illustrious likes of Kristin Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce, Jack Lowden and Olivia Cooke.)
”Slow Horses” recently wrapped up its six-episode sixth season (which Tom’s Guide’s own Malcolm McMillan called one of the 10 best shows of 2026 so far ) and has already been picked up for a seventh and eighth installment, so if you haven’t yet checked out the Emmy-winning thriller, a post-“Black Doves” binge is a great move.
Stream "Slow Horses" on Apple TV now
Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne stars as the titular Jackal, an elite, anonymous assassin hired to take out tech billionaire Ulle Dag Charles (Khalid Abdalla), in this 10-episode espionage thriller. However, that lucrative gig—which sees him having to deploy theatrical disguises, multiple languages and lethal marksmanship—gets exponentially harder when the hired gun starts being hunted by a tenacious British intelligence officer (Lashana Lynch), kicking off a high-stakes cat-and-mouse chase across Europe.
” The Day of the Jackal ” season one was a hit with critics (it has an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes , with the pros praising Redmayne's “reptilian” performance in particular) and viewers alike (the spy show became Peacock's most-watched new original drama series after its first 75 days on the platform). A second season is officially scheduled to premiere in spring 2027 on Peacock in the U.S. and Sky in the U.K., with new cast members Matt Bomer, Weruche Opia, and Pablo Schreiber joining the undercover fun.
Stream "The Day of the Jackal" on Peacock now
Season two of “Black Doves” sees Knightley’s character balancing her career as a lethal spy with her role as the Prime Minister’s wife at 10 Downing Street. There’s a similar tension to be found in Netflix’s “The Diplomat,” where Keri Russell’s strong-willed and sharp-minded Kate Wyler must juggle her professional ambitions as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. with her personal duties to her husband Hal (Rufus Sewell), who, by the fourth season of the political drama, ascends to the Vice Presidency of the United States.
There might not be “Black Doves”-style spy antics in “The Diplomat,” but the fast-paced series is packed with political subterfuge, back-channel backstabbing and international intrigue. Tom’s Guide’s Kelly Woo praised the show’s most recent edition as “its best season yet” : “Season 4 doubles down on what has always made the show so much fun: putting brilliant, deeply complicated people in rooms together and watching them try to outmaneuver one another while barely holding their personal lives together,” writes Woo.
Stream "The Diplomat" on Netflix now