Plot: Newly promoted MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner embroils Jackson Lamb and his team of outcasts in a high-stakes, dangerous game of retaliation and revenge.
Review: With nine books published to date and two more seasons just announced, Apple TV’s acclaimed series Slow Horses shows no signs of, well, slowing. Led by the great Gary Oldman, Slow Horses has delivered compact, six-episode seasons, adapting Mick Herron’s best-selling espionage novels into some of the best small-screen programming of the decade. The latest season manages to keep the pitch-perfect balance of brooding violence and bleak comedy while taking things to a new level for the denizens of Slough House. Slow Horses has never been better than this season, which brings back familiar faces while giving the ragtag protagonists their deadliest challenge to date.
The new season of Slow Horses picks up with Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) promoted to First Desk at MI5, while Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and his team at Slough House discover they have been wiped from the system after no one received their paycheck. At the same time, a pair of operatives has begun finding former members of Slough House and murdering them one by one. At first, it takes a moment for the connections to come together, but Jackson Lamb is a master at his craft despite his slovenly exterior. As usual, Gary Oldman revels in portraying Lamb as sloppy and garish while calculating everything that is going on, leading to revelations that deepen the mythology of this series. Slow Horses has Oldman at the forefront of all the marketing, but the acclaimed actor is a key member of the ensemble and enhances the performances around him, even as he steals the show every time he eats, farts, or insults one of his team members.
The big twist revealed in this season’s trailers is the return of Olivia Cooke from House of the Dragon. Presumed dead at the end of the first season, Cooke’s return is perfectly timed to where River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) finds himself. With his promotion reneged at the end of season five, and the passing of his grandfather, River is at a low point when he and his teammates become targets. River has been the odd man out of the Slough House crew every season and has been put through the wringer every time, but this season feels like a different challenge for Jack Lowden. Lowden has become a rumored front-runner to become the next James Bond, and it is easy to see why. Lowden brings a charm to his performance that is grounded and realistic rather than superhuman, giving his character here a relatable quality even as he chases down enemy spies and fights for his life.
This season also sees the return of Hugo Weaving as River’s father, former CIA operative Frank Harkness, who is one of the better antagonists out there. We also have new additions, Harry Lloyd as media mogul Damien Cantor, Andor’s Kyle Soller, and The Witcher‘s MyAnna Buring as Jim and Jane, the assassins taking out the Slow Horses. As with prior seasons, the forty-five-minute chapters fly by with little wasted time. Each episode keeps the momentum going without wasting any opportunity to deliver a twist of the knife. The Slough House characters have been on the run before, but by forcing them out on their own, we get the chance to see them all use their skills in new ways. Saskia Reeves, Roddy Ho, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards are especially showcased this season and get a lot more to do than in years past.
As with prior seasons, Slow Horses has one director for the full six-episode run. Adam Randall serves as director, having worked on the series’ fourth season. Randall keeps the muted gray-and-blue palette of the series intact. Based on two books, Joe Country and Slough House, this season sees writers Gaby Chiappe, Edward Docx, Sophie Goodhart, Mark Denton, and Jonny Stockwood script, with creator and showrunner Will Smith credited only as a producer. More than any prior season, Slow Horses feels like a six-chapter film rather than a television series. The first and second episodes feel like familiar entries from previous seasons, but the four concluding episodes do not let up for an instant. This is the most intense and engaging season of the series so far, and it may be the high-water mark for the show.
Slow Horses is catching up with the source material, as there are only a couple of novels left to adapt and several short stories, which could either mean that the series will come to an end after a few more years or could pull a Game of Thrones and start crafting original tales. Whichever direction Mick Herron and Will Smith go, Slow Horses remains one of the best series on television and a unique take on spycraft that no other series can match. Gary Oldman has now played Jackson Lamb more than any other character in his career, and it ranks amongst his best performances. Whether this ends up being Oldman’s final role or the launching pad for Jack Lowden to become 007, Slow Horses‘ sixth season is its best yet and one of the best seasons of television of the year.
Slow Horses premieres on September 16th on Apple TV.
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