Jonzing for a quality spy thriller? Watch "Slow Horses" - Skip "Treason" and "The Recruit"
Because thinking everyone is out to get us and that we're only one step away from world annihilation makes for entertaining catharsis by exploitation of our worst fears
Slow Horses on Apple TV+ may as well be a John Le Carre spy anthology and I mean this with utmost respect and adulation. It’s well-paced, cerebral, with an intact dubious moral center (British intelligence), and stars actor Gary Oldman as the reliable “C” - in “Command” or “Control”- of a band of spies.
In the case of Slow Horses, this band are MI5 misfits (which I prefer to “rejects” thank you very much) and need to be carefully watched and motivated to do the cleanup work that MI5 agents aren’t generally sanctioned to do. They occasionally get the scraps of work also that end up exposing a whole heck of a lot more corruption which is what makes this show so good. As for good old Gary Oldman (our Gen X actor hero), he is essentially reprising a very slovenly version of George Smiley, the upright character he played in Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2010) film adaptation, which is also available on Apple TV+. I promise I am not paid to endorse Apple TV+. I just dig their content.
Of note, too, there is rumor that Oldman will be expanding his Smiley role in another adaptation of Le Carre’s - Smiley’s People for a TV adaptation. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Apple TV scoops this up based on their already impressive spy thriller portfolio.
Slow Horses, however, the subject of this post, is now well into the throes of its second season on Apple TV+ with new episodes dropping every Friday (with season finale this week- 12/30) and trust that I wait all week for the episode and watch it the second it drops. No pun intended. It’s reminiscent of how I felt about The White Lotus and now this show is carrying me through my weekly withdrawal alongside Hulu’s Fleishman is in Trouble. But that’s for another post.
After watching the 1st season of Slow Horses, my husband and I were convinced we were the only ones to watch this show. Why weren’t more people talking about this show and singing its praises? Was this show experiencing a Blackbird effect? This is an effect which I liken to “under-the-radar” shows that are brilliant and don’t get enough praise lapped onto them because what? They are on Apple TV+ and everyone forgets about them? Maybe, but maybe not. Theories anyone?
I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t make this mistake with Slow Horses. Based on the Mick Herron anthology of spy thrillers, there’s something for everyone in the landscape of cutthroat and high stakes politics. You have your radical populists, your Cold War killers, and just everyday British spies shivving one another, both literally and figuratively (mostly the latter), but it makes for exciting TV. And of course, for all of who love underdogs, its whole band of Slough House misfits are just that. No one is truly likable on this show, some are more redeemable than others, but Oldman is our grotesque and loyal leader whose only real allegiances are to his team.
And if any actor can go toe to toe with Oldman’s Jackson Lamb it’s Kristen Scott Thomas’ Diana Taverner as Deputy General of MI5. Every interaction between these two is like watching a really intricate chess game that you won’t really understand until the final episode, but hell, it’s fun to watch anyways.
In addition to our more tenured adversaries/friends, we also have the mostly younger crew of Slow Horses, each with their different powers of discernment. My favorite and I think the person we are all supposed to root for is real life Saoirse Ronan boyfriend, actor Jack Lowden, who plays River Cartwright - a guy who comes from a pedigree spy family (it’s in his blood) and messes up some critical assignment which was a test simulation that could have gained him entrance into Taverner’s fold, but alas based on this mess up, he got relegated to Slough House.
I won’t waste any more ink in this post to tell you the reasons not to watch the other recent spy thrillers that have dropped on Netflix, the option that takes itself less seriously: The Recruit (whose only redeeming quality is that it stars Noah Centineo who was one of the leads in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Jenny Han’s series. But you’re better off watching him there.) And the one that just dropped, the more serious, but also laughable, Treason, starring Charlie Cox (Daredevil). Cox is a good actor, but watch him in Daredevil or in She-Hulk. He’s so much better in the Marvelverse. I guess the same can be said for a lot of us.
If you’re looking for another good spy show after you watch Slow Horses, check out The Old Man - also starring another Gen X icon, Jeff Bridges.
Slow Horses this season is so good! I love the dysfunctional family dynamic this season