If it feels like we were just talking about Apple TV’s Slow Horses, it’s because we were. Sort of. Season five premiered less than a year ago. And in a world where audiences typically wait two years or more between installments of their favorite shows, Slow Horses’ production pace is something of a marvel. It also recalls the heyday of network TV, when we only had to wait a few months to find out who shot J.R.
It was a big deal, kids. Look it up.
Director Adam Randall returns to helm, but not longtime showrunner Will Smith (not that one). New head writer Gaby Chiappe replaces him. And for the first time in the show’s run, they’re adapting two books at once. This season incorporates both Joe Country and Slough House, the sixth and seventh books in Mick Herron’s series. This was, according to Randall, to ensure adequate screen time for newly appointed MI5 “First Desk” Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Slough House head Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman).
Because while the show has always ostensibly about the journey of former MI5 wunderkind River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), it’s Oldman who’s been singled out. The flatulent, slovenly Lamb is also quite possibly the most cunning mind in the Security Service. His frequent sparring with Taverner often provides some of the show’s best moments.
This relationship takes on a significant role in this latest season, as the Slow Horses are dealing with post-Brexit resource constraints. Specifically, the agents at Slough House find their personnel and payroll records erased from government databases. River is also reeling from a death in the family. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a pair of assassins — Kyle Soller, last seen as the unctuous Siril on Andor, and MyAnna Buring — are upping the ante by erasing former SH agents from existence.
And these assassins don’t discriminate between active and former agents. As a result, the new season marks the appearance of horses we haven’t seen in quite a while. For example, Struan Loy (Paul Higgins) is back as a part time karate instructor/aspiring real estate mogul. Most surprising? The return of Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke), whose death at the end of season one was widely believed (at least by Roddy and River) to be a hoax.
Did you miss sleazy former right-wing MP Peter Judd turned Home Secretary (Samuel Webb)? Probably not, but he’s back giving headaches to Taverner. Add to that the unwelcome reappearance of River’s spy-turned-mercenary father Frank Harkness (an almost unrecognizable Hugo Weaving). Nothing like a little extra trauma, I guess.
But it’s not just the River Cartwright/Jackson Lamb show. We learn more of the circumstances behind the death of Standish’s (Saskia Reeves) former boss as she, Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar), and Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) form an unlikely team to deal with the assassin threat. Meanwhile the probably psychopath Coe (Tom Brooke) teams up with River, to the satisfaction of neither.
Part of the show’s appeal is its warts-and-all depiction of the Security Service. Taverner allies with Lamb more often than not because the “Joes” in his charge operate without official sanction. Over the past seasons, MI5’s corruption and history of unsanctioned operations has led to headaches and tragedy both for Slough House and Britain itself. And “slow” or not, it’s Lamb’s horses helping save the day.
Slow Horses has always utilized the “one director per season” approach, helping set a consistent tone. Randall handled season four duties before this, and the results are impressive. He and Chiappe have delivered one of the show’s most absorbing seasons to date. It feels cliche to say the stakes have never been higher, but with the very lives of Slough House’s spies on the line, it’s pretty accurate.
Filming of season seven of Slow Horses has already been completed. Oldman has said he’ll stay with the show as long as they’ll have him, and would be honored if this were his final role. He’s only 68, so we could potentially have Jackson Lamb farting up our TVs for the next several years. Fingers crossed.
The first episode of Slow Horses season six is on Apple TV now.
