Slow Horses, Apple TV
This spy thriller, written by Will Smith (not that one) and adapted from Mick Herron’s titular novel, feels slightly out of place among the glitz and glamour of Apple TV’s normal programming.
Given the vague Line of Duty vibes it gives off, Slow Horses might have felt more at home on the BBC. Still, the streaming platform it calls home is hardly of much significance. What matters is whether it is enjoyable and, sure enough, this is one of the more entertaining crime procedurals I’ve seen in a while.
Much of that is down to Gary Oldman’s performance as Jackson Lamb, a disgraced and most often drunk MI5 agent who now runs the appropriately named Slough House. That is the home of a ramshackle operation manned by other absconded agents - an agent’s purgatory if you will.
The staff at Slough House are so numbed by the mundanity of their predicament that they almost seem contented by it. All except Jack Lowden’s River Cartwright, who longs to return to the field after being dismissed in controversial circumstances. His persistence eventually leads to this ragtag group being pulled into a mission to thwart some odious nationalists from executing an innocent man on live television.
Though at times farfetched, Slow Horses is mostly a tightly contained affair which relies largely on dialogue and its audience’s attention to keep its plot chugging along. There are very few OMG moments, its action mostly gradually uncoiling with each episode. Which, when you have Oldman and the always-excellent Kristin Scott Thomas at your disposal, is probably for the best.
Like many shows, this is not a flawless affair. Some of the dialogue can be a little heavy on the exposition front and many of the supporting cast feel completely disposable (as is often the case with crime yarns of this type). Indeed, one such character - a sarcastic computer hacker - is quite possibly the most annoying character I’ve endured since Jar-Jar Binks. And the under-utilisation of Olivia Cooke feltlike a massive missed opportunity to me.
But you can’t have it all and Slow Horses is mostly a lot of fun. I certainly wasn’t disappointed to learn that it’s been renewed for a second season. After all, who doesn’t want to see Gary Oldman being all pissed and sweary?
