Slow Horses
Overview
Slow Horses is a 2022 spy thriller television series created by Will Smith (the British writer, not the actor) for Apple TV+, based on the Slough House series of novels by Mick Herron. The series follows a team of British intelligence agents who have been relegated to Slough House, a dumping ground for MI5 agents who have made mistakes and are being punished. They are the "slow horses," the rejects, the failures. The leader of Slough House is Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), a brilliant, cynical, and disgusting man. He is fat, flatulent, and rude, and he insults his agents constantly. He is also a brilliant spy, a master of tradecraft, and a man who cares deeply about his team. The agents include: River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), a young, arrogant, and ambitious agent who was relegated after a training exercise went wrong; Sidonie "Sid" Baker (Olivia Cooke), a bright, capable agent who is secretly working for MI5; Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), a veteran agent who is struggling with the death of her partner; Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), a tech genius who is socially inept; and Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), a recovering alcoholic who is haunted by her past. The series follows the slow horses as they stumble onto conspiracies that the main MI5 offices are ignoring. They are underestimated by everyone, and they use that to their advantage. The series is a tense, witty, and often darkly funny spy thriller. Gary Oldman is brilliant as Lamb, a character who is both repulsive and heroic. The series has been renewed for a fifth season, and it has been praised for its writing, its performances, and its suspenseful plotting. Slow Horses is one of the best spy thrillers on television.
