Plot: Long-buried Cold War secrets emerge which threaten to bring carnage to the streets of London. When a liaison with Russian villains takes a fatal turn, our hapless heroes must overcome their individual failings and raise their spy game in a race to prevent a catastrophic incident.
Review: Espionage is such a great concept that has factored into countless films and series over the years. Spies and secret agents make for thrilling storytelling that never lacks intensity or a deep well of material to make for entertaining tales. Still, when we think of spies on screen, the first thought is of James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Ethan Hunt. The first season of Slow Horses presented a very different take on spies with a more realistic approach but one that was full of dark humor. Led by Gary Oldman as the irascible Jackson Lamb, Slow Horses is back for a second season that does away with the introductions required in a first season and jumps right into a complex story of sleeper agents, Cold War remnants, and good detective work. Better than ever, Slow Horses continues to make a case as one of the most intriguing takes on spies in a very long time.
Filmed back to back with the first season, Slow Horses returns with the continuing work of the rejected MI-5 agents assigned to Slough House, led by their cantankerous boss Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). Most of the same agents from the first season are back with the notable exception of Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke). Lamb still oversees the rejected agents who are sent to his post as a punishment when they underperform dramatically. While most of the agents at Slough House are better than their reputations may let on, this season allows many of them to shine in their areas of expertise. River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), assigned after a public debacle embarrassed the agency, continues to search for a way to restore his reputation and get back into the good graces of Deputy Director Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas).
This season, based on the second novel in Mick Herron’s Slow Dogs series Dead Lions, opens with an older man following someone he recognizes through the streets and buses of London. When the man dies, Jackson Lamb personally investigates when he realizes he shares a connection with the deceased. It quickly becomes apparent that long-rumored sleeper agents connected to the former Soviet Union may be more than just a story. River, after learning his grandfather (Jonathan Pryce) also knew the dead man, goes into the field to try and figure out why these mysterious agents are suddenly popping up decades later. At the same time, Slough House agents Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) and Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns) are requisitioned by James “Spider” Webb (Freddie Fox) for an unrelated assignment which may be connected to Lamb and Cartwright’s investigation.
Like season one, this second story arc is spread over six episodes. By adapting the entirety of a single novel into a single season, Slow Horses keeps each episode taught and consistent with the narrative split amongst several characters. The primary focus is kept on River Cartwright and Jackson Lamb who are easily the most interesting characters, but there is a lot of time spent with the supporting players this season. While Roddy (Christopher Chung) gets a fair amount of time opposite new Slough House recruits Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan), the pairing of Min and Louisa gets the most attention. We also get a lot of development for Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) whose history with Lamb continues to unfold piece by piece over the season. Still, the highlight of this series remains Gary Oldman who makes Lamb likable because of how unlikeable he is. Whether it is spewing a brilliant insult or eating in the most disgusting manner possible, Oldman imbues Lamb with a particular set of skills that makes him a truly talented spy and detective underneath a gruff outer layer.
Slow Horses series creator Will Smith (no, not the slapper) shares scripting duties this season along with Morwenna Banks, Mark Denton, and Jonny Stockwood, all of whom worked on the first series as well. Each writer takes two episodes which keep the tone and style consistent with series one and gives this season the distinct flow of a standalone story that builds over what came before it. Yes, this season is a continuation of the first but it feels like a true sequel rather than a second chapter. Jeremy Lovering handles directing all six episodes and makes this season a propulsive thriller with moving parts that the audience must keep a running tally of in order to try and figure out what is going on. Slow Horses feels like an extended movie this time around even more than in the first series because Lovering drops us right into the story without any build-up and keeps the tension at maximum for all six hour-long episodes.
With two more seasons already greenlit by Apple, the story of Jackson Lamb and Slough House will have at least a pair of subsequent mysteries to solve. With new characters introduced and the existing cast given more to do, this series has so much potential to become one of the best spy series of all time. Gary Oldman has stated that once Slow Horses finishes its run, he may step away from acting and I cannot think of a better role to sign off with. This is a decidedly British series that never feels foreign or hard to follow and keeps things interesting every step of the way. There are elements of a workplace comedy, an espionage drama, and enough action to satiate even the most jaded viewer. Slow Horses is a solid addition to Apple’s growing library of marquee programming and I enjoyed this season even more than the first.
Season two of Slow Horses premieres on December 2nd on AppleTV+.