There’s only so much television that any human being can watch, especially ones like myself who have failed to discover the joy of Red Bull and who occasionally do get enough relief from migraine headaches to have something resembling a normal sleep pattern. Last night was not one of those nights. And with nothing of immediate release on my radar I was in a rare position to actually seek out something that I had been, well, nagged to watch for quite a while.
I’ve been aware of SLOW HORSES, an Apple TV import from across the Pond that has somehow managed to find its way into a sixth season over the course of a little more than four years. That’s practically a broadcast reality TV schedule, so I’ve seen the trailers and I’ve seen the promotions that stars Gary Oldman and Kristen Scott Thomas have dedicated to it. I’m more aware of how many award nominations it has contributed to the Apple team I know and admire that actually care about such things. I’m especially aware of its relentlessly positive reviews by both critics and viewers and waaaaay too aware of the outright reverence that the Britophile duo of Brotherly Love natives Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan bestow upon season after season while they reign the level of gushing praise on it that are typically reserved for anything John Landgraf decides is worthy of airing on FX. Maybe that triggered me?
And British crime dramas to me tend to be dense, dragging and harrumphing–not exactly a recipe that I find enticing. I never did get into MI-5, for example, and I was outright floored by how banal LAW AND ORDER: UK turned out to be. When I stumbled upon this cautionary note authored by THE TAB’s Claudia Cox when the current season dropped a month ago my eagerness level dropped me below my necessary threshold of urgency:
Slow Horses is back for a sixth season… but the show’s creator isn’t. Will Smith (the English comedian, not *that* Will Smith) was the showrunner, executive producer and a lead writer for the first five seasons. Here’s why Will Smith left Slow Horses ahead of season six (and the show may feel a bit different as a result)… The Apple TV show only began in April 2022, but it’s already on season six. Stranger Things could never! This intense pace led to Will Smith’s departure.
“It wasn’t a decision. It was a practical acceptance of reality,” he told The Wrap. Will Smith continued: “As the deadlines for season six approached, it was clear I was never going to be able to get the scripts done, because it’s kind of a juggling act, working on this show. When we were doing the writers’ room for season five, it was at the same time we were editing season three and [shooting] season four…“It was with great sadness on both sides, but I sadly couldn’t keep going.”
When the creative vision of a show that in all fairness has a relatively small but cultlike fan base decides he’s moving on, my experience is that the end product is living on legacy. But then I remembered the each of its seasons is a mere six hour-ish episodes and even by the strict standards of “prestige” British TV that’s practically the same timetable as a standard linear British show usually followed in their less volumatic system. So cry me a river, Will, but maybe it was a you problem?
Hence I dove in, further buoyed by the fact that only the first five episodes of the current season have dropped because Apple has wisely chosen to release them weekly. And all I can say is–how wrong I was to resist it in the first place.
For one thing, its protoganists are a quirky cadre…ROTTEN TOMATOES describes them as (a) dysfunctional team of MI5 agents and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb, (who) navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces. For those of a certain generation, it’s like THE A-TEAM crossed with the Sweathogs of WELCOME BACK, KOTTER. Moreover, their banter is distinctly drawn from the inspirations of British comedy, which I adore. In her review from last month EMPIRE’s Leila Latif echoed my sentiment with the benefit of prior exposure:
The magic of Slow Horses has always been contained in its ability to switch, sometimes moment to moment, between brutal thrills and gleeful mockery. Oldman and Lowden continue to demonstrate why this has become one of television’s most reliably entertaining shows, equally adept at landing the punches and the punchlines. Even as this season puts its battered ensemble through the wringer, it never loses the grubby, abrasive humour that makes spending time in Slough House such a pleasure.
As it turns out, per the INDEPENDENT’s Nick Hilton, I seemed to have picked the perfect time to have my own first exposure:
There’s a lot going on in this season of Slow Horses, which is adapted from two novels: Joe Country (from which they draw the main “kill list” plot) and Slough House, which has meatier geopolitical themes for Taverner to deal with. The narrative also reunites River Cartwright (Bond contender Jack Lowden), who is grieving the death of his grandfather, with Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke), who is resurrected and drawn into the intrigue (this isn’t a spoiler: her return has been heavily teased in the promotional material). They bumble flirtatiously away from the pursuing contract killers, while Standish is paired again, to comedic effect, with Joanna Scanlon’s fastidious Moira. After six seasons, Slow Horses can be forgiven for re-running its greatest hits. After all, much of the show’s appeal still rests upon Gary Oldman’s willingness to play Lamb as a greasy savant, utterly incapable of character growth or development.
The juxtapositions of humour (spelling intentional) and tension are riveting. Oldman, Lowden and Cooke are complex antiheroes with both noble intentions and deep flaws that left me wanting to know more about what made them what they are. And knowing there’s pre-existing and well-receieved IP out there already that has assured that there will be both a seventh and eighth seasons–under the auspices of new director Adam Randall whose vision is slated to continue to be tapped into–makes me all the more comfortable that at least in this case it’s not too late to join the party and see what all of the hubbub that I’ve previously eschewed is all about.
But I’ll admit I did wind up bleary-eyed from the effort to make it through these five hours, so I’m not sure I can devote quite as much time and attention to all of the first five seasons that are waiting for my discovery on the platform before the season finale drops on Wednesday. I’m sure gonna try to make a significant dent, though. We know slow and steady wins the race.
Until next time…