Slow Horses is an old-school British spy thriller done right
We spy with our little eyes this aces Apple TV Plus espionage drama starring Gary Oldman
Slow Horses doesn’t reinvent the spy thriller because the spy thriller doesn’t need reinventing. Based on author Mick Herron’s award-winning crime novels, Apple TV Plus’ no-nonsense espionage drama—streaming two episodes on April 1, then weekly after that—gets back to basics with a six-episode kidnapping conspiracy that’s played straight and never lets up.
Instead of distracting with high-tech gadgets, CGI-laden chase sequences, and/or inexplicable cocktail parties, Slow Horses relies on tried-and-true tension-builders to get the job done. If you want an excellent slow-burn surveillance mystery delivered point-blank, this is it. It’s produced well, written better, and manages to maintain that one-two punch throughout.
Gary Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, a cynical intelligence agent tasked with overseeing the ragtag crew of Slough House, an administrative purgatory where MI5 rejects are left to languish. Enter River Cartwright, played by an exquisitely cast Jack Lowden, who’s stuck there after botching a critical training mission that left dozens “dead” and hundreds more “injured.” This surprisingly public debacle is made only more embarrassing by the shadow of River’s retired spy grandfather David Cartwright (a sparingly used Jonathan Pryce) whose legendary track record precedes even his grandson’s famed failure.
Eight months into River’s so-called Slough House sentence, the discouraged protagonist is surrounded by fellow “Slow Horses”—the series’ title doubles as a derogatory nickname—and hating it. We’re haphazardly introduced to agents Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke), Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns), Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), and Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) in an understated premiere episode that could just as well set up a workplace comedy.