Banished by their MI5 betters to the mildewing outpost of Slough House in London, the disgraced British intelligence agents of “Slow Horses” — a nickname that reflects their “put out to pasture” limbo — are back for a second season on Apple TV+.
With its dark sense of humor and propulsive pacing, the linchpin of the series is the head outcast himself, Jackson Lamb. The new season doesn’t bother with a preamble but dives headfirst into the story: An aging British spy from the Cold War era is found dead on a bus. Heart attack, says the official report. Lamb suspects murder.
Rumpled, smelly and greasy-haired as ever, Gary Oldman’s performance elevates Lamb’s rancid presentation to high art. He’s a man of contradiction: Dissolute but shrewd. Convinced that something’s afoot, he decides to do some digging of his own into that death on the bus, and ropes in a few of his underlings for the job. Lamb has a hunch there is a Russian sleeper agent or two in their midst who may be responsible.
