Slow Horses has always been the weird black sheep of contemporary spy thrillers. It’s fitting, considering the Apple TV+ series is about a group of MI5 failures who are shuttled off to Slough House, the dusty, forgotten department overseen by Gary Oldman’s washed-up spy Jackson Lamb. And like the dejected agents of Slough House, Slow Horses is all about upending expectations. What appears to be a show about the tedium of being a pencil-pusher at an elite agency steadily transforms into an offbeat marriage of a high-stakes Mission: Impossible movie and an intricate John le Carré novel. It’s serious, it’s complex, but it’s also not above a good fart joke (something that happens more often than not, with Oldman’s frequently flatulent Jackson Lamb).
But Slow Horses is more than just the “Gary Oldman farts” show as it has been facetiously (though not inaccurately) dubbed. Its genius is in how it juggles its knotty, winding storylines with its comedic overtones, all the while upending our expectations for a spy show. Some seasons have done this better than others — the weakest seasons of Slow Horses amp up the comedy too high, or overcomplicate the twists to the point of confusion. But thankfully, the sixth and latest season manages this balance perfectly, delivering one of the show’s best outings yet.
