Season 1

I’m always a little unsure of whether to review a series at the end of the first season if I know for sure there is more coming. But with shows where the second season hasn’t even premiered yet, I feel much more inclined if only because I’m not sure if I’ll get there. And given we don’t even know the release day of season 2 yet, I guess I’ll go ahead and review this new British spy thriller.

Slow Horses is a fresh spin on the British spy thriller primarily because it’s also a comedy. Or, rather, it’s funny. It’s not really a pure comedy in any sense, but more a conventional British spy thriller with comedy in it. And that feels pretty fresh to me, given how self serious most of these shows and movies normally are.

The comedy comes from the fact that the titular Slow Horses are banished spies, banished supposedly for their incompetence. And their boss, played as a relentless dick by Gary Oldman, is constantly belittling them even when they are not fucking up. But there is a fair amount of incompetence and so a fair amount of laughs.

The plot itself is reasonably compelling even if it feels as though it should be set in the US. (I know nothing of the real MI-5 but I know the FBI and US police and security agencies have done things that are at least a tiny bit on the spectrum towards what MI-5 gets up to here. Nothing remotely close to this but still in the general direction.) As it’s only six episodes there is plenty of plot for the runtime which is nice. And, as is often the case with novel adaptations, it never really goes off the rails like some spy TV show sure wont to do.

I have a few minor nitpicks which mostly pertain to the final episode. This show is set in nearly real time (except for the opening) and it’s just bizarre to me that there are supposed to be talk shows running live at 3 in the morning. (Maybe that’s actually a thing.) And the distances some people travel in the final episode don’t make a lot of sense if you think about it for a moment. There were a couple of other things that I’ve forgotten but they were minor.

On the whole, it’s a fun spin on the genre and works as a spy thriller while making you laugh. Given that the next season is also based on one of the novels, I look forward to the next season.

68 | Season 2 is confirmed. This is a very good show, especially its cast performances. Slow Horses tells about terrorism activity in kind of the lowest level of MI5 point of view. It has a good cast and plot materials. Things just happened so fast, we should pay attention to what happens in this series. Episode by episode Slow Horse gets better. There was a surprising scene that put this series in a different tone. But, sometimes Slow Horse is a bit dragged. It showed little piece by little piece about what was happening. There was an episode practically it just told the same plot as the previous episode. The story progression was only Lamb made a move against Lady Di and Curly's plot only continuity from the previous episode without something new to offer. In the fifth episode, this show made it clear that all of this chaos was part of the battle between Lady Di and Lamb. Slough House is fucked. Lady Di was a pain in the ass for Lamb.

The story was simple but because of how good the delivery is, it became engaging. All of the cast performances were good so it was still enjoyable to watch. Gary Oldman who played Jackson Lamb, an old and grumpy boss easily steals the show. Jackson Lamb should learn some manner. His behavior was so funny to watch and carried this show's quality. Jackson Lamb was not the only character who is interesting. Many one-liner jokes from a character like Min fit perfectly in this crime series. Almost all characters in Slough House are loveable. But their opponent or we could say their bosses are very bad people.

One of the bad people is Diana, her decision showed us how dirty MI5 has done its job. They fake all things to get leverage and when things or people harm their goals they will get rid of them. From top to bottom level, MI5 people who have much power are very professional in doing their job. If you think James Bond is a good guy who has done anything for Great Britain's interest, well you would think differently after watching Slow Horses. The people who maintain a national interest guarantee get their hands dirty while doing their job.

The real reason for the kidnapping was a bit shocking. It put Slough House in a more important role. Politics could get dirty easily, whoever is involved in it would do whatever they can to achieve their goal. For normal citizens that might be looks bad and not respect human rights. But if we see the bigger picture, one man's life could save a thousand others.

Let's talked about how right-wing nationalist radicals could become terrorists. Almost all kinds of people who have fanaticism with their beliefs, nationality, organization/community, or ideology could easily become irrational and harm other people who have a different perspective from them. Slow Horses tried to show us that. How they become a tool for the government to fulfilled their agenda. To makes things more complicated, even within the government organization or in this case MI5, there is a lot of backstabbing in there. People who have less power should clean up the shit that their bosses make. And sometimes they should pretend to become the shit.

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Rating: 67.95

Favorite Episodes

71.29: E4 I Visiting Hours
71.29: E3 I Bad Tradecraft
67.88: E2 I Work Drinks
66.54: E1 I Failure's Contagious
66.04: E6 I Follies

Favorite Characters

67.86: Jackson Lamb
63.00: Curly
62.50: Min Harper
57.50: Diana Taverner
55.00: River Cartwright