SLOW HORSES

GARY OLDMAN CREATES A CHARACTER TO STAND OUT AMONGST MI5 MISFITS

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The place where bad MI5 spies go in Britain is run by an abrasive older officer tasked with the worst sorts of black ops, with the worst sorts of arrangements.

Jackson Lamb, played by Gary Oldman, and his team of misfits at Slough House, still get the better of the master spies with the cozy downtown offices at The Park, though.

Slow Horses (SERIES 2022-2025) on Apple TV+ has run a fifth season with six episodes in each season that follow a singular narrative with a definitive end. The cliff hangers occur between episodes while each new season begins a new covert operation.

Kristin Scott Thomas plays the Deputy Director of MI5, Diana Taverner, who calls on Slough House only as a matter of last resort – almost as a double entendre knowing that if noone else can get the job done then the Slow Horses will, in a kind of messy, upside down way that noone really wants, but which also makes the story so entertaining.

Diana struggles to keep herself from telling everyone to ‘f..off’ as her ambition has her focused on being in charge of MI5 from the First Desk at The Park.

Lamb, and his operatives that include River Cartwright, played by Jack Lowden, Louisa Guy, played by Rosalind Eleazar, Shirley Dander, played by Aime-Ffion Edwards, and the obnoxious tech wizard, Roddy Ho played by Christopher Chung, sometimes manipulate The Park to get their own work done.

And Slough House occasionally comes under attack, such as when Roddy Ho’s girlfriend turns out to be a deeply embedded spy for a terrorist group.

Jonathan Pryce plays the grandfather to River Cartwright, David Cartwright. David is a retired senior MI5 officer whose past comes back to haunt him more than once, especially after developing dementia and his memory gets a bit foggy.

Covert operatives from the other side occasionally come forward with a score to settle for a hit on a comrade during the Cold War.

And the Slow Horses also become involved in upending domestic terror plots, with the tall vulnerable glass houses in London always in the background.

The first season introduces the idea behind the series, which is based on a series of novels, explaining how each member of Slough House got demoted. River got double crossed during a training exercise at a train station when he was still a recruit for MI5. Shirley slugged her handler, only getting kicked out when she hit him a second time and knocked him off his feet.

Oldman leads the series with his character hurling a lot of verbal abuse at his team, such as reminding them how useless they are and by not giving them anything interesting to do. River figures out the situation soon enough and tends to go off on his own, for better or worse, often jeopardizing his own personal safety. Lamb repeatedly reminds everyone why River acts just so, which is to be a hero.

Mick Jagger wrote and sang the catchy score for the series, “Strange Game”, which adds a lot of mischievous black humor driven suspense, especially in between action scenes.

Several different cast members get introduced into the series, which keeps the storyline fresh, but who subsequently also get knocked off as the plot twists and turns and the season comes to an end.

Lamb’s team is not immune to tragedy.

The series compels forward with a lot of character development, and then developing relationships between the spies, who almost begrudgingly work together, but are also not totally immune from getting to know each other on a personal level.

River has a close relationship with his grandfather, David, who mentors River a bit and then also becomes a source of information only available to him to solve an ongoing mystery.

Lamb is a bit more than cold and angry, and does not really have feelings for anyone, but he does work with them at the same time he pushes them away on a personal level.

Characters get used to wanting to quit, getting fired and then called back into service again, over and over again.

Lamb manages the assignments for the Slow Horses, while the office of Slough House is run by Catherine Standish, played by Saskia Reeves. Standish is in Slough House as a sober alcoholic.

The office manager protests a lot about not being a spy, but she ultimately does get caught up in what the Slow Horses are caught up in.

Each episode is entertaining enough on a stand alone basis. But the character development makes the next episode a compelling watch, with the need to find out what happens to the character, just as important as the need to find out what happens to the newest domestic terror plot.