Slow Horses will premiere on April 1, 2022 with two episodes on Apple TV+, followed by a weekly episode every Friday.
Gary Oldman received an Oscar nomination for his role as the brilliant British intelligence officer George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré’s 2011 thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and for his role in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, a faithful adaptation of Mick Herron’s 2010 spy thriller of the same name feels like a direct extension of that performance. Oldman’s Jackson Lamb is a limp and bloated desk jockey who leads a team of MI5 rejects. But there are hints in his excellent portrayal of an abominable character that Lamb was once a master cold warrior and that he might be able to recall those abilities should he choose to do so.
But Slough House, the slang name for the seedy office where Lamb rules as a petty tyrant, is where spies with once-promising careers are relegated to after making embarrassing mistakes. Lamb’s newest protégé is River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), who looks like he’s been pulled from Central Casting for star spies when he appears in the opening night of Slow Horses’ two-episode premiere. River is on a mission to stop a terrorist that feels like a well-executed, albeit very traditional, thriller sequence, except he doesn’t catch the suicide bomber in the blink of an eye. When we see River again, he’s already spent eight months at Slough House, paying for his failures by doing the meanest, most disgusting work Lamb can find. Lamb hopes to spoil his employees’ spirits and make them quit the service altogether, and it’s thanks to both the makeup team and Lowden’s performance that time seems to have visibly aged the bright young actor.
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There’s a bit of the early episodes of Orange Is the New Black in Slow Horses, with flashbacks and whispered secrets that slowly reveal the misdeeds that have landed each member of the ensemble in their current purgatory. There’s Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns), who left a confidential CD on the train, and Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), a hot-blooded hacker desperate to know why he was sent into the Slough House doldrums. Lamb treats his entire office with the kind of caustic disdain mastered by Alan Rickman, but particular abuse goes to his personal assistant, Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), a recovering alcoholic traumatized by the discovery of her former boss’s body.
Her uselessness and despair are physically manifest in the dark and dingy Slough House compared to the smooth glass of MI5 HQ, where the majestic Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) commands agents who actually get things done. It’s easy to see why Lamb’s charges are trying to escape their particularly dark office comedy and find their way back to some gritty action real espionage.
When a British-Pakistani college student is kidnapped by white supremacists, River sees an opportunity to do good and regain MI5’s good graces. The first two episodes begin tantalizingly by building the pieces of a conspiracy, lightening the mood through the stupidity of their underdog heroes, who are either desperate to turn their work relationships into something more meaningful, or vent their resentment by Shoot barbs at their peers.
Herron’s 2010 novel was prescient as it looked beyond the heroic tales of thwarted Islamist terrorist threats that swept the genre in the wake of the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks. and the general feeling that Britain’s best days may already be over. That last sentiment is manifested in both Lamb’s frayed nature — even his socks have holes in them — and memories of River’s grandfather, David Cartwright, a legendary retired spy whose influence is both a benefit and a liability for the agent who strives is to follow in his footsteps.
There is a bit of similarity in the core messages of Slow Horses and Peacemaker.
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While the two shows are radically different sonically, there is some similarity in the core messages of Slow Horses and Peacemaker. At a time when institutions are difficult to like or trust, both shows instead put their faith in a group of misfits who might just be able to grow together and save the day. Like Oldman’s spicy version of Smiley hiding under Lamb’s ill-fitting clothes and greasy hair, the Slow Horses premiere suggests that greatness is where you least expect it.