Apple TV+
There is no show on television right now more confident than Slow Horses, and that confidence is not misplaced. The series carries itself with an impish, slicked-hair kind of swagger that would make it insufferable to bear were Slow Horses not able to back it up. But it can, and it does.
In its fourth season, Slow Horses sticks to the same proven formula as its first three, which is to say that it dedicates all of its six episodes to adapting another novel in author Mick Herron’s Slough House book series. Based on Herron’s Spook Street, the season follows Slough House head Jackson Lamb (a reliably magnificent Gary Oldman) and all of his fellow MI5 rejects as they get caught up in another conspiracy, this time involving the car bombing of a London shopping mall and a countryside murder that somehow connects to the shadowy past of River Cartwright’s (Jack Lowden) once-feared grandfather, David (Jonathan Pryce).
As is usually the case with Herron’s espionage plots, Slow Horses‘ latest conspiracy is one that spirals both outward and within. Its ramifications, however, prove to be far more wide-ranging and personally impactful for everyone from River and Jackson to the ever-resourceful MI5 higher-up, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), her new boss Claude Whelan (a gloriously wishy-washy James Callis), and returning Slough House rejects like Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan).
The show’s dialogue and comedy is as sharp-witted as ever. Generally speaking, Slow Horses doesn’t frequently venture into the same world of slapstick humor as most TV sitcoms, but there is still the spirit of a workplace comedy coursing through it. The series mines most of its humor out of the sarcastic barbs its low-level spies routinely throw at each other, and its characters are so vividly drawn that it’s just as much fun to watch Shirley and Marcus argue over the latter’s gambling addiction as it is seeing River narrowly escape yet another near-death encounter.
Slow Horses remains uninterested in sanding down the more embarrassing edges of its characters. Lowden’s River still isn’t as capable as he thinks he is, and that gives Slow Horses the space to not only trap him in more inescapable scenarios but also let him scrape by one via a motorized bicycle that barely drives faster than he runs.
In our increasingly diluted TV environment, the race for the top spot seems to be less and less of a concern these days. But if the title of “The Best Show on TV” still even exists or matters anymore, then Slow Horses is making a consistent and increasingly compelling case for it to hold that particular crown. It may be about the shabbiest of British spies, but there’s an effortlessness behind all of its latest season’s funniest and most thrilling moments that is exhilarating to experience. No other TV show on the air right now makes greatness look as easy, and in its newest season, Slow Horses has only brought itself closer to that rare place of excellence that separates truly can’t-miss television from, well, everything else.
Slow Horses season 4 premieres Wednesday, September 4, on Apple TV+. New episodes release weekly on Wednesdays.
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