Apple TV+’s Slow Horses (2022–) is the dry, mean, brilliantly written spy show that British TV does best. Gary Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, the slovenly, brilliant, casually cruel head of Slough House — MI5’s purgatory for failed agents.
Every season is a tight 6-episode novel adaptation (Mick Herron’s source material is excellent). The plotting is precise, the dialogue savage, the cynicism earned. Oldman is having more fun than he’s had in a decade — Lamb’s farts and verbal cruelty disguise a deeply moral operator.
Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner is the show’s other great pleasure. The supporting cast (Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung) is uniformly excellent.
If you missed it, start at Season 1. Each season is binge-able in a weekend.
