Slow Horses Review

If you’re a fan of old-fashioned spy thrillers – especially if you love a good MI5/British Intelligence yarn – then have I got a show for you. The impressively plotted Slow Horses begins this Friday on AppleTV+ and, in addition to sporting a hell of a British cast (Kristen Scott Thomas, Gary Oldman, Jonathan Pryce), the series manages to provide enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout its tight six-episode run time.

Based on the novel of the same name from Mick Herron, the story follows young River Cartwright (a very good Jack Lowdon, who is often asked to be the straight man while playing against the delightfully scene-chewing Oldman), an agent who botches a training mission (whether through his own error or through the manipulation of those higher up is an open question throughout the season) and is reassigned from the big leagues to Slough House – the minor league outpost of MI5 where the service sends screw ups to waste away until they quit. Naturally, a case pops up – homegrown white nationalist terrorists who kidnap an English-Pakistani man and threaten to behead him on a live stream in 24-hours – that brings Cartwright and the rest of Slough House into the thick of things once more.

Now, the story isn’t all that remarkable. In fact, you’ve probably seen or read something like this countless times over the years. But what makes Slow Horses special – and worth your time – is the impeccably smart way in which the series is presented. The cast is uniformly excellent – from the big names who understand their assignments and execute them with aplomb, to the less famous (Antonio Aakeel as the kidnapped Hassan is particularly great, as is Olivia Cooke as Cartwright’s fellow Slough House agent, Sid, who does a hell of a lot with minimal screen time) – and the story is so cleanly plotted that you can’t help but want to find out what happens next.

The initial table setting in the first two episodes is a bit slow, but episode three kicks the story into high gear and it barrels through to a satisfying conclusion – one that, naturally, sets up the second season (which has already been filmed and will cover Herron’s second novel, “Dead Lions”). It does this all while managing to create layered characters where the series could easily just have opted for archetypes. In fact, in the early going, I was genuinely worried the show would squander some interesting performances by doing just that – but fear not, you get to know and understand these various individuals throughout the series. And you really feel for some of them by the series’ end – especially Hassan, who is given more to do than simply be the victim in search of a heroic rescue. There are some fun spy games (albeit all local – as MI5 is the British equivalent of the FBI, and not James Bond’s MI6), interesting political struggles, and some pretty intriguing looks at white nationalism within Britain (and how the domestic service has succeeded and failed to stamp it out – much like here in the States).

For fans of spy thrillers, this is definitely for you. And, if you’re like me and could take or leave a spy story, I think you’ll find a lot to like with Slow Horses. I didn’t expect to find myself as enthralled with the tale as I did, and I was very pleased with how well it told its tale and stuck the landing. If you’re looking for your next AppleTV+ series, this one is it.

Slow Horses premieres on Friday, April 1 on AppleTV+. All six episodes of the first season were provided for review. It will return for a second season.