These Box Set deconstructions contain spoilers and should be read after you’ve watched the episode.
“Slow Horses” continues to romp through Season Three in delicious fashion and of course that makes me a little suspicious and prone to wonder if I’m just — ponderous gasp — allowing myself to be entertained.
See, that’s the torture of higher expectations at play — at least in my critic brain. And it took me a while after watching “Negotiating With Tigers” and, of course, quite enjoying it, to become aware that “Slow Horses” is killing it within the parameters of a very good show, a feat worth celebrating, and not every show needs to be held to higher, sometimes impossible standards, even if the show seems to surprisingly merit that, as this season is proving.
So I will just dispense with the nitpick-y parts upfront:
I liked the dupe that James “Spider” Webb (Freddie Fox) pulled on River (Jack Lowden), but at the same time dislike on some level that the show has “bad guys” that are too over the top, as Webb is such a dislikable prick that him dying in the episode felt more like good riddance than a shock. And both of the primary Dogs, Duffy (Chris Reilly) and Hobbs (Chris Coghill) are both mostly exaggerated goons rather than competent MI5 agents.
I think it’s something about balance and believability. Meaning, I’ll take pompous Peter Judd (Samuel West), the annoying Home Secretary running roughshod over the MI5 leaders (by running the tiger team trap) and dropping one-liners about the Prime Minister like, “Is it true he gets his wife to piss on him? Or is that a rumor I started — I forget.” Higher up, educated, pompous asses sounding dastardly and oh so English have surpassed cliche to just be narrative shorthand at this point.
But if you’re going to have Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) be so delightfully over the top, you can’t spread that to every character. It’s why I like when a character on “Slow Horses” is well defined but still unpredictable, like Rosalind Eleazar’s Louisa, (who always manages to get off a good line, such as when she was stuck waiting for River at a cafe and complained she was “bankrupting myself having four coffees watching these cocks swan in and out.”)
That I’ll take.
Webb’s antics, less so. And, if you’re wondering, I put Ho (Christopher Chung) right on the middle of the fence. This season is likely to tip it one way or the other.
And yet, despite all of that, “Slow Horses” is pure gold entertainment. This season’s twisty bits are so far pretty clever and I am wondering if this character Sean Donovan (Sope Dirisu), will turn out to be interesting in a I Want To Believe way regarding the “Grey Books” angle or remain what he is right now, which is kind of dull-with-potential mystery character who may or may not believe in conspiracies.
Oh. There I go again.
Playing chess with Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Ingrid Tearney (Sophie Okonedo) is a smart play that’s already paying off. I’m ready, as many of you are, to watch them interact more frequently and see what develops.
Less enthusiastically, I wonder if having the newish “team” of Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan) and Dander (Aimee Ffion-Edwards) have co-weaknesses (gambling, drugs) is just an effort to make things more interesting for two actors who seem capable of carrying more, or if the show will indeed bounce them with Lamb “firing” them.
Since this now seems the right time and place to convey minor complaints, I’ll reiterate that I would love to see “Slow Horses” prove to us that River is actually as good and as smart as everyone says, which would entail not duping him or making him look like a rube for, oh, probably another season and a half. Otherwise, we’re going to trust our eyes and go with the notion that he may hustle and tussle quite well but there’s a difference between smart and savvy.
But I’m just negotiating with tigers, here, right? I gleefully stuck my head into the mouth of this show and it’s probably, after three very strong episodes, impolite to complain that its breath is off a bit.
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Agree completely on Webb.
Ho is earned because he actually has earned skills and is consensus-acknowledged to be a supreme hacker / surveillance surveyor... it's his personality and interpersonal skills that scuttled his career.
Webb *knows* full well that he set up River and happy to be Taverner's puppet. Maybe that's the justification to the writers? He knows it's all unearned apart from doing what Taverner says but his superiority is fueled that way because he tells himself that despite his inferior skills, he played the politics game correctly?
Is anyone discussing Webb's boast to River that Taverner arranged the job for him? Which means, yes, once again she's rolling in filth and decided to set up River, again, plus whatever else she has going on in this power play. Choosing Webb is the right move as the entire service knows their history and provides her with cover (plus, he's an idiot; what kind of spy is fine with being used by Taverner when he already knows she's comfortable with the death in her wake?!) and Webb's natural cupidity takes care of the rest.
Whatever game she started, she clearly did not expect Standish to be held hostage outside of her control.
But of course the utter disaster of her S1 foulness didn't teach her any kind of moral lesson... just to work harder at mitigating risk. Yet, here she is, again. And Lamb's already shown us he has no problem devouring Turkey and contendedly using the gaseous by-products to effect the actions he so chooses.