The Box Set: "Slow Horses: Season Three."
Deconstructing Ep. 1, "Strange Games" and Ep. 2, "Hard Lessons."
These Box Set deconstructions contain spoilers and should be read after you’ve watched the episode.
“Slow Horses” on AppleTV+ is one of those series where it starts off the first season and you know it’s good and you feel like it might be entertaining enough to get through, bumps and all, and then it grows up in front of your eyes as you watch and comes back with an even better, more compelling, more engaging Season Two.
Which, of course, leads us all — those of us hooked on “Slow Horses” ability to make a smart, snarky, action-filled hour look pretty damned easy — to eagerly await Season Three and snarf down the first two-episode drop from AppleTV+.
And you know what we got?
Rewarded.
Confirmed.
“Slow Horses” is now almost braggingly adept at creating tension, juggling multiple characters and even boxing itself into scenes it has no business believably getting out of and then does so not only successfully but entertainingly, with barely the whiff of an aftertaste of letting them get away with things because they’ve earned it.
Impressive, really.
Season Three kicked off with two cleverly urgent episodes that drew the viewer right back into the world — a light touch recap of S2 (which you should watch without worry) rolls into a credit sequence that reminds you of the seed S2 planted — anyone can go. If Season Three is telegraphing anything this early on it’s that the slow, flawed horses of Slough House could believably be killed off to further the series, whether you like said characters or are indifferent.
You could argue that last year it was a “minor” character that was offed in Min (Dustin Demri-Burns), but that also led to huge fallout — Louisa (the wonderful Rosalind Eleazar) taking a spiral (and perhaps making bad decisions?) while River (Jack Lowden) carries the burden of his second bout of failure.
Having not read the source material — Mick Herron’s successful spy books, this season being based on “Real Tigers” — helps in not know who is disposable or not in this pivotal season. But just that we get the sense they could kill off pretty much anyone but Gary Oldman is both impressive and convincing.
Ep. 1: “Strange Games.”
I very much liked the choice to kick things off this season with new characters (some who live longer than others) and the complexity of wondering how and why it circles back on the “Slow Horses” gang, first with Jackson Lamb (Oldman) being expertly followed and then with Standish (Saskia Reeves) being kidnapped, and then poor River being used as a puppet (at least so far).
It’s a little bit of a Season Three flex that “Slow Horses” can set the hook that easily and with panache (a lot of credit goes to director Saul Metzstein and of course writer Will Smith). There’s a steady hand guiding “Slow Horses,” earned with the believable pulse-pumping success of Season Two and affirmed in multiple scenes in these first two episodes.
An impressively subtle hurdle is leapt in the episode “Strange Games” — viewers are given a splashy new unfolding puzzle where the giddiness in looking forward to solving it is also tempered by a feeling that perhaps some somber changes or reckonings are upon the central cast. The foulness of Lamb’s life — the dirty hair, un-showered bod, world’s greasiest tan trench coat, a drinking problem, a terrible diet, etc., might really catch up to him and that he might, despite his obstreperous nature, be aware of that fact.
“Dodgy vindaloo and some steep steps should finish me off,” he tells his doctor. “Can’t think of a better way to go.” This after passing gas in the waiting room, being mistaken for a homeless person with an added complaint that “he’s making…odors.” And yet, we don’t truly believe that Lamb’s dismissiveness — so central to his character — is so convincing this time. Doubt is present — from Lamb. Perhaps mortality is a fear that got through?
Meanwhile one of the early twists — that one of the diamonds spilled out of the bag from last season’s bad guy as he was shot by Louisa, has gone missing — is speculatively solved by the fact that Louisa does in fact have it hidden in some ice cream in her freezer. Could it be that easy? And if so, why? Is it that Louisa thinks Min got screwed over by how his death was handled; how Slough House, the home for “losers” in MI5, will never get respect despite the hard work of its flawed force?
I’m looking forward to where that arc goes.
Elsewhere, River’s disillusionment in his plight is only potentially exceeded by that of Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), whose being downgraded and undercut for River’s mistakes last season by her boss, Ingrid Tearney (Sophie Okonedo). Toss in Standish being snatched and there’s some real doubt to everyone’s fate this season — which is, in case you need any reminding about quality television — a very good thing.
“Why would anyone want to to take (Standish)?” Louisa asks, legitimately. Lamb: “Maybe they’ve got a death wish?”
Oh, this is personal.
What worked best in the premiere episode was, well, pretty much everything. We get the changing mood of the Horses, we get some super complicated looking storyline puzzles (with Lamb already tapping pieces into place) and writer Will Smith and director Saul Metzstein confirm that our interest in following this show is a valid one.
Ep. 2, “Hard Lessons.”
The doling out of needed information about the main storyline continues and simultaneously gets more ambitious (also a very good thing). The first episode introduced a government employee/agent named Alison (Katherine Waterston) wanting sensitive files released to the public and her lover, Sean Donovan (Sope Dirisu) employed to stop her. He doesn’t, she dies and in a one-year leap-forward in the storytelling we come to find out Donovan might be ex-military and behind the kidnapping of Standish, which is clearly the plucking of a small fish to find a bigger one: (Lamb).
But we don’t ultimately know much about much here, do we? Two episodes leaves us very far from bigger reveals so the doling out of information and motives is murky (but the pacing of the story is brisk, tense and action -filled — and there’s even some comedy tossed in, as always).
Three things stood out in all of this smart fun — that Jackson Lamb remains much smarter and more capable than he lets on, that Diana Taverner has a plan and is not going down easily and the motivations of Louisa and the missing diamond are probably more complicated than we think — though it would be equally daring in a narrative way to just stick with what’s been suggested; that Louisa took the diamond, she’s a distracted, perhaps team-less player, and her motivations are personal.
“Slow Horses” is a series that proves that espionage series need not be too slow or cumbersome — though many good ones, including films, shine by being slow and serious, quiet and nuanced. If “Slow Horses” is pulling off this neat trick that Season Two so clearly established — that it’s intelligent and entertaining in equal measures — then there’s a lot of glorious watching ahead of us.
I’m definitely ready to see more of Lamb’s dirty-fingered raincoat for another season.
I’m REALLY glad we’re doing this show, I kinda tried it out one day and was immediately hooked...
This season starts off with a file, Slough House is bursting at the seams with files, and Taverner is now custodian to the “George and Ringo” Files in the bunker...
I guess they’re trying to tell us something...
Also the first two episodes are littered with overhead shots usually right before something bad happens...
Other thoughts:
Episode 1…
- Slow Horses is now 3 for 3 on season opening sequences…
- There’s no way they BOTH speak Turkish…
- The complete lack of security at that soccer stadium is both alarming and atrocious…
- The musical cue directly after “There will be always be a reckoning” was not exactly subtle…
- George and Ringo level files and parallel symmetry inside the bunker vault…
- POV Alert when naked finance douche was grabbing the ice cream with the diamond in it…
- Good to see Jackson does something approximating bathing from time to time…
- Louisa: “If he’s doing anything for himself, something’s up” that is the essence of this show right there…
Episode 2…
- The security at MI-6 headquarters seems to be only marginally better than the Turkish Soccer Stadium…
- Jackson “The fucking names why don’t the just go for rock hard cocks” curiously this phenomenon applies to MMA Gyms as well…
- In the 21st Century even the dogs ain’t taking on HR...
I suspect that I’ll have to rewatch several of these episodes before we get to the end of the season because I’ll have gotten lost with the story line. I’m also looking forward to Kristin Scott Thomas and Sophie Okonedo facing off.