I adore Slow Horses. My enjoyment of the show is roughly equivalent to the filthiness of Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb. I get a kick out of Apple TV’s spy thriller the same way Lamb gets a kick out of making everyone around him squirm. It’s delightful.
Season 3 is no exception. There’s mystery, intrigue, more MI5 office politics mucking things up, and Lamb and his Slough House rejects cleaning up the mess made by the top brass. Hilarity is followed quickly by shocking deaths.
But there is one somewhat striking difference about this season than the previous two: This one feels more like an action movie than a John le Carré-inspired spy thriller. Nearly two full episodes are devoted to all-out, guns-blazing shoot-outs. Each of the first two seasons had moments of violence, but nothing even close to Season 3.
I’m not opposed to this sort of action. In some ways, it’s a nice change of pace. I’m happy that each season has been fairly unique. Season 1 dealt with the kidnapping of a British-Pakistani student, Hassan Ahmed, by far-right group Sons of Albion. Season 2 was quite a bit more complicated, packing an elaborate plot by Russian spies into the short six-episode season.
This was when I first thought to myself, “I think Slow Horses isn’t given quite enough time to stretch its narrative legs” or something along those lines. Season 2 was quite dense, with a bunch of moving pieces, and then it was over and I wanted more. And partly that’s because it was excellent and partly because it felt a bit rushed.
Season 3 feels even more rushed, though the plot is significantly less complex than Season 2’s. Even with a more straightforward plot, however, the season felt hurried, with a significant chunk of time devoted to gunfights and action. I don’t think there was too much of that stuff, mind you, I just think that the season overall could have used a couple more episodes to let the plot breathe.
Maybe that’s not possible. Maybe the show is better off avoiding filler. Maybe this critique is just me wishing for more of a good thing (which you can have too much of, by the way). But I can’t shake the feeling that just when things start getting good in Slow Horses, the season ends.
Don’t get me wrong, this is the right kind of problem to have for a TV show. Slow Horses avoids much of the nonsense that has afflicted so many other series in recent years.
It manages to have a diverse cast without flaunting that diversity. Its chief villain in Season 3 is a black woman. Men and women of all races are treated equally—some good, some bad, some smart, some not so smart—and given actual personalities. Nobody is just a “badass” and even the best, most capable characters have flaws (body odor, excessive flatulence and every bad habit in the book serve as both flaws and a brilliant cover for Lamb, but other characters are gamblers, drug addicts, overly rash, overly self-confident, etc.) It’s such a breath of fresh air!
This is, in many ways, a shining example of how to get diversity and inclusion right—mostly by doing it without making it a big deal—and why every show and movie ought to prioritize script over special effects. If only there were two more episodes per season, I’d have nothing to complain about!
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