User reviews

Gary Oldman plays the quintessential crusty old curmudgeon, an MI5 spy left over from the Cold War (and ostracised to Slough House), still parrying at shadows, and seeing real threats before anyone else.

This is stylised Cold War spy craft in a modern setting - and it's a very satisfying watch. Another well-realised show that creates its immediate world with details of environment, character (and subterfuge) - the indispensable building blocks of good story telling.

If you're just coming upon this show now that season 2 is released you should do yourself a favour and binge season 1 first - it's a good yarn and will offer a depth of character and situation that will add to your enjoyment

Season 2 appears to have lifted the game in terms of production design and cinematography - it's really paid off and elevated the show above the usual weekly episodic grind TV.

Highly recommended - Oldman and Kristin Scott-Thomas are terrific, as are Jack Lowden and Saskia Reeves.

Slow Horses is a pretty good spy thriller that's definitely worth watching. I never read the books so I didn't know much about it but the reviews have been great so I gave it a chance. Gary Oldman is as terrific as ever and leads a very talented cast. Oldman has been so great in so many movies/shows that it's hard to keep track but this is absolutely one of his best performances yet! I have to admit that the first 2 episodes started a little slow and it was hard to get into but by the end of episode 2 it really picks up and from there on out it will keep you entertained and guessing what's going to happen next! It's already been renewed for another 3 seasons (through season 4) which is pretty much unheard of so that right there should tell you how good this show is. If you're looking for a new show to watch and you're into spy thrillers then give this a try...you won't be disappointed!

I watched this because I'd been watching foreign series and was tired of subtitles. So glad I did!

Great cast of true characters - Gary Oldman - you can't go wrong with him. And same with all the rest. Finally a series that isn't polished and pretty, but it has a lot of grit and history.

Binged all of Season 1 in one evening. Am anxious for Season 2.

Something interesting to look forward to!!

Gary Oldman is brilliant, just brilliant. I've watched two episodes and I'm hooked. I love the story, the sets and setting, the acting is superb throughout. I will be watching the entire series more than once. It's the sort of Drama the UK was once famous for. A massive thumbs up to all involved.

Have now watched Season Two, it's still stunning, the best TV Drama I've seen in years and years. An absolute must watch and I hope they do the full Eight seasons (Based on the Novels)

I'm now watching Season Three...this is the best Television series I've ever seen. It's still above brilliant Three seasons in.

Just finished season Four and it's still incredible. This is the best thing on TV at the moment and has been since it started.

I know they have just finished filming Season Five so here's to another year!

An absolute must watch.

Ignore most of the reviews here; either they didn't actually watch it long enough to understand what was going on or they were not bright enough.

If you liked the books you'll probably enjoy it even though the characters were not quite as I imagined them.

This is not a series to watch if you want a lot of action (The first episode may be misleading).

This is not a series to watch if you want a handsome hero to ride of into the sunset with the girl (swap genders to whatever rocks your boat).

This is a series to watch if you want geat characters and story.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy Slow Horses as much as I did. I was looking for a new show to watch to heard really good things about this show and you can't go wrong with Gary Oldman either. He's great in just about everything he's ever been in. It's no different here. He's the best thing about the show but not the only thing. The rest of the cast more than holds their own. I got so into this that I binged both seasons in just few days. It seems that most people enjoyed as much as I did because it's already been renewed for another two seasons! I can't wait to see more of this group of dysfunctional MI5 agents!

S. Best spy TV show in a long time, combined with the social commentary that doesn't beat you over the head. And with some very subtle but increasingly fun British humor. You have a winner. Glad they have these into green light already. Of course Gary Oldman is perfect, but no one else has missed a beat either. Budget is movie quality. Writing is top notch. It deserves a nine easily but this is what we can expect from anything that says anything about anything in our world today. I'm just thankful for a show that has an opinion without compromising story or making me feel like I'm an idiot if I disagree.

This is an unusual case where it is better than the book it was based on. The books are SLOW, often going over unnecessary details not relevant to the story. All that is gone in the translation to visual media. The story is tight and while some details have changed, its to better fit with the format.

Production values are top notch and Gary Oldman is great as Jackson Lamb. I don't know where some folks got that this is some woke drama, but the gender and racial makeup is on par with the original source material, so that guy who wrote the review needs to put his big boy pants on and join the real world.

Gary Oldman has already proved himself as a master in the political and espionage thriller sub-genres, with his powerful performance in the Oscar-winning "The Darkest Hour (2017)" as well as the more understated by equally effective "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)". He has portrayed gravitas, charisma, calm under pressure as well as steadfast efficiency very well on screen but Apple TV+'s new offering showcases an altogether different dimension to the British veteran, one laced with dry British wit and wry humour while never letting up on the espionage thrill elements.

We follow the story of MI5 agent "Jackson Lamb" (Oldman) who runs a sub-group within the intelligence agency dubbed the "Slow Horses" since it is primarily composed of disgraced, underperforming has-beens who no one else seems to want. Lamb seems perfectly happy running routine operations and surveillance gigs when his team gets inadvertently embroiled in a kidnapping of a Muslim youngster, presumably executed by right-wing fundamentalists.

Featuring Jonathan Pryce, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Saskia Reeves, Jack Lowden and a host of fine British actors, Slow Horses takes care to paint vivid character sketches of its motley crew of temperamental agents, all with a point to prove given their sordid pasts. Director James Hawes builds his narrative slowly but self-assuredly across six wholesome episodes, which are full of unexpected twists and turns as the stakes get progressively higher and the conspiracy, more convoluted as the team tracks down one lead after another.

Oldman is in blistering form as the caustic, trash-talking spymaster who seems to use mockery and disdain as weapons to get his team to perform and the supporting cast play an able foil to the old master, creating a vivid world that intrigues as well as makes you chuckle at the most unexpected junctures. The writing from Morwenna Banks; Will Smith; Jonny Stockwood; Mark Denton deserve special praise for striking the right balance between character development, suspense, unexpected twists and humour. Apple TV+ has another winner on its hands, with "Slow Horses", alongside "Severance" clearly emerging as one of the Best new series of 2022. Highly recommended and I cannot wait for Season 2!

If you wondered how Gary Oldman could be cast in a spy series after being Smiley once, this show answers the question: quite good. Surprisingly good. With the story material from reputable spy books author, the story as good as it could be. Cast and settings are top notch, jokes are authentic British ones, what else to ask for?

This review was written with only three episodes in, but if you like British spy stuff, this series should be on your watch list, period.

This has gotten better week after week. This review is after the third episode, and this is where i feel the pace picks up, and the early character establishment starts to pay off.

Gary Oldman is just in top form here as the disgraced? Spy seemingly on the outer edges of the security services, who taken in other compromised agents. Yet he clearly is not just counting down the days in a dead end post, as we see as the ride hots up.

Season 1 is 6 episodes and season 2 is the same, Gary Oldman said that they've already filmed season 2 "it's in the can". "Slow Horses" is the beginning of the the Mick Herron's "Slough House" novels. Sir Mick Jagger helped write the theme song which he sings.

It reminds me a lot of the John le Carre novels, le Carre (pen name of David Cornwell) actually worked for MI-5 and MI-6. MI-5 (the Security Service) is a domestic spy agency, but they have no police powers like America's FBI. This series is about MI-5 like the older TV series "Spooks". MI-6 (the Secret Intelligence Service) is foreign intelligence which was the subject of le Carre's novels about George Smiley.

Two of le Carre's novels were made into TV series, the first "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" the 1979 TV series was about a mole in MI-6, it's a classic that starred Sir Alec Guinness. The 2011 movie of the same name starring Gary Oldman is good, but the TV series has more depth. It introduced us to "Moscow Rules" (not the same definition as this series) and "outstations" around London like Slough House in this series. "Smiley's People" a TV series also starring Sir Alec Guinness is also a classic.

Writers of novels and screenplays take artistic license and I doubt the real MI-5 looks like this shoot'em up series. They are spies in the shadows, operations performed by the "dogs" would be performed by SO-15 the Counterterrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard). I read a lot of British news and I've never heard a counterterrorism action referred to as an "MI-5 operation" or the Director General of MI-5 referred to in the media as "First Desk", bad writing,

Episode 6 didn't really tie everything together, it got the bums rush. Gary Oldman is great as Jackson Lamb, he wasn't really George Smiley as Alec Guinness had that sewed up. Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Kristin Scott Thomas and the rest of the cast are very good, mostly drama school trained. Hope they continue with the rest of the Slough House books, it's entertaining if not all that realistic.

Season 2 I enjoyed much more than the first season. Season 1 was mostly about Jackson Lamb verbally putting down staff at Slough House, it was one put down after another and it got boring. The second season shows MI-5 agents at Slough House using their spy skills but not really in a coordinated way.

Lamb is a brilliant field agent, he's not really a manager of people. David Cartwright is a natural trainer, instructing his grandson (River) and giving him background information like their conversations about Dickie Bough and "circadas" and conversations in the first season.

All the characters are flawed and it's not just at Slough House, from Tavener to Webb to Duffy they are also flawed at the Park. Herron and the screen writers aren't afraid of killing off characters which is good. The second season is funnier and gets out of London to the Cotswolds and eventually Kent. London and the locations in season 1 were cold and boring, packed with people but really very cold.

I'm looking forward to seasons 3 & 4 in 2023.

Yeah sure the first season was a bit of fun. But take out Oldman and you have nothing and even his shtick is getting old. These plots are absurd, plausibility is zero, this collection of misfits could never have gotten jobs as janitors at MI5. I really don't get what all the great reviews are for. Wife says the books "are much better." Well I would sure hope so since this inane drivel can't get much worse. And for GOD SAKE will someone count the number of bullets in a clip? One season three people with handguns defend against an entire army/SWAT team - the next season one guy with a handgun takes out a fully armed "dogs" unit in an armored Range Rover. This garbage is NOT a great spy genre.

In my mind Jackson Lamb was Timothy Spall and Katherine Standish was Olivia Coleman and I think they'd have nailed it.

That said the casting is spot on, everyone is great. Also there should be a massive shout out to the location scouts, Slough House is exactly as I imagined it.

The mood, intrigue and pace are as good as Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy.

I have loved the books so much and am so happy that this has not had the over the top Hollywood treatment that these things often do. It's kept the grime and the humour that have made the books so enjoyable.

I'm episode four in and can't stop..

I give it a 10 for Gary oldham alone. He is so freaking brilliant if you don't watch the show just for that alone you're missing out. This guy is the definition of what every good actor should be. I am too naïve in this craft to even speak about it but he is freaking brilliant. Yes this is Tinker tailor soldier spy meets 21 Jump Street And sometimes it has its hiccups but they are minor and the show carrie's on logically. The plot is well thought out and the dialogue well written. The cast is very good and you'll be constantly wondering what's happening next thinking that it's over only to be reprised again. Perhaps similar in vain to the old series 24 but again or British and updated. Disappointed at season one is over already.

My Review - Slow Horses My Rating- 9/10

Every large Government Department has its filing room or mail room that bosses can shove sideways the employees they consider unsatisfactory or require demotion to be exiled if they are deemed useless in their current role.

This great spy romp is about the equivalent last frontier for failed MI5 spy agents who for one reason or another botch up their mission.

This last outpost for failed British Intelligence Agents is headed by Jackson Lamb and brilliantly cast with Gary Oldman as the washed up seedy and incredibly belligerent boss . His surname is no indication of his personality I would think more of a drunken sloth than a lamb would suit his sarcastic but witty curmudgeonly personality.

Along comes River Cartwright also beautifully cast with Jack Lowden who after a very shady frame up is despatched to Jackson Lamb's team of "slow horses" by his shrewish MI5 boss Diana Tavener ( Kristin Scott Thomas) .

I always expect a quality production when Kristin Scott Thomas is in the cast and her duplicitous duet in this series with Gary Oldman is one of the the delights of this series for me.

New recruit River Cartwright is not content and frankly pissed off with the menial and demeaning tasks that his new boss Jackson Lamb assigns him and the rest of the slow horse team . Their working days are spent with menial tasks like the analysis of stinking rubbish collating parking fines or transcribing mobile phone conversations.

Against his bosses strict instructions of staying in the office and virtually doing nothing all day under the radar of the MI5 boss River Cartwright secretly joins in the MI5 surveillance hunt to save a young man threatened with beheading after being kidnapped by a terrorist cell.

The series weaves an intricate web with surprising and dramatic outcomes for all the characters with a mix of some delicious black humour.

There are many other delightful performances in Slow Horses including Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish the world weary PA to Jackson Lamb and Sophie Okonedo the big boss of MI5 and the only person that can strike fear into the steely demeanour of Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas ) The other Slow Horses are all great characters in fact the whole ensemble cast help make this series enjoyable viewing one and the good news is series 2 was filmed at the same time and I hear Apple TV will screen it very soon.

The trio of Directors James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering and Saul Metzstein plus Will Smith and his team of 4 script writers have seamlessly and beautifully adapted the 2010 novel by Mick Herron no wonder this series already has been renewed for a third and fourth season.

I have seen the first two episodes, and was disappointed only by the fact there will be only six, and then another six. Cast is fantastic, and though the dialog requires higher volume for these American ears, it is well written. I usually wouldn't watch the screen version of a book I might like to read, but I wanted to see this as soon as it came out, and didn't know if the books. I'll definitely read them later though. The theme song. As soon as I heard it, I thought, "Surely they didn't get Mick Jagger"?! But it is, and the song is cool, with relevant lyrics and thematic elements of the score too. I see several reviews complaining about a 'leftist' bent to this one, but all I see is art imitating life with some of the plot lines. I recommend this one, unless you don't like elevated espionage fare. It's good, real good based on the first two hours.

This is sooooo good.

Everything about this show is exceptionally good.

It's even a pleasure to watch the main titles, and listen to Mick Jagger's haunting interpretation of the title song "Strange Game".

Gary Oldman is at his peak in this part. He's perfect. And the rest of the cast delivers top-notch performances all-round. Even the bunch of idiot right-wing extremists are exceptionally good.

And the script... it's the meat and bones of all this. Properly structured, and well furnished in every way.

This is surely the most entertaining series I have ever seen in 50 years... after Monty Python's Flying Circus.

I din't know quite what to expect because I have read all of the Slough House books by Mick Herron. I was astounded & pleasantly surprised how faithful this is to the books including the characters. Gary Oldman is the perfect Jackson Lamb. Bravo!

This series got off to a high-adrenaline start with a chase for a suicide bomber in the first few minutes. After that, things slowed down quite a bit. But by the end of the first episode, the premise was fairly well laid out, and most of the key characters were sketched in.

I might be inclined to consider this an average British thriller series were it not for the presence of two big guns - Kristin Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman. That alone would be enough for me to give the show a chance. I'm going to watch a few more episodes before making up my mind on this one - but I am giving it a chance.

Wow, this was more like racing horses. First episode was really slow and boring, till things started rolling, and it was more like a non stop. Gary Oldman was simply brilliant, he did a fantastic job leading a secret operation while being damn funny.

Good cast and performance from all actors, given the fact, they are not that famous. Loved each character, great plot, all the twist and turns till the last minute. This was a really good crime suspense thriller and can't wait for season two. Also , loved the fact that it was 6 episodes.

This was the 3rd good tv show done by Apple, and again, can't wait for season 2.

I was late arriving to this very off-beat series (this month!) and it took me a couple of episodes to get the rhythms, but once in, I binge-watched to the end of Season 3.

Gary Oldman (Jackson Lamb) steals every scene he's in and the entire series. If Mick Herron, who wrote the book upon which this series is based, didn't have Oldman in mind, you'd never know it.

Reportedly, showrunner Will Smith did have Jack Lowden in mind to play 'River Cartwright' and too right he was. Lowden is pitch perfect as the very complicated character he inhabits.

Kristin Scott Thomas (Diana Taverner), Samuel West (Peter Judd), and Sophie Okonedo (Ingrid Tearney) play characters we have seen many times before, but they play them very well.

Along for the ride is Jonathan Pryce (David Cartwright) but they don't give him enough to do. I would involve him more.

The final two episodes of Season 3 devolved into French farce and frustrating stupidity and thickness, otherwise, my rating might have been an 8. But I look forward to Season 4, which I read will debut in late Fall.

When I was a student I used to hate the far right and thought communism and the installed Karl Marx was cool. Then I forgot all about it until C19 and the CCP agenda kicked in, and along with it a host of tell a vision series promoting far left and damming the far right. Long story short, this kind of entertainment is a form of MK ultra; seeping into people's consciousness through the back door, creating the kind of 'woke' mentality that got us into trouble in the first place. It's kinda predictable. Also, why do all cut out racist's have bitter working class accents when most if not all are minted masons. We know it's all inverted though right!? Truly, although Oldman (who is owned) owns this; it presents a patronising tone that assumes people believe whatever they are told - one word and your a racist! Unfortunately, we are so easy to manipulate, we are driving ourselves to our own destruction.

EDIT: I couldn't take any more of this wokist agenda crap after the second episode. Can't anyone write anything half decent anymore?

Brilliant writing. Brilliant acting. Some stalwarts like Kristin and Jonathan and of course the ever brilliant Gary Oldman - probably the best actor of his generation. Or many generations! I've watched plenty of police and/or spy dramas and I don't think any have come close to this.

I've not read the book, but maybe k should. One thing is for sure, the lead actors are simply outstanding. Am loving the writing without which, actors can't do the job they do.

Oldman is irrepressible as ever. This chameleon of an actor once again shows us how very good he is. His display of unassuming intelligence is remarkable. I had thought I'd seen him do his best work in other films etc., but just wow. Love him.