Season 5, as with previous seasons — and as in Mick Herron’s novels — starts with a bang. A shooting, in fact. A brazen and deadly mass shooting. Yet this atrocity doesn’t unfold in London’s crowded streets, rather in the quieter, suburban sprawl of Abbotsfield in Derbyshire, southeast of Liverpool. A lone gunman opens fire until, in classic spy-story symmetry, he too is shot down.

 

Welcome back to the cheery world of Slow Horses, where the body count always outpaces the tea breaks.

 

With that kick, Slow Horses resumes its trademark gallop into overlapping disasters: Louisa is leaving, the London mayoral debate is in full swing, Jackson Lamb remains grumpy (and gloriously gassy). And in the most improbable plot twist yet, Roddy Ho appears to have a girlfriend! Ho is also apparently the target of a hit, which feels like Christmas come early for his colleagues. Never a dull day in Slough House, unless you count the paperwork.

 

Adapted from the must-read Slough House series, season 5 covers London Rules, which might be the only rules Lamb (Gary Oldman in an Emmy-worthy blend of brilliance and indigestion) actually abides: cover your arse first, last, and always. When Roddy (Christopher Chung) winds up in someone’s crosshairs, Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), still mourning Marcus, steps up. River (Jack Lowden) tries to channel James Bond, though his best achievement remains getting his hair to stay in place. Catherine (Saskia Reeves) is perpetually tired of everyone’s nonsense, while Lamb only gets involved because cynicism is cheaper than therapy.

 

Series head Will Smith (the British one, not the Oscar-slapper) writes an able adaptation with Saul Metzstein directing. They’ve sanded down a few edges for Apple TV+, but the tone still reeks of Shirley’s spilled whisky and Jackson’s secondhand smoke. Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar) has had it with the Horses. River acknowledges his rut, while seeking to amplify his friendship with Lousia. Coe (Tom Brooke) only has one line — but a lot more happens with his character later on in the season. 

 

Five seasons on, the series runs like a thoroughbred that’s been well-fed and slightly drunk. The mix of sardonic humor, bursts of violence, and pointed political jabs remains intact. Herron’s London Rules skewered Brexit; here, the adaptation veers more toward a Trumpian metaphor, with a right-wing talking head challenging the non-white incumbent in the London mayoral race (Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed). All the relevant social issues make their usual suspects line-up appearance. 

 

What makes Slow Horses irresistible isn’t that they’re losers; it’s that they’re all brilliant spies saddled with tragic flaws, appalling coping mechanisms, and clumsy means of execution (again, look out for that upcoming scene with Coe). They stumble, bluff, and occasionally bludgeon their way through missions not because they’re incompetent, but because they’re painfully human. That’s what makes them magnetic and, more importantly for this show, eminently watchable. 

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With 007 still MIA, Slow Horses isn’t the consolation prize. This is the only spy show worth a damn.