‘It’s not the hope that kills you. It’s knowing it’s the hope that kills you, that kills you…’
Slow Horses has done what hardly any other show in modern times has managed. It’s started well and then actually sustained that quality over an extended run. It could easily have suffered the same fate as The Handmaid’s Tale or Killing Eve or Homeland, all shows that arrived with a bang before ending on a whimper. While season four saw a very slight dip in quality, season five has come roaring back as a fiery return to form…
Season five sees River (Jack Lowden) slowly unravelling following an unforgettable revelation at the end of the last season, Roddy (Christopher Chung) all loved up with an unlikely partner, Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) battling both drug addiction and PTSD and Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), leader of Slough House, farting, eating and swearing with the best of them. He remains one of television’s most compelling and genuinely hilarious characters.
What keeps Slow Horses captivating even after five seasons is both the ingenious concept and the relationships between the characters. While Lamb never changes, the people around him do, and it is this fascinating dichotomy, this sense of continuous conflict, that helps Will Smith’s show (not that one) retain its power. The action set pieces are as bombastic as ever, and while the villains in this season feel a little less defined and the plot a little more convoluted, if you turn your brain off and go along for the ride, there is still so much to enjoy about this show.
With season six due to drop in September of 2026, everything is in place for Slow Horses to continue to be one of the most consistent shows on TV right now.
