Entertainment
Apple TV’s ‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 Is Even Twistier and More Unpredictable Than Ever
Streaming television has been facing a bit of an uphill battle in recent years when it comes to a consistent release strategy. Some of the most significant delays have been a consequence of unforeseen factors — the COVID-19 pandemic, the SAG-AFTRA strike — while others are a result of the more extensive post-production and VFX work required to deliver a stunning finished product onscreen. HBO’s medical drama The Pitt has recently been making headlines for the creative team’s commitment to delivering a new season every year like clockwork, but it’s not the only show that sits in stark contrast to the bulk of prestige TV as far as its release schedule is concerned.
Comparing The Pitt to a show like Slow Horses may be like comparing apples to oranges, especially since every season of the Apple TV spy thriller only clocks in at six episodes next to The Pitt‘s 15, but Slow Horses has followed its own impressively consistent filming schedule since its initial premiere in 2022. Making two seasons back-to-back — with the show’s writers working on scripts for the upcoming season while the current crop of episodes is being filmed — has allowed Apple TV to release five installments adapted from author Mick Herron‘s novels over three years. It’s a strategy that’s bound to pay off when Slow Horses‘ sixth season finally releases next week, building to more than one twisty surprise that will no doubt have viewers grateful they won’t have to wait long for the already confirmed Season 7.
What Is ‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 About?
It’s another seemingly ordinary week at Slough House — except for the fact that the agents haven’t yet been paid. What starts as a concern floated to their astute yet flatulent leader, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), quickly leads to the realization that the Slow Horses haven’t gotten their paychecks because they’ve been deleted from MI5’s internal records. Newly promoted First Desk Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) claims to know nothing of the incident, but Lamb, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), and the rest of the Slow Horses become increasingly convinced there’s more going on that’s frustratingly above their pay grade. That’s not the only inconvenience the team has to deal with, and it doesn’t take long for Lamb to learn that other past members of Slough House are starting to turn up dead.
Every event appears to be a tragic accident, but not all the evidence left behind truly adds up. As the body count continues to rise, courtesy of a pair of mysterious assassins (Andor‘s Kyle Soller and The Witcher‘s MyAnna Buring), the question becomes: who’s trying to take down the Slow Horses for good, and why? This new threat lurking in the shadows brings several of Lamb’s former “joes” back into the fold for their own protection, including Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), who’s none too happy to return to the fray despite reuniting with her old Slough House colleagues, and Sidonie “Sid” Baker (Olivia Cooke), whose reappearance after being publicly declared dead back in Season 1 upends the story in more ways than one.
They’re not the only familiar faces who pop back up; it’s been a full season since River’s dear old dad, brutal mercenary Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), cut a deal with MI5 to walk free, but now he’s returned with particularly nefarious intentions. Meanwhile, inside MI5, Taverner faces both increased scrutiny around her decision-making as First Desk and the parties she’s inadvertently gotten the agency into bed with — including the eternally slimy Peter Judd (Samuel West), who seeks to undermine her authority at every turn, and Damien Cantor (Peter Lloyd), who runs a radical news organization and has every intention of publicly pulling back the curtain on MI5’s covert activities overseas.
‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 Is a Great Blend of Old and New Mysteries
Season 6 admittedly represents a shift for Slow Horses in more than one sense. Not only has Gaby Chiappe (The Level) taken over as head writer from original showrunner Will Smith, but this season is also the first to adapt two of Herron’s books, Joe Country and Slough House, rather than simply one. It’s a combination that ultimately makes sense, given that Season 6 feels like the most serialized installment of Slow Horses so far, one that is inextricably connected to some of the show’s biggest moments to date. While that means viewers will definitely have to play catch-up on previous seasons rather than trying to jump in from a fresh starting point, it’s a narrative choice that rewards the fans who have been devoted to the series since the very beginning.
Season 6’s decision to include both old and new storylines — and the unexpected connective tissue between them — also allows the characters we’ve been following to develop in welcome ways. In the wake of a very personal loss, River is more unmoored than he’s ever been, but the return of more than one significant figure from his past forces him to confront feelings he’s kept buried. Lowden is as terrific as ever to watch, deftly navigating the character’s more emotional moments as well as the occasional opportunity for comedy and cementing River Cartwright as one of his best-ever roles. His chemistry with Cooke also remains as delightful as it was back in the first season, and the two slide back into their characters’ old rapport without missing a beat.
In fact, Season 6’s resurrection of past fan-favorites is one of the reasons it’s both thrilling and surprisingly comforting to watch. Despite the overall premise putting our beloved Slow Horses in increased danger, there’s safety in numbers, and forcing all of them into close proximity allows for entertaining pairings that maintain the show’s pitch-perfect blend of comedy and drama. On the heels of their relatively disastrous team-up last season, River and the eternally taciturn J.K. Coe (Tom Brooke) are partnered up to investigate the truth once again, while Louisa and Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) have some unresolved tension that needs to be addressed. Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), on the other hand, is both in the ideal position to thoroughly irritate the current object of his affection, Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley), and in the less-than-ideal position of looking after Reece Nesmith (Lenny Rush), an obstinate teen who finds himself needing Slough House’s protection, too. When the characters all descend on quite possibly the last place you’d expect them to, the results are as expectedly hilarious as they are full of shocking surprises, with every moment anchored by the characters we’ve come to know and love over the past five seasons.
‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 Takes the Show’s Biggest Swings Yet
Given that certain plot details, like familiar faces, a rising body count, and intensifying threats, have already been revealed, the possibilities of what Slow Horses Season 6 could be keeping closer to the vest were rendered even more compelling. Some of the show’s longest-kept secrets are finally brought to light, not just for the audience, but for the characters themselves; Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) is forced to reckon with a professional revelation that leaves her quietly struggling with her sobriety in the background of even more intense developments, and Sid’s original alliance with Taverner now sits on a much shakier foundation than it did before. Oh, and if you thought River’s relationship with Harkness would become any less complicated now that their blood ties have been revealed, think again. That unpredictability doesn’t just follow a handful of characters; it looms over every single potential twist across the six episodes provided for review.
Season 6 ultimately represents the biggest turning point for Apple TV’s longest-running spy thriller, not because of its seamless pairing of past and present, but because of what it intriguingly sets up for Slow Horses‘ next chapter. Gone is the easily resolved mystery with every lingering question irrefutably answered; in its place is a deceptively quiet sequence that culminates in a way that almost no one will see coming. What it signals for the series moving forward is a much more interesting prospect, one that doesn’t necessarily set up a definitive ending just yet but certainly promises a different future than what viewers are used to. The confirmation of Season 7 will definitely be reassuring by the time the end credits roll on the finale, but Season 6 is the firmest evidence that Slow Horses is no longer planning to rest on its laurels.
Slow Horses Season 6 premieres September 16 on Apple TV.
- Release Date
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April 1, 2022
- Network
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Apple TV+
- Showrunner
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Douglas Urbanski
- Directors
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Adam Randall, James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering, Saul Metzstein
- Writers
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Mark Denton, Jonny Stockwood
- Old and new mysteries combine in a deftly crafted story.
- Returning faces, like Sid, Louisa, and Harkness, give the season even more weight.
- Kyle Soller and MyAnna Buring are chilling as the mysterious assassins targeting Slough House.
- The season wraps up in a fashion that no viewer will see coming.
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