Apple TV's Spy Series Returning This Year Deserves Its 97% Rotten Tomatoes Score

Apple TV has mastered the art of a great first season — Pluribus, Shrinking, and Severance all had incredible first seasons — but the streamer hasn’t always been consistent in following up those promising debut seasons with a second, third, or fourth season. Severance season 2 wasn’t quite as mind-blowing as Severance season 1. Ted Lasso became a cloying melodrama with hour-long episodes as it went into seasons 2 and 3 and got much too hoity-toity about its own “importance.” Your Friends and Neighbors hit a sophomore slump in season 2, as it moved away from the comedic irony of the rich robbing the rich and just became another Succession-lite corporate drama.

But one of Apple’s flagship shows has quietly been carving out a near-flawless run for the past five seasons and counting. Based on the book series by Mick Herron, Slow Horses takes place at Slough House, an underground department at MI5 where disgraced agents who would be more expensive to fire are sent to do busywork. Gary Oldman leads a stellar ensemble cast as Jackson Lamb, the hilariously sardonic head of Slough House.

Slow Horses is not your average spy show; it’s the polar opposite of a James Bond movie. Whereas Bond movies usually begin with 007 saving the day on a dangerous mission, Slow Horses begins with hotshot young spy River Cartwright making a career-ending mistake that gets him sent to Lamb’s stable. From there, we follow River as he tries to claw his way back to the top, and do meaningful espionage within the limitations of his new department.

Since it premiered in 2022, Slow Horses has been one of the best shows on television. The writers have rarely made a misstep, and all five seasons have been really strong on the whole. And the show’s not done; it’s got a sixth and seventh season on the way.

Slow Horses Hasn't Had A Weak Season Yet

Each of Slow Horses’ five seasons has adapted a different novel from Herron’s series. The first season was, unsurprisingly, based on Slow Horses, then season 2 took inspiration from Dead Lions, season 3 was based on Real Tigers, season 4 borrowed from Spook Street, and the fifth and most recent season was adapted from London Rules. Season 6 will be based on Joe Country and Slough House, and season 7 will be based on Bad Actors.

So far, the series hasn’t had a weak season. Whereas other recent hit shows like Euphoria and The Boys have been wildly hit-and-miss, with some terrific seasons and some truly terrible seasons, Slow Horses can be counted on to deliver a great season of television every single year (which is becoming increasingly rare in the streaming age). Slow Horses was created by Will Smith — not the actor from Hitch; the satirist who wrote for Veep and The Thick of It — so the series has a great sense of humor. It’s as much a pitch-black comedy as it is a spy thriller, and Oldman’s sarcastic remarks are responsible for 90% of the laughs.

I was a latecomer to Slow Horses, so I binge-watched it to catch up, and the dry British humor, gripping, high-stakes plotlines, and breezy six-episode seasons have made it a real treat. The cast all give brilliant performances — Jack Lowden is perfect as the anti-Bond, and Olivia Cooke proves, in just a couple of episodes, that she could actually play Bond — that keep the show compelling, even when some of the twists get a little bit far-fetched or a certain storyline starts to drag.

Slow Horses is set to premiere its sixth season on Apple TV on September 16. So, it’s the perfect time to catch up on the last five seasons.

Slow Horses

Release Date April 1, 2022

Network Apple TV+

Showrunner Douglas Urbanski

Directors Adam Randall, James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering, Saul Metzstein

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  Jack Lowden

  River Cartwright