Slow Horses season 6 is bloody and brutal but missing some magic

Slow Horses, the stupendously well-reviewed show about a gang of loser spies, is back for its sixth season. It’s come around in the same stretch of time most streamers spend making a second.

This time, Slow Horses current and bygone are being picked off in a series of grim deaths, enacted by two unsmiling sociopaths (MyAnna Buring and Kyle Soller as superb Terminator types). It’s almost the perfect crime: targeting the only MI5 agents nobody at the Park will miss.

Except for Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb. They might be losers, but they’re his losers. 

Running concurrently to the Slough House hit job, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) is living out her Tracy Flick fantasy, having finally been bumped up to First Desk. Until she lands in boiling water, with a mammoth financial irregularity on the books that she can’t explain away.

This forces her to do an ill-advised TV interview on a right-wing mouthpiece station (what could be the inspiration?), run by a classically Bad Billionaire. As per, the season’s two strands coalesce, forcing Taverner to pay heed to the Slow Horses after all. 

But this season doesn’t quite click. Perhaps it’s a slight wobble in the dark after showrunner and The Thick of It scribe Will Smith departed. Or the teething problems of a sixth season, battling the warring impulses of reinvention and crowd-pleasing. Or the fact it’s two of Mick Herron’s books smushed together. 

I’m sure it isn’t helped by the return of Frank Harkness, played by Hugo Weaving, like a looming reminder of all the worst bits of season four (River’s Daddy Issues). Weaving is less turgid this time around and actually borders on charming, but throwing Frank and River at one another continues to accomplish nothing.

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The tone is surprisingly brutal. It isn’t just rando Slow Horses that meet their end. A couple of fan favourites shuffle off this mortal coil – one in horror, execution-style – and the response from their surviving colleagues is to avoid eye contact and try to forget about it as soon as they learn of it.

Compared to previous seasons, the one-liners and Lamb-isms aren’t up to scratch. There’s nothing on par with ‘Arsetime the Pope’ and many of the good quips were in the trailer. I found myself watching exchanges and waiting for a gag that never came. 

Mileage will vary on the jokes made at the expense of newcomer Lenny Rush, playing the bolshy son of one of the Dogs, who witnesses something incriminating. Rather distracting too is the copy-and-paste job done for his dialogue from what must have been Lamb’s off-cuts.

Speaking of things frittered away in the trailer, Olivia Cooke’s Sid Baker is back after a stint in a sanatorium. She’s one of the Slow Horses under attack and seeks out Jack Lowden’s River Cartwright for help… and maybe more?

I found myself more excited by the return of Rosalind Eleazar’s Louisa, who must be the only one around here capable of change. Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) jealously nips at her heels in a beat that is played maybe one time too many.

I’m banging on about the weak spots. By regular TV standards, this is still a very good batch of episodes. Lowden has some of the best still-suave comic timing going (please Amazon, cast him!) and sustains so many injuries to his hand I’m surprised it’s still there at the end.

Lamb remains rather grim to behold, but impossible to look away from. Saskia Reeves’ Standish is also first-rate this season, coming dangerously close to relapsing or murdering Moira Tregorian (Joanna Scanlon). I suspect one doesn’t help the other.

But Slow Horses has set itself an impeccable standard. This one was weaker and rather repetitive.

The worst offence is how the six-parter ends. For the first time, we’re left out in the cold on a great big bloody cliffhanger. Even if we all know how it probably pans out, it’s a cheap send-off.

The solace is that Apple TV makes the show at such a clip – filming on season eight is underway – that we won’t have to wait long to move past it.

Slow Horses season 6 debuts on Apple TV on Wednesday, September 16.