{"id":4123,"date":"2023-01-11T12:55:16","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T17:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/?p=4123"},"modified":"2023-01-11T12:55:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T17:55:25","slug":"review-slow-horses-seasons-1-2-streaming-on-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/review-slow-horses-seasons-1-2-streaming-on-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Slow Horses (Seasons 1 &2) streaming on Apple+"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4.5 out of 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Based on Mick Herron\u2019s \u201cSlough House\u201d book series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rated: TV-MA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starring: Gary Oldman (Jackson Lamb), Jack Lowden (River Cartwright), Kristen Scot Thomas (Second Desk Diana Taverner), Saskia Reeves (Catherine Standish) and an additional cast of delicious characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve heard that Mick Herron has been equated to a modern-day Ian Fleming, comparing the latter\u2019s James Bond books to the former\u2019s series of MI-5 misfits. If anything, the series is the antithesis of James Bond\u2014and the stories and characters are richer for the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Apple Plus series is a visual masterpiece and the pacing more than makes up for the books tendency to become bogged down in details that, in my not-so-humble-opinion aren\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of the first two seasons is named after the first two books in the series (Slow Horses<\/em> and Dead Lions<\/em>) and follows the disheveled, alcoholic, chain-smoking, and rather disgusting Jackson Lamb (Oldman) and his Slough House division of MI5 (The British Security Service) misfits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season One opens with a very action-oriented scene that sets the stage for the series. We are first introduced to an up-and-coming agent by the name of River Cartwright who\u2026makes a career altering mistake, landing him under the disapproving and abusive eye of Lamb. I would equate Lamb\u2019s character to that of Hugh Laurie\u2019s Gregory House character—but Lamb is worse\u2014way worse than House<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political intrigue descends upon Slough House as the team of MI5 misfits (this season rounded out by Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazer, Christopher Chung (who plays Roddy perfectly) and Dustin-Demri-Burns step up to solve a kidnapping case with political and international ramifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Second season finds the team again fighting the politics of the MI5 Regent Park HQ along with personal agendas that have dire consequences for some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The season long stories are tightly scripted. The Characters\u2014especial Oldman, Reeves and Lowden, are brought to life in a way better than I\u2019d imagined when reading the novels, the first time around. Gary Oldman sells Jackson Lamb. Even when the stories ebb a bit (as they do in both seasons occasionally), Oldman\u2019s performance is a delight to behold, and his delivery (and outrageous accent) made me laugh out loud more than once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few of the villains of the series are a bit over the top (Freddie Fox\u2019s James \u2018Spider\u2019 Webb for one). Samuel West as the conservative right-wing MP (and Home Secretary in season two) was brilliant in the first season, and a smarmy git in the second. I knocked off a half star for those quibbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is a reason that season\u2019s three and four have been green lit by Apple already. Overall Slow Horses<\/em> is a well written romp of a spy series. So, if you like your spy thrillers with a side of snark, and with twists that are surprising, I think you should give this one a go. I, for one, can\u2019t wait to see Gary Oldman run more rings around the intelligence establishment in future seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based on Mick Herron\u2019s \u201cSlough House\u201d book series. Rated: TV-MA Starring: Gary Oldman (Jackson Lamb), Jack Lowden (River Cartwright), Kristen Scot Thomas (Second Desk Diana Taverner), Saskia Reeves (Catherine Standish) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,16],"tags":[105,102,103,104],"class_list":["post-4123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-c40-myblog","tag-apple","tag-review","tag-slow-horses","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4126,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions\/4126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}