Slow Horses Season 2 Review: The Atypical Spy-Story With Gary Oldman Convinces

Cast: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Olivia Cooke

Creator: Will Smith

Streaming Platform: Apple Tv+

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

It’s not long until Slow Horses Season 2 arrives on Apple TV+. The show that this year explored a reality that is not at all conventional for the spy-thriller will return in December 2022 Apple releases. The ramshackle team of the Marsh, led by an impatient Gary Oldman, had made a good impression on us in our first look of Slow Horses, but the elements in our possession had not provided us with a complete picture of the situation. We can now say with some solidity that the Cupertino streaming platform series is another worthy addition to a catalog that, barring a few slip-ups, manages to win in terms of quality in almost every context. A few weeks ago, Gary Oldman announced his intention to leave the acting world. In all likelihood, the Apple TV+ spy series Slow Horses, based on the gripping novels of Mick Herron, will therefore be the last time we see the award-winning British actor, former star of Dracula, Leon, The Fifth Element, The Dark Knight and Darkest Hour.

Even if we have at least two more cycles of episodes left before the final farewell, we can only feel a little nostalgia right now in the face of the return of Slow Horses. The anticipation for the second season of the Apple Plus series, however, was not limited only to the monumental performance of the British actor. After the success of the first season, the challenge for showrunner Will Smith – the namesake of the American actor! – consisted in maintaining a high level of storytelling, continuing to propose a realistic alternative to the exploits of James Bond, and reflecting the new trends of current events. At stake was the future of the spy thriller genre and the legacy of two small-screen cornerstones Homeland and The Americans. Let’s find out how it went with our review of the second season of Slow Horses.

Slow Horses Season 2 Review: The Story Plot

The serial adaptation of Mick Herron’s novels, therefore, continues effortlessly: it is now the turn of the second novel in the series, Dead Lions, which however presents some variations compared to the transposition of the previous one. If the first season substantially distanced itself from the book only in the last episode, in the second the narrative framework differs more or less in the middle of the path and for two very specific reasons: first of all, it was necessary to give greater specific weight and room for maneuver to the “mind” of the Jackson Lamb group ( Gary Oldman ), who instead in the novel is more defiled: secondly, what happens in Herron’s story slowly turns into something enormous, larger than life, that it would have remained at least complex to think that it was solved only by Lamb’s agents. In this way, and it is a very rare case to occur, the adaptation turns out to be better than the original novel, or at least more consistent with the status and abilities of the characters.

An elderly Soho shopkeeper spots a man he thinks he recognizes outside his business, tails him, follows him to the station, and then suddenly dies of a heart attack on the seat of a bus after leaving a note on his cell phone. His name was Richard Bough, and he had once been a prominent British spy. For Regent’s Park and headmistress Taverner, the episode is “ exactly what it sounds like: the foretold death of an old drunkard ”. For the scruffy, dirty and arrogant Jackson Lamb, however, Bough was murdered, and behind the scenes, there are the infamous “Project Cicadas”, which the rest of the British intelligence has long since declassified to the rank of an urban legend.

According to some unconfirmed sources, some Soviet agents of the KGB were infiltrated into English society, and the sleeper cells survived even the fall of the wall: Alexander Popov, an elusive puppeteer with an unknown face, would have been pulling the strings. Meanwhile, Taverner’s young and presumptuous collaborator, James Webb, offers Min and Louisa a job: the two “nags” will have to deal with the security of a meeting between British intelligence and Arkady Pashkin, the right-hand man of the Russian oligarch in exile Ilya Nevsky. Last season’s hero, River Cartwright, on the other hand, hasn’t lost hope of escaping the despotism of Lamb and the House of the Marsh to become a real agent: his path, however, cannot go through job interviews, if no other reason because even in the private intelligence sector everyone knows the bad reputation of the “nags”. And so, the only hope will be to throw himself headlong on the trail of the Bough murder, in the hope of obtaining a serious assignment from Lamb…

Slow Horses Season 2 Review and Analysis

Celebrating Oldman’s superlative performance alone, however, would not do justice to the excellent choral performance of the Slow Horses cast which, in this second season, reaps the fruits of the introduction and construction work done last year and offers us increasingly dynamic lively and engaging. After the pleasant discovery of the first season, for Jack Lowden it is time for consecration: if his River lacks the charisma to establish himself as a successful spy, the same certainly cannot be said for his interpreter, who manages to effectively and engagingly bring to life a character as talented as he is insecure.

Equally iconic is Christopher Chung’s odious hacker Roddy Ho, who never misses an opportunity to be unpleasant and annoying to his companions, without forgetting the excellent chemistry of the duo formed by Rosalind Eleazar and Dustin Demri-Burns, who play the couple Min- Louise. Simply impeccable is the performance of Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays the icy and inscrutable Diana Taverner, and also the debut of new entries Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Kadiff Kirwan hit the mark from the very first episodes. The list could go on and should certainly also include the brief appearances of Jonathan Pryce as River’s mysterious and staid grandfather, but we limit ourselves here to ascertaining how the success of the new season is the result of phenomenal teamwork.

With its seasons articulated in just six episodes, Slow Horses gets straight to the point, without ever getting lost in unnecessary subplots. In this second cycle of episodes, which is inspired by the excellent novel Dead Lions by Mick Herron, the series is even more compelling and solid than last year: mystery is king, and the creative direction of Will Smith manages to always keep us in suspense, never letting our attention drop. The viewer is warned: here we are not playing with bombastic special effects, explosions and action scenes, as too often happen on the big screen, but with the profound realism and narrative tension of a story that makes the deepest realism its trademark factory. The stakes rise, and for an incredible coincidence of events (the novel dates back to 2013, and filming began in 2021) the news is incredibly close, since the threat comes from Russia, and the air is of a new cold war.

The narrator, however, is not “lucky”, but skilled: just as in the case of the extreme right-wing sovereign movements seen in the first season, the choice of antagonists reflects a meticulous study of the contemporary geopolitical scenario and ends up anticipating events, precisely as happened in Homeland, of which Slow Horses can fully claim to be the heir. Compared to its American predecessor, however, Slow Horses also boasts a much more sparkling verve, which it has in the British humor as one more weapon to keep viewers glued to the TV. Without fear of exaggerating, we can define Slow Horses as an instant classic of espionage: its second season doesn’t just keep its excellent promises but goes even further, confirming that by now, between serial language and that of great cinema, there is no longer any qualitative gap.

Slow Horses take their time to shift gears. The staid rhythm of the beginning immerses us mercilessly in the quagmire together with its exiles, introducing the various protagonists who, over the course of the season, will expose their past wounds and the reasons why they find themselves wallowing in the mud of British intelligence. The pace of the episodes then leaves room for a well-developed dramatic construct that weaves a constant vein of English humor into its warp which represents the stylistic hallmark of Slow Horses and declines with exquisite decadence and resignation in the character of Jackson Lamb, played by a Gary Oldman in splendid shape, who manages to decline every single nuance of his character with ease and charm, without ever clouding the spark of genius that still lies behind the idle and vicious Lamb mask, which will be instrumental in solving the case.

The screenplay by Will Smith (no, not that Will Smith) is solidly based on the novel of the same name by Mick Herron and follows the narrative tracks without any particular narrative inventions compared to the book, weaving backstory and revelations with punctuality. Unfortunately, some secondary storylines do not earn the desired attention, while trying to expand the development arc of the supporting characters. The direction of Slow Horses manages to harmoniously bind elements that, handled differently, would certainly have appeared oxymoronic, helping to outline a peculiar atmosphere that in the dark and humid tones of a twilight London fully reflects the drama of the main story, at the inside which a humor that can appear surreal at times but never out of context, winds its way without interruption.

Slow Horses Season 2 Review: The Last Words

Slow Horses Season 2 does not betray the expectations and offers us a compelling, expertly crafted and surprisingly current spy story, enriched by a thick cast and a monumental performance by the indestructible Gary Oldman. Slow Horses is a successful bet for Apple, which adds to its catalog a spy-story sui generis strong in a particular atmosphere that mixes drama with strong English humor, leveraging solid direction and excellent performances by a lead cast by a majestic Gary Oldman, who infuses the still very lively acumen for the investigation into the decadence of his character. A staid beginning and some not-exactly-brilliant secondary storylines are the prices to pay for a show that we recommend to fans of the genre and beyond.