TV Review: Slow Horses Season Three

Slow Horses is an excellent example of why Netflix is so shortsighted. It started on AppleTV+ a while ago, and it made a bit of a splash, but not really that much. It was a good show, and I enjoyed it a lot, but it wasn’t a show that was getting much in the way of buzz. It’s right in line with a number of other Netflix shows that have come out over the last while. Lockwood & Co and 1899 leap to mind. Both of them were great shows, but didn’t immediately have everyone chattering about them like Wednesday or one of the other insta-hits on Netflix. And so Netflix canceled them.

Apple didn’t cancel Slow Horses. They stuck with it, and now that we’re three seasons in, the show has really come into its own. This last season was a complete blast from start to finish. It demanded to be watched as soon as I’d started it, and it didn’t let up. Better yet, it got to the end and left me wanting more. 6 episodes long allows it to be snappy and ditch any bloat.

If you don’t know what the show’s about, it’s Gary Oldman playing an old spy who’s sort of shambled off the stage to be left alone, tasked with keeping track of the “Slow Horses,” a group of rejects from MI5. Not quite bad enough to fire, but not good enough to be wanted near anything important. But Oldman, had he wanted to be, could have been the head of MI5 himself. He just had become so disillusioned and jaded that he wanted no part of it.

With that premise, you’ve got some great spy thrillers that branch off from it. A solid supporting cast, and season three was easily my favorite of the three so far, which means it’s only gathering steam. It’s been renewed through season 5 now, and it’s no wonder why. Suddenly I’m hearing more and more people chatter about it, and I think Apple has a bona fide hit on its hands.

Not all shows immediately catch fire. That doesn’t mean they should be cancelled. That just means they need time to hit their stride. Netflix is making me very leery of starting anything they produce, because I’ve now been burned too often by them pulling the rug out from under me.

Bottom line is that if you’re looking for a great spy series, you owe it to yourself to catch Slow Horses. I gave this season a 9.5/10.