Recommendation: Slow Horses, Seasons 1-4

Adapted from Mick Herron’s prolific Slough House series of spy novels, and headlined by the legendary Gary Oldman and the inimitable Kristin Scott Thomas, Slow Horses follows the exploits of disgraced MI5 agents who’ve been relegated to Slough House, a bureaucratic purgatory for the fabled intelligence agency’s burn-outs, cast-offs, dunce-caps, and fuck-ups. The premise is as absurd as it is funny, and Slow Horses delivers on multiple fronts: the writing is taut, the acting is superb, the production is top-notch, and the overall package perfectly encapsulates the vibe of these bleak, trying, incredibly stupid times.

What I loved: Each season is just six episodes long, which keeps the action focused and the pacing tight. The razor-sharp writing melds classic spy tropes with blistering social satire to deliver surprising laughs as well. For example, throughout the series agents in the field face literal life-or-death consequences while their superiors back at headquarters contend with administrative cock-ups, petty office politics, HR violations, and an untold number of scandals requiring an increasingly contrived and convoluted number of cover-ups.

Slow Horse’s heart and soul, however, emanates from the ragtag crew of misfits populating Slough House’s dank, drab offices. From the anti-social hacker, to the otherwise competent agents beset by drug and gambling issues, to the prodigal turned fallen son, the ensemble cast is easy to root for and hard to love. Each thoughtfully crafted character is comprised of a complex, contradictory stew: endearing yet infuriating, brave yet stupid, brilliant yet cowardly. Nowhere are these contrasts drawn clearer than in Slough House’s slovenly, flatulent, and fiercely loyal leader, Jackson Lamb (Oldman), MI5’s ruthless, opportunistic, and ultimately pragmatic operations chief, Diana Taverner (Thomas), and the contentious yet collaborative interplay between them. Picture a truly nihilistic James Bond — played by Pigpen — butting heads with an “optics” obsessed Q — played by Martha Stewart — and you’re in the right ballpark.

What I didn’t: My main quibble with this series is the plotting can be, in both a literal and figurative sense, forgettable. Consistent with the conventions of the spy genre, characters make cryptic choices, seemingly random people do seemingly random things, and scenes and settings shift on a dime. All the while some mega-crisis is percolating in the background, but the show’s protagonists — and you the viewer — remain in the dark because vital information has been strategically withheld by the writers. Each season, at a certain point, I stopped caring about the plot altogether. In fact, while reviewing episode recaps to write this review I frequently had zero recollection of what had transpired on the show.

I suggest: Subtitles. Slow Horse’s incomprehensible accents and indecipherable slang are so overwhelmingly British you won’t understand a goddamned thing without closed captioning. This rant from the late, great Dennis Farina is apropos.

Final verdict: I quite enjoy this show and recommend binge-watching all four seasons over the holidays.

Where to watch: Apple TV+.