Series 4 remembers that Slow Horses is a spy thriller and not an action show, very much to its benefit
“This could be a one-off.
‘Or the start of something’.”
The problem with setting the bar so very high for yourself is that you then have to try to continually meet it. Slow Horses came out of the blocks extremely hard, setting the standard for prestige TV among the proliferation of streaming services but its third series really fumbled the bag for me, devoting way too much of its limited time to action show shenanigans like a shootout that lasted more than one episode, rather than focusing on its USP of spy stuff.
Series 4 thankfully redresses that balance. Based on the novel Spook Street, part of the titular Mick Herron series, it starts off with two major big bangs that quickly set the new scene for us. Kristin Scott Thomas’ Diana Taverner is still somehow Second Desk, James Callis’ Claude Whelan now heading up MI5, Joanna Scanlan’s wonderfully hairstyled Moira Tregorian has replaced Catherine in the Slow Horses office and there’s a new horse in the shape of Tom Brooke’s moodily silent JK Coe.
A bomb going off in a shopping centre keeps MI5 busy, especially once it is discovered that the perpetrator has historical links to them. And a shotgun going off in River’s grandfather’s house keeps the team on their toes as once again [spoiler alert] Jack Lowden’s River hares off on his own trying to find out the truth about something or other. It’s a thrilling opening to the series and the pace never really lets up throughout these six episodes, thoroughly gripping me once again.
Even if I’m not convinced the Slough House team needs more new people adding to it, given how many characters get so little screen time, Scanlan and Brooke both give effective work here. It’s nice to see Naomi Wirthner’s Molly Doran get a little more time than usual, Jonathan Pryce’s David is distressingly good as dementia increasingly wracks his bright mind and Hugo Weaving’s Frank Harkness is a pleasingly complex antagonist with plenty of further potential it would seem.
