Review of "Slow Horses" Season Three - Christine Scott Thomas Takes the Local Spotlight
"Slow Horses" is all about undercover glamour. After the fireworks of the previous season, we rejoin MI5's least essential members, all finding themselves in various forms of exhaustion. River (Jack Lowden), who truly cannot hold a secret, probably returned filled with paperwork-filled boxes when Standish (Saskia Reeves) can only stare and tell him to stop making fun. Shirley and Louisa (separately) are trying to go mad and make awkward connections with strangers; Ho and Marcus are attempting to come to them; and Christine Scott Thomas arrogantly drills, drooling over global peace lines in her own way: "Just direct me to the nearest exit."
Then there's Lamb (Gary Oldman), whom we revisit in the waiting room of a quaint private doctor, where he irritates the dozing people around him with his usual aura and Odor. This is the slow horse way: a protagonist who is a kebab lover, chain-smoking, seemingly a sloth in his job but actually competent. Lamb engages in mandatory medical examinations discussing his habits of drinking, smoking, and exercising with his doctor in a delightfully amusing exchange. "I'm a f***ing titan," declares Lamb.
In solving all these aimless secret agent problems, it doesn't take too much time for a romantic, dramatic, spy-worthy issue to arise and kickstart a long sequence of events, much like unravelling from the mysterious chase in Istanbul. If the first episode earns most of its mileage from the banter of the slow horses, then it works when one of them is kidnapped and the others must figure out what's happening and how to fix it together.
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There's a paradox here, a surprising twist about the terrifying world of secret agents. On one hand, Lamb says, "You're using them like paper condoms," when MI5 agents are granted entry into the official building as "the correct sexually active spies." But, in reality, the slow horses are all quite good, even river-like, floating gently amidst the manure, a lone diamond taken away from the plot in the second season. There are anonymous letters and secret meetings, and those red dots that make it clear that someone is trained with a sniper rifle.
Lamb, having been fingered by a stranger on the streets of London, will be less clear-cut, though he'll be just as sudden - if, like me, you assume that he's based on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy's cartoony Leamas (unless he isn't?). There are two big names, Oldman and Scott Thomas, both Oscar-winning draw, but they lead the cast in a way that gives the A-listers the same leadership as they do in a progressing TV show, which is to say, not much at all.
As always, the slow horse is a paradox. It's big, bold, and unnecessarily brazen. It sits within the tradition of a regular detective drama that loses its way after the first season. There are nameless letters and secret meetings and those red dots that make it clear someone has a sniper trained on them. Lamb, having been accosted by a stranger on the streets of London, will be less clear-cut, though just as sudden.
Still, it keeps it lively and fresh. It's fun and unapologetic, thrilling and attractive, and like any good entertainment, it's a circular, entertaining, difficult spy thriller.
There's a paradox here, a surprising twist about the terrifying world of secret agents. On one hand, Lamb says, "You're using them like paper condoms," when MI5 agents are granted entry into the official building as "the correct sexually active spies." But, in reality, the slow horses are all quite good, even river-like, floating gently amidst the manure, a lone diamond taken away from the plot in the second season. There are anonymous letters and secret meetings, and those red dots that make it clear that someone is trained with a sniper rifle.
Lamb, having been fingered by a stranger on the streets of London, will be less clear-cut, though he'll be just as sudden - if, like me, you assume that he's based on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy's cartoony Leamas (unless he isn't?). There are two big names, Oldman and Scott Thomas, both Oscar-winning draw, but they lead the cast in a way that gives the A-listers the same leadership as they do in a progressing TV show, which is to say, not much at all.
As always, the slow horse is a paradox. It's big, bold, and unnecessarily brazen. It sits within the tradition of a regular detective drama that loses its way after the first season. There are nameless letters and secret meetings and those red dots that make it clear someone has a sniper trained on them. Lamb, having been accosted by a stranger on the streets of London, will be less clear-cut, though just as sudden.
Still, it keeps it lively and fresh. It's fun and unapologetic, thrilling and attractive, and like any good entertainment, it's a circular, entertaining, difficult spy thriller.
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