Slow Horses season 4 is proving to be another hit for Apple TV Plus, debuting to a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score with 12 reviews. This follows the success of "Pachinko" season 2, which also debuted with a perfect score, though it has since dropped to 98%. The show follows a team of MI5 agents, and its cast includes Jack Lowden, Gary Oldman, Jonathan Pryce, Kristin Scott Thomas, Hugo Weaving, and Rosalind Eleazar.
The new season of the show is adapted from Mick Herron's novel Spook Street, the fourth installment in the Slough House series. It sees the UK's threat level at critical following an attempted terror attack on a shopping mall.
Our own Slow Horses season 4 review is a healthy four stars, with our reviewer writing: "The most personal season of Slow Horses yet raises the stakes like never before, with Jack Lowden and Jonathan Pryce taking the spotlight in style. It’s just a shame the rest of our beloved band of rejects get somewhat lost in the mix."
At the time of writing, nine "Slow Horses" season 4 episodes have been aggregated by Rotten Tomatoes. Admittedly, that's not a huge sample size, but all nine critics have great things to say about the show's new chapter; here's just a small sample of what's been said so far.
Writing for FandomWire, Sean Boelman rated the series 9/10 and labeled it 'firmly the best of the show yet, boasting the most exciting and complex story we've seen so far.' He also says that the series finale is 'still as epic as one could hope, perhaps even more so than those of the past seasons'.
Empire's James Dyer gave "Slow Horses" season 4 a four-star rating and praised it as 'darkly funny and tighter than the buttons on [Jackson] Lamb's sauce-stained shirt', adding: "this is yet another outstanding season for Apple's brilliantly unconventional spy series".
In her four-star review for Total Film, Emily Murray called it 'another charming and compelling season', and packed in praise for bringing us a more personal storyline involving River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and his grandfather, David (Jonathan Pryce)... even if that meant she was a little disappointed the rest of the Slough House got a little lost in the background.
Similarly, Paste writer Kaitlin Thomas highlighted the addition of several new characters and the decision to spin a more personal story, writing: "Slow Horses" has not only turned in another thrilling season full of excitement and intrigue but an emotionally affecting one, too”.
Finally, CBR's Howard Waldstein labeled the series 'utterly delicious', offering more praise to the finale, for Gary Oldman's 'consistently fantastic performance' as Slough House head, Jackson Lamb, Jonathan Pryce, and to Hugo Weaving, for his turn as the mysterious newcomer, Frank Harkness: 'At once off-puttingly casual and deeply methodical, Weaving is reason alone to watch the latest season', Waldstein writes.
What is Slow Horses About?
The show is set in the world of British intelligence, and follows the members of Slough House, a team of MI5 agents who have been relegated to a kind of professional purgatory. Led by the gruff and brilliant Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), the agents are tasked with handling the cases that other agencies deem too risky or too dangerous.
Each season of Slow Horses focuses on a new case and introduces new characters, and that's certainly the case this time around as we head into season 4. Not only will this season introduce new members of Slough House, such as Tom Brooke's JK Coe and Moira Tregorian, but it will also see the introduction of Frank Harkness, as played by Lord of the Rings and The Matrix star Hugo Weaving.
Hugo Weaving Joins the Cast as Frank Harkness
Weaving plays new character Frank Harkness in season 4 of the Apple TV+ spy series. Weaving spoke with RadioTimes.com and other press about Frank, and revealed that he is "in one way", a "classic villain". However, he added: "But I don't ever think of people in that way. Some characters I’ve played are absolute classic villains, but Frank's a human being. He's very grey. Should we say he's dark grey, he's slate grey? He's not white, he's not black, but he's slate grey, I think."
He continued: "He's a piece of work. He's highly trained, highly evolved in one way in his thinking, but he's a renegade, he's out there, and he is completely unsentimental.
He's ruthless, but he's not without charm. And I'd say in this season, we see quite a lot of urbanity. He's quite an urbane character, but you feel that he's got a lethality, a physicality and a lethality to him as well.
His potential threat is always there. So he’s a significant threat, I think. He reveals the threat, but he doesn't play his hand, he conceals his hand a lot. And he's a slow burn, the character’s a very slow burn throughout this particular season. But if you know the books, you know that Frank's got a bit of a life beyond this book."
Slow Horses: A Show That Will Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat
While we were all distracted by House Of The Dragon, another show was quietly taking up the early-season Game Of Thrones mantle of killing off major characters in shocking ways. That’s Apple TV+’s spy thriller Slow Horses, which is gearing up to launch its fourth season next month. We won’t spoil any of those deaths here, but they’re so pervasive they’ve got even the cast hunting for leaks, as shown in an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip shared with The A.V. Club today.
"Yeah I think fans are gonna be really shocked… It was very sad… so gutted… what the f–," cast members Rosalind Eleazar, Jack Lowden, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, and Kadiff Kirwan exclaim at the beginning of the clip. It goes on to show the rest of the cast—including series lead Gary Oldman—are either scrambling to figure out if they’re the one on the chopping block or cruelly teasing fans that we’re about to lose a “fan favorite character.” As Lowden says at the end, “It’s every horse for themselves.”
What's Next for Slough House?
Adapted from the novel Spook Street, the fourth in Mick Herron’s Slough House series, Slow Horses season four will see our favorite rejected spies contend with a suicide bombing that "detonates personal secrets, rocking the already unstable foundations of Slough House."
Season 4 picks up with the Slough House team a member down, after Saskia Reeves's character Catherine Standish resigned at the end of season 3. However, Reeves has revealed that walk-out might not be particularly long lasting.
She said: "Her plans don't quite go in the direction that she thought they might, or her impact of walking out didn't quite have the weight that she thought it might.
I think there's a detail where Lamb won’t sign the resignation papers. Nothing happens with these people clearly and definitely, it always goes a little bit grey and wishy washy. So this decision to leave suddenly becomes all sort of murky, and it's not quite happening the way she was imagining it. That's all I could say at this point."
Gary Oldman's Stellar Performance as Jackson Lamb
Few stereotypes are more played-out than the curmudgeon with a heart of gold.
And Gary Oldman is far too skilled and seasoned an actor to fall into that trap. What Oldman gives us in the Apple TV+ spy drama “Slow Horses” — which begins its fourth season on Sept. 4 — is a subtler brand of misanthropy.
He plays Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, a kind of professional purgatory for British intelligence agents who have screwed up in some way and are hoping to get their careers back on track. To do that, they need to make a favorable impression on Lamb. He’s hard to impress.
Oldman’s commitment to the role is total. (He is nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of outstanding lead actor in a drama series.) Between the greasy, unwashed hair, the massive pot belly, and the grungy raincoat, the word “disheveled” does not begin to capture Lamb’s physical appearance. Perhaps the words Oscar-Madison-meets-Jabba-the-Hutt come close. Then there are the epic bursts of flatulence and the bad breath. After one of the agents in Slough House complains about his breath, Lamb retorts that he brushes his teeth twice a month — as if that’s a rebuttal. In a scene where he eats Chinese food, you might well want to avert your eyes — though that won’t save you from the sound.
When Lamb issues a directive to the operatives, or is even just making conversation within the cluttered confines of Slough House, it is invariably wrapped within an elaborate insult. When he takes an action on their behalf, a tactical reason for that action can often be discerned, so Lamb can’t be accused of empathy.
Suspected of empathy, yes. But on balance Oldman constructs a rigorously unsentimental portrait. Lamb’s brilliance when it comes to spycraft is one of the few things absolutely clear about him.
Oldman told the Los Angeles Times recently that Lamb is “playing chess. That’s one of the great joys of playing him. That and the fact that he has no filter, that he’s utterly direct. The reason we enjoy it as an audience, and I enjoy playing it, is because we can’t be like that in our lives. And on top of it, we give you James Bond, but warts and all, with dirty laundry and stale toast.”
Watch Slow Horses Season 4 Now
"Slow Horses" season 4 gets a two-episode premiere on Apple TV Plus on Wednesday, September 4, with new episodes streaming weekly thereafter.
The Slow Horses Team is Back
Slow Horses has already been renewed for a fifth season, so if you loved the fourth, there's plenty more where that came from. It's set to be adapted from Herron's book London Rules, which is also the fifth installment in the series.
You can stream Slow Horses on Apple TV Plus now, or fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best shows on Apple TV Plus.
