Chris Connor reviews the season 6 premiere of Slow Horses…
Slow Horses continues to build momentum with each passing season, earning Emmy wins for the show’s third, fourth and now fifth seasons. The departure of Showrunner Will Smith after Season 5 may have led to some questions about maintaining the show’s high quality level in season 6 and beyond. Season 6 is also the first to be based on multiple Mick Herron novels in the book series, Joe Country and Slough House. This in part is due to the nature of both stories. The question is whether the blend of disparate stories works or causes problems for the show?
We open with Struan Loy, a former Slow Horse now teaching children martial arts. He is approached by two mysterious people (one being Andor’s Kyle Soller). This ends up not being a social call and Struan’s return proves a brief one. It soon transpires that Slough House has been wiped from The Park database and hasn’t been paid. Never ones to take bad news lightly, this of course ruffles feathers, namely those of Jackson Lamb.
It’s a busy premiere introducing a whole host of plots and subplots and one of the most action packed openers in the show to date. Diana Taverner is now finally first desk and is doing business with Peter Judd and a host of associates. Has she got herself into something even she might not be able to get out of with ease? Taverner is also on hand to organise the funeral of one David Cartwright, something understandably taking up the time of young River (Jack Lowden).
While it is a mostly sombre opener, there are plenty of pearlers from Lamb, with River’s eulogy proving a lighter moment amidst a sad storyline. It wouldn’t be Slow Horses without some banter to break the tension, after all.
The wheels are in place for a range of storylines, but for the most part this is a solid reintroduction to the world of Slow Horses, bridging several disparate Herron storylines in a mostly seamless fashion. We may have seen the last of David Cartwright but other characters do make a return, with Frank Harkness teasing an antagonistic role in this season.
‘Circle of Life’ is a welcome return to the crew of Slough House, setting up what promises to be one of the most deadly instalments to date.
Chris Connor
