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Slow Horses Gets Personal in Season 4, Revealing the Spy Drama’s Beating Heart

Slow Horses Gets Personal in Season 4, Revealing the Spy Drama’s Beating Heart

Blame it on the end of Peak TV. Consider it an unexpected upshot of last summer’s dual strikes that ultimately meant even fewer shows to watch. Or better yet, call it what it probably is: the success that sometimes comes from being one of television’s best shows. However you want to explain it, Slow Horses has finally broken through in a meaningful way, and for those of us who’ve been championing the Apple TV+ drama since its debut in spring 2022, the recognition it’s received this past year has been immensely gratifying, especially when you consider the number of worthy shows that never get their due.

After three seasons as one of TV’s best and most entertaining dramas, the espionage series based on Mick Herron’s Slough House novels garnered nine Emmy nominations, including a bid for Best Drama Series and acting nods for stars Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden. It’s well deserved, and the fact that Emmy voters saw fit to recognize the series about a disgraced group of MI5 agents in such a complete way—it also nabbed nominations in writing and directing—means we can finally move past the platitudes about how the series is the best show you’re not watching and focus on what makes it so.

The fourth season adapts Spook Street, the fourth novel in Herron’s series about Slough House, the dumping ground of MI5 that is home to the service’s biggest screw-ups. At the center of the story are River Cartwright (Lowden) and his grandfather, David (Jonathan Pryce), who was once a high-ranking member of the intelligence service but is now living with dementia, which causes him to appear increasingly paranoid. When a car bomb goes off in a crowded shopping center, it naturally puts everyone on edge, but things get worse after it’s discovered the perpetrator was using an MI5-created identity. It eventually comes out that David once crossed paths with the group responsible for the attack, and his ability to identify its leader (played by a deliciously evil Hugo Weaving) puts a target on his back and River in the emotional crosshairs as he tries to protect his grandfather. However, because of David’s failing memory and disoriented state, River is largely on his own. Which is to say, it’s only a matter of time before Jackson Lamb’s (Oldman) slow horses find themselves embroiled in yet another operation far beyond their pay grade and with the potential for far-reaching consequences. 

By now, we’ve seen enough to know what to expect from each new season of Slow Horses. In addition to tense standoffs and the occasional action set piece, the spy series never passes up an opportunity to remind us of the corruption that taints MI5, and that’s present yet again as Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), the service’s formidable deputy director general, tries to contain the news about the bomber’s fake identity while also trying to prevent future attacks. This time around, some character additions introduce new layers to the proceedings and provide more people for Taverner to dress down and try to manipulate: Claude Whelan (James Callis) takes over for Tearney (Sophie Okonedo) as First Desk, despite being out of his depth, and Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley) acts as Duffy’s (Chris Reilly) unflappable replacement for the head of MI5’s internal security.

This is not the first time the personal and professional have been entwined, of course, but it is the first time the emotional stakes extend beyond the members of Slough House. Meaning, this isn’t a romance between Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar) and Min (Dustin Demri-Burns). This isn’t the friendship between Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan) that provides the series with much of its banter. This isn’t even Lamb rescuing Standish (Saskia Reeves) from her kidnappers. This is about family, secrets, and the lengths one will go to protect both. Now, you can argue family has always been at the heart of the series—David, who raised River, has been circling the outer edges of the story from the start, while Lamb has shown time and again that he shows up for his ragtag band of misfits even as he pretends to care little for them—but there is a beating heart this season that hasn’t always been present. 

One of the joys of Slow Horses—and one of the reasons it connects so well with viewers—is its ability to balance an inherently dramatic narrative with a wry sense of humor. That still exists, but Season 4 is more personal, and, thus, feels more consequential than its predecessors. It would be disingenuous to pretend the show hasn’t always existed in the extremes or been afraid to put its heroes in the middle of it (after all, we’ve seen multiple characters killed off), but this season feels different because the threat of personal tragedy hangs over the proceedings from the start. Even if River is able to save David from his would-be killers, he can’t stop a disease as cruel as dementia from taking the elder Cartwright. So while there are still moments of levity, and although Roddy (Christopher Chung) remains a source of comedic relief (the revelation that he, the master of technology, has been scammed by a bot is a nice bit of comeuppance for the arrogant young man), the dive into River and David’s lives is sobering, and reminds us of what’s truly at stake. That these grounded stakes sometimes take priority over abstract ideas of national security is not a flaw so much as a feature as the show takes the next step in its evolution. 

This ties into the larger theme of how important but also dangerous personal connections are to members of MI5. Being in the intelligence service can take a significant emotional, mental, and physical toll on these operatives. In previous seasons, we saw how Min’s murder affected Louisa. In Season 3, we saw the lengths someone would go to avenge the death of their significant other at the hands of the service. This time, we see how David’s past decisions echo through time. We see how the possibility of losing his father figure affects River. We also see how Standish continues to be drawn back into the fray despite resigning, and we see how loss affects someone like Lamb, a man who pretends to feel no emotions at all.

All of this to say, Slow Horses has not only turned in another thrilling season full of excitement and intrigue but an emotionally affecting one, too. You can probably argue Apple should have launched Season 4 during the second phase of Emmy voting for Season 3 to put it in front of voters and remind them of the show’s many strengths (Lowden and Pryce, in particular, are exceptional here). But no matter what happens come Emmys night, if Slow Horses keeps operating at this level for the rest of its run (it’s been renewed through Season 5 thus far, though there are more novels in the series), it won’t just be a serious awards contender, but potentially one of the best shows of the decade.

Slow Horses Season 4 premieres Wednesday, September 4th on Apple TV+.


Kaitlin Thomas is an entertainment journalist and TV critic. Her work has appeared in TV Guide, Salon, Gold Derby, and TV.com, among other places. You can find her tweets about TV, sports, and Walton Goggins @thekaitling.

For all the latest TV news, reviews, lists and features, follow @Paste_TV.

 
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