Apple TV don announce season eight for di spy drama Slow Horses, di show wey don win Emmy and BAFTA Awards. Di six-episode eighth season dey adapted from “Clown Town,” na di ninth novel inside Mick Herron “Slough House” book series.
Academy Award winner Sir Gary Oldman dey star as Jackson Lamb, di character wey don give am Golden Globe, Emmy and BAFTA Award nominations for im outstanding performance. Complete first five seasons of Slow Horses dey stream on Apple TV, and di premiere of season six dem set for September 16, 2026. Season seven dem announce last year.
Jay Hunt, wey be creative director, International, Apple TV, talk say di show continues to charm audiences all around di world and e dey delighted say Jackson Lamb and im gang of lovable misfits go come back for eighth season. E talk say their acerbic take on di high-octane world of espionage dey completely unique.
Slow Horses don win three Emmy Awards, including two for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and one for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, plus five BAFTA Television Awards. All five seasons hold Certified Fresh score, and two seasons carry rare perfect 100% critics’ score. Season four dem hail as number one series of 2024 on Rotten Tomatoes.
Season eight go see Jackson Lamb and Diana Taverner face off in their most explosive confrontation yet. When a botched attempt to blackmail the Park puts Taverner on the offensive, na Lamb go unravel one of MI5 darkest secrets and put an end to it once and for all.
But as all dis dey happen, season six wey just drop na di first wey Will Smith no guide. Will Smith na di writer wey work on The Thick of It and Veep, and na im explain why dis espionage saga get unusually sharp comic tongue. Di absence of Smith drollery dey clear in a more straight-faced new story.
The show creator don gone, dem retool am as conventional thriller, and e feel like e dey start to run out of ideas, even if e still slick and confident as ever. Slow Horses don old now. E always be difficult, delicate proposition. Di staff of Slough House, a purgatorial spin-off of MI5 where misfits and screw-ups dey get boring work, regularly outstrip supposedly elite spies despite being shambling losers.
Leading di field agents na River Cartwright, wey Jack Lowden play. E get di good looks of a spy hero and some of di skills, but e also brittle, luckless and rather whiny wretch wey regularly need saving from ignominious death. New lead writer Gaby Chiappe, wey do The Level and The Beast Must Die, dey push buttons on a desk wey get several red lights blinking.
She respond by making di new Slow Horses more of a conventional thriller. Old friends unexpectedly reappear. Someone dey bump off past team members, which at first mean a cruelly brief comeback for Struan Loy, wey Paul Higgins play, and e meet horrible end inside shipping container wey park on dull expanse of estuary mud. When e clear say two frighteningly confident, black-clad killers wey MyAnna Buring and Kyle Soller play no go satisfied with slaughtering spooks, di whole gang end up on di run.
Rosalind Eleazar don come back as Louisa, Joanna Scanlan come back as Moira, and Hugo Weaving come back as Frank, di bleakly amoral mercenary wey also, a bit implausibly, River dad. None of them make unwelcome return, but cycling back to familiar faces feel like something a show wey short of ideas go do.
Di main issue na di plot, wey boil down to long chase. Di killers keep coming and di slow horses, mainly River, chaotically run away. Harry Lloyd also struggle to make impact as malevolent media mogul wey dey blackmail MI5 boss Diana Taverner, wey Kristin Scott Thomas play.
Mick Herron dey regularly described as modern master of spy genre, and dat one accurate, but e also modern master of interesting, messed-up characters. Dem call di nine novels collectively di Slough House series, and dis na di rare case when reading di brilliant source material no dey ruin, instead e dey enhance, di terrific television adaptation.
But e might have run its course. Slow Horses still slick and confident enough, and e help itself by casting Lenny Rush as civilian caught in this year crossfire.
