If you were worried about Slow Horses taking a more serious approach to its sophomore outing, you needn't be, as season 2 stomps out the gate with a cold-open that features a man restocking some discounted dildos in a sex shop right before he's killed on a replacement bus service. Not the typical polished and sophisticated spy-fare, but certainly on brand for Slough House's misfit MI5 agents. After the slick, wryly funny and realistically banal season 1, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and the rest of the country's least wanted sleuths are back for more misadventures. This time, it's the death of ex-agent Richard 'Dickie' Bow (Phil Davis) - the aforementioned sex-shop owner - that sparks the team into action, with growing concerns that he was entangled in an operation known as 'Cicadas' that involved sleeper agents dating back to when there was an Iron Curtain to hide behind. Alongside the unlikely and unwilling power couple that is Lamb and River, there's the returning faces of Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar) and Min (Dustin Demri-Burns) - now a proper couple -Roddy (Christopher Chung) - still an obnoxious and supreme Standish (Saskia Reeves), but also some new ones. Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan) aren't given too much to do in these first two episodes, but the show certainly hints that Edwards' Shirley is.much like River, a little too good for the punishment palace that is Slough House, and so hopefully they'll both develop more and become an integrated part of the team as the season continues. It is a shame that Olivia Cooke's Sid doesn't appear to be returning, but the already stellar ensemble will surely fill the gap. The show looks set to splinter off into different narrative strands throughout the rest of the season - River's dogged pursual of the bald man on the train, Jackson's investigation of Cicadas, and Min and Louisa's security detail for a possibly (RE: definitely) shady Russian businessman and Roddy - but hopefully head writer Will Smith (still not that one) can coalesce them into a tight knot by the finale. Still eschewing the traditional, with any luck Slow Horses will continue its blend of excitement with absurdity, banality with tension, and deliver a sophomore season that lives up to the high expectations set by the first. The visual delight of Gary Oldman in a bucket hat certainly suggests it might well do.
3 Reviews
Eye of the storm
itsarightson6 December 2022
The slow horses did not disappoint. When Jackson Lamb gets motivated, Slough House takes on a much brighter atmosphere compared to the first season. It became reversible. Outside, it's full of serious business and it's still raining.
Urgent situations come rushing in, but thanks to the actors who play the role of slowness, spying feels like a tight push-and-pull with a girlfriend.
Other characters are swayed here and there by the volatile love situations that are unfolding, but Jackson Lamb, who has seized the initiative, is just being picky on his own.
Sorry for Gary Oldman, Jackson Lamb looks like the grandma from Little Red Riding Hood. And looking at Gary's performance, it seems that the old woman has already secretly eaten the wolf and is knitting, waiting for Little Red Riding Hood River through her thick glasses.
The gloomy first chase scene was especially good in the heat, while the strange currents that flowed through Cicada between Reaver and other Cold War-era agents who seemed overly peaceful were the best. The calm before the storm? Eye of the storm? Anyway, that the shattered peace began to make a terrible sound when the glass was scratched.
It was fine except for the fact that the directing of the facility when bringing in the hard was far from Slough House.
In the midst of the tumult over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this material seems quite timely. I was worried that the drama would come out as well as the first season, but it was pretty good. An episode that felt more rewarding than expected.
Urgent situations come rushing in, but thanks to the actors who play the role of slowness, spying feels like a tight push-and-pull with a girlfriend.
Other characters are swayed here and there by the volatile love situations that are unfolding, but Jackson Lamb, who has seized the initiative, is just being picky on his own.
Sorry for Gary Oldman, Jackson Lamb looks like the grandma from Little Red Riding Hood. And looking at Gary's performance, it seems that the old woman has already secretly eaten the wolf and is knitting, waiting for Little Red Riding Hood River through her thick glasses.
The gloomy first chase scene was especially good in the heat, while the strange currents that flowed through Cicada between Reaver and other Cold War-era agents who seemed overly peaceful were the best. The calm before the storm? Eye of the storm? Anyway, that the shattered peace began to make a terrible sound when the glass was scratched.
It was fine except for the fact that the directing of the facility when bringing in the hard was far from Slough House.
In the midst of the tumult over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this material seems quite timely. I was worried that the drama would come out as well as the first season, but it was pretty good. An episode that felt more rewarding than expected.
Slow start, writers block...
keithfmanaton12 December 2022
Character definition and dialogues already slipping at the start of season two. Constant sniping and bitching replacing interesting dialogue. Theyre straight in with a more obvious story this time the viewer can almost guess what's happening next. A bit like Mozart, but with less class and finesse. Oldman's character has become less interesting almost boring, relying more on gutter language and even more crass behaviour. THe trouble is, they should have left it at one season or completely changed the premis. There's really nothing more to say, because nothing's really happened and probably won't.
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