It’s that time of year again, the armpit of the holiday season: Christmas Day is done and New Years Eve is still some days away, nobody knows when the bins are supposed to go out and every day feels like Sunday. That means it’s the perfect time to stream Slow Horses on Apple TV Plus. It’s not just one of the best shows on Apple TV, although it is. It’s one of the best shows on any streamer.
The Season 3 finale went live on 27 December and delivered a delicious and very stressful end to what’s been a spectacular season; the third season is currently sitting at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and has attracted tons of five-star reviews, part of a pattern that saw the second season get 100% and the first 95%.
The show stars Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, a truly awful human being who’s in charge of a motley crew of MI5 misfits and security service screw-ups – the slow horses of the title. Each series is action-packed, terrifically twisty and often very funny, especially when Oldman is on screen to chew the scenery and abuse his underlings. It’s an absolute blast, and this third season is often unbearably tense: it’s best watched now that you can binge it instead of having to wait a week after particularly cruel cliffhangers.
What the critics are saying about Slow Horses Season 3
Empire gives season 3 the full five stars, calling it “a gloriously low-fi subversion of traditional espionage thrillers, centred around an outcast band of MI5’s least wanted.” It’s “a beautifully crafted prestige drama that would be more than worthy of a prime-time slot on BBC One” and reason enough to subscribe to Apple TV Plus.
Rolling Stone says season three is “better than ever” and appears to be talking about me: “it’s the sort of show where, if you mention the title to someone who watches, their face will light up and they won’t stop monologuing about it for at least three minutes.” And Vogue calls the third season “a kinetic, escapist delight” like 24 but without the bad bits: it’s “a show to watch with mom and dad over the holidays, or (teenage) daughter and son”.
Variety says it’s “delightfully grim”, and while there’s plenty of spy stuff and shooting “at its core it is the tale of precariously employed worker drones making their way through a broken workplace led by a flatulent boss with hair that hasn’t been washed since Guy Fawkes Day 2011.”
All three seasons of Slow Horses are now streaming on Apple TV Plus, and when you get to the end there’s a thrilling trailer for Season 4. That’s currently scheduled for December 2024 so you’ve got plenty of time to catch up.
