Get ready to settle into autumn with a weekend on the sofa watching ‘one of the greatest shows to come out of Britain full stop.’
You can just about binge seasons one to three of spy drama Slow Horses and get up to speed before season four lands on Apple TV on Wednesday.
The gripping crime show follows MI5 rejects exiled to the bleak Slough House to undertake the intelligence service’s least glamourous tasks under the stewardship of the filthy Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman).
Slow Horses has consistently been a hit with viewers and critics since it debuted in 2022 – and season 4 is no exception, having already achieved a 100% score on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Raving in Empire Magazine, critic James Dyer described the latest instalment as ‘outstanding’, writing: ‘Darkly funny and tighter than the buttons on Lamb’s sauce-stained shirt, this is yet another outstanding season for Apple’s brilliantly unconventional spy series.’
Echoing his sentiment, Nick Clark in The Evening Standard said: ‘It’s one of the great shows to come out of Britain full stop. And series four delivers more of the same: a fully realised world, superb script, a stellar cast all at the top of their game and a lot of great action.
John DeVore in AV Club also added: ‘It subverts the traditional spy story and reinvents it as a drama about a dysfunctional family. There is vinegary comedy and bone-cracking violence, too.’
According to Apple, season four ‘opens with a bombing that detonates personal secrets, rocking the already unstable foundations of Slough House.’
Showrunner Will Smith also previously spilled the beans on what we can expect in the fourth series – and things will be as tense as ever for the Slough House gang.
‘Where it ends in season three, where Taverner thinks she’s got what she wants, let’s just say there’s a recalibration of that at the start of the next series,’ he told Digital Spy.
‘There’s repercussions [from River’s leak], but they’re more left field than directly to do with what he leaks.
‘The main thing is the fracture that occurs when River is going against his grandfather for the first time, and that’s a big thing for him, and seeing his grandfather in a new light and he is starting to make his own judgements and not just toe the line.
It also features the likes of Jack Lowden, who plays star Slough House agent River Cartwright, Kristin Scott Thomas, who is MI5 heavyweight Diana Taverner and Hugo Weaving as Frank Harkness.
Slow Horses’ last season, which centred on an MI5 cover-up that’s threatened to become uncovered after a romantic liaison in Istanbul, sent the internet into a frenzy over its ‘perfect’ ending.
‘Apple TV’s Slow Horses is excellent, by far my favourite series of 2023, and Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb tops the character leaderboard,’ one penned.
‘I only started watching #SlowHorses because of Gary Oldman,’ another agreed. ‘I didn’t have expectations.
‘Little did I know that it would become one of my most favourite shows of all time. @AppleTV thank you for this. A smart, funny, sarcastic, fast paced thriller..easily the best of 2023.’
Since its premiere in 2022, Slow Horses has won two Bafta Television Awards while earning nine additional nominations.
Slow Horses is available to stream on Apple TV Plus. Season 4 is premiering on the streamer on Wednesday.
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