Apple TV+ Review: ‘Slow Horses’ Season 4 is More Fast-Paced, Conspiracy-Driven Entertainment

Fresh off its first time competing at the Emmy Awards, with nine nominations including one for Outstanding Drama Series, Slow Horses returns a week and a half before that ceremony for its fourth season. With each iteration lasting just six episodes, this series has the challenge of packing in a tremendous deal of content into every installment, which typically runs around forty-five minutes. For fans of the show, season four won’t be a disappointment, pivoting to a new storyline that incorporates all the entertaining elements audiences have come to expect.

Following the game-changing events of season three, things aren’t nearly as different as they should be for the unfortunate employees of Slough House. There are a few new faces, including a replacement (Joanna Scanlan) for Standish (Saskia Reeves) who angers Lamb (Gary Oldman) immediately by reorganizing his entire office, and it’s still a wonder that anyone gets anything done with their legendary miscommunications and Lamb’s seemingly deliberate efforts to mislead them. A terrorist attack has Diana (Kristin Scott Thomas) on defense, mentoring a new First Desk (James Callis) as, once again, the agency is required to bury some of its secrets even deeper to conceal past misdeeds.

After a season that had River (Jack Lowden) on the run and basically on his own the entire time, he doesn’t get much of a break this time around following a startling and violent event in the premiere. Fortunately, it means seeing more of his grandfather David (Jonathan Pryce), whose two-episode-per-season appearances are expanded to a larger role here. Pryce, a double Emmy nominee for his season three guest spot and for playing Prince Philip in the final season of The Crown, is a superb actor who enhances any scene he’s in and emphatically conveys the former spy’s frustration with his deteriorating memory and loss of control.

The cast additions made to season four are indeed praiseworthy, starting with Callis, perhaps best known for playing the self-serving Gaius Baltar in Battlestar Galactica, who here gets to play someone similarly ill-equipped for his position of power but far more principled, something that doesn’t bode well for him given this version of MI-5’s eagerness to cover up its illicit actions. Kiran Sonia Sawar, from Pure, is another great add, as are Ruth Bradley from Humans and Hugo Weaving, the veteran Australian actor most widely known for The Matrix who quietly serves as this season’s intimidating big bad.

While the newbies are great, it’s the originals who are dependable as always and help to truly set the unique tone for this show. Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan), who spent most of season three arguing about whether they had both been fired or just one of them, continue to waste most of their time and then stumble into important places where they might be able to save the day against all odds. Roddy (Christopher Chung) is entirely incompetent as always, providing a good deal of clueless comic relief. Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar) is considerably more useful than anyone else but never gets the praise she deserves, and Lamb still doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him and insists on telling no one his plan which will always, at the very last minute, somehow manage to work.

Slow Horses is a prime example of a British drama that knows how to tell a tight story without any filler and make it feel considerably more expansive than it is, ranging from large-scale attacks to hand-to-hand combat. That the end of this season will mean the show has only ever released twenty-four episodes is impressive considering how much ground it’s covered. New viewers might be lost about some of the details of how these characters came together, but it’s easy enough to get to know them all in their current states and enjoy the enticing mix of suspense and comedy that makes this show one of the most involving and watchable series currently out there.

Season Rating: 8/10

Awards Buzz: Thanks to its first Emmy inauguration, this show is now more on the awards map, and it’s likely that Oldman, Lowden, and Pryce will all be back with nominations for this season, along with the series, which has probably cemented its place as a default nominee in the top category going forward.