My Review - Slow Horses
My Rating- 9/10
Every large Government Department has its filing room or mail room that bosses can shove sideways the employees they consider unsatisfactory or require demotion to be exiled if they are deemed useless in their current role.
This great spy romp is about the equivalent last frontier for failed MI5 spy agents who for one reason or another botch up their mission.
This last outpost for failed British Intelligence Agents is headed by Jackson Lamb and brilliantly cast with Gary Oldman as the washed up seedy and incredibly belligerent boss . His surname is no indication of his personality I would think more of a drunken sloth than a lamb would suit his sarcastic but witty curmudgeonly personality.
Along comes River Cartwright also beautifully cast with Jack Lowden who after a very shady frame up is despatched to Jackson Lamb's team of "slow horses" by his shrewish MI5 boss Diana Tavener ( Kristin Scott Thomas) .
I always expect a quality production when Kristin Scott Thomas is in the cast and her duplicitous duet in this series with Gary Oldman is one of the the delights of this series for me.
New recruit River Cartwright is not content and frankly pissed off with the menial and demeaning tasks that his new boss Jackson Lamb assigns him and the rest of the slow horse team . Their working days are spent with menial tasks like the analysis of stinking rubbish collating parking fines or transcribing mobile phone conversations.
Against his bosses strict instructions of staying in the office and virtually doing nothing all day under the radar of the MI5 boss River Cartwright secretly joins in the MI5 surveillance hunt to save a young man threatened with beheading after being kidnapped by a terrorist cell.
The series weaves an intricate web with surprising and dramatic outcomes for all the characters with a mix of some delicious black humour.
There are many other delightful performances in Slow Horses including Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish the world weary PA to Jackson Lamb and Sophie Okonedo the big boss of MI5 and the only person that can strike fear into the steely demeanour of Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas ) The other Slow Horses are all great characters in fact the whole ensemble cast help make this series enjoyable viewing one and the good news is series 2 was filmed at the same time and I hear Apple TV will screen it very soon.
The trio of Directors James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering and Saul Metzstein plus Will Smith and his team of 4 script writers have seamlessly and beautifully adapted the 2010 novel by Mick Herron no wonder this series already has been renewed for a third and fourth season.
Every large Government Department has its filing room or mail room that bosses can shove sideways the employees they consider unsatisfactory or require demotion to be exiled if they are deemed useless in their current role.
This great spy romp is about the equivalent last frontier for failed MI5 spy agents who for one reason or another botch up their mission.
This last outpost for failed British Intelligence Agents is headed by Jackson Lamb and brilliantly cast with Gary Oldman as the washed up seedy and incredibly belligerent boss . His surname is no indication of his personality I would think more of a drunken sloth than a lamb would suit his sarcastic but witty curmudgeonly personality.
Along comes River Cartwright also beautifully cast with Jack Lowden who after a very shady frame up is despatched to Jackson Lamb's team of "slow horses" by his shrewish MI5 boss Diana Tavener ( Kristin Scott Thomas) .
I always expect a quality production when Kristin Scott Thomas is in the cast and her duplicitous duet in this series with Gary Oldman is one of the the delights of this series for me.
New recruit River Cartwright is not content and frankly pissed off with the menial and demeaning tasks that his new boss Jackson Lamb assigns him and the rest of the slow horse team . Their working days are spent with menial tasks like the analysis of stinking rubbish collating parking fines or transcribing mobile phone conversations.
Against his bosses strict instructions of staying in the office and virtually doing nothing all day under the radar of the MI5 boss River Cartwright secretly joins in the MI5 surveillance hunt to save a young man threatened with beheading after being kidnapped by a terrorist cell.
The series weaves an intricate web with surprising and dramatic outcomes for all the characters with a mix of some delicious black humour.
There are many other delightful performances in Slow Horses including Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish the world weary PA to Jackson Lamb and Sophie Okonedo the big boss of MI5 and the only person that can strike fear into the steely demeanour of Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas ) The other Slow Horses are all great characters in fact the whole ensemble cast help make this series enjoyable viewing one and the good news is series 2 was filmed at the same time and I hear Apple TV will screen it very soon.
The trio of Directors James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering and Saul Metzstein plus Will Smith and his team of 4 script writers have seamlessly and beautifully adapted the 2010 novel by Mick Herron no wonder this series already has been renewed for a third and fourth season.