Mikes Film Talk

It’s 2025. Season 5 of Slow Horses is here. Episode 1; Bad Dates looks great. Like a little girl said, in front of a telly; “They’re ba-ack.” And about time too. We’ve missed “the rejects” of Slough House and their acerbic boss, Lamb. The ranks have thinned down and are getting thinner. The death of Marcus still hurts. Death by shooting. This is done by Cartwright’s half-brother, as Dander points out to her colleague.

Louisa is still leaving and it looks like Ho is about to be erased. Most likely in a similar fashion to Marcus.

Episode 1 Slow Horses Story

A lone gunman starts killing civilians on the square. Slowing down, he dies by a sniper’s bullet. Ho almost dies by van. The same van that the sniper got into. Dander saves Ho. However, she cannot get anyone to believe that he really is in danger. She also believes that the rest of team are soon to follow.

Slow Horses Cast

Gary Oldman – Jackson Lamb.

Jack Lowden – River Cartwright.

Christopher Chung is Rodney Ho.

Kristin Scott Thomas – Diana Taverner.

Ruth Bradley – Emma Flyte.

Rosalind Eleazar – Louisa Guy.

Saskia Reeves is Catherine Standish.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards – Shirley Dander.

Nick Mohammed is Mayor Zafar Jaffrey.

Tom Brooke is JK Coe.

Christopher Villiers is Dennis Gimball.

Let’s Talk Slow Horses

Lamb is even more vitriolic than previous seasons. He displays no interest in the possibility of Ho getting done by a hit squad. The Slow Horses head is interested in the mass shooting. He is glued to the telly while eating his breakfast.

Guy tells Cartwright that she is not coming back after her “mental health” break.

Cartwright and Dander shadow Ho and his date. An “out of Cartwright’s league” woman that Dander initially believes is an escort. At the club, she decides that someone is definitely out to kill Ho.

Shirley jumps on a man she believes has a knife. River follows her into the lady’s room where he accuses her of wanting to “snort a line.” She doesn’t. What she does do is clock a club bouncer with an extinguisher and follows Ho and his new friend.

Slow Horses on the Trot

This Season 5 opener is quickly paced. Like the Slow Horses are stepping up to a trot from the word go. Saul Metzstein zooms out of the starters block with intent here.

It’s Working

Oldman slips on those old socks of Lamb;s effortlessly. Ruth Bradley is becoming addictive as Flyte and Lowden continues to impress as Cartwright. Chung, as Ho, gets to have a bit of fun here. The shot of him dancing in the street, almost literally, was brilliant. I did not recognise him at first. Reeves still makes Catherine interesting and layered. *On a side note, I really do hope that Eleazar’s character Louisa Guy does come back from her break. She is a favorite.*

The Verdict

As usual Slow Horses earns a solid 5 stars right out of the gate. From that meticulous set up for the mass shooting and the killer’s payoff to Dander clocking the bouncer, this worked. This is streaming on Apple TV +.

The Trailer