Let's not beat a dead horse, yeah? You simply just shoot them in the face once more when they're already a goner. Your favourite spy thriller series Slow Horses returns with its fourth season, adapting 'Spook Street', which is the fourth book in Mick Herron's 'Slough House' series of novels. This season opens with a deadly terrorist bombing in the city centre, and the perpetrators are found to be having ties to the Slough House crew. Elsewhere, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) is dealing with his grandfather David (Jonathan Pryce) whose battle with Alzheimer's drives him to kill a man invading his home, one who he later believes to be River. Deciding to find out who was after David, River uses this situation to hide him at Catherine Standish's (Saskia Reeves) place and fake his own death, helped in this ruse by Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) who misleadingly identifies his body in order to buy him more time.
At MI5's headquarters, the bombing and River's uncovering of secrets—which leads him to the doorstep of ex-CIA agent Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving)—threaten to undermine deputy director Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) and new director general Claude Whelan's (James Callis) positions. Over at Slough House, Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) and Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan) are joined by newcomers Moira Tregorian (Joanna Scanlan) and JK Coe (Tom Brooke). Ruth Bradley plays the new head of tactical unit Emma Flyte and Tom Wozniczka portrays Harkness' personal terminator Patrice.
The first bit of good news is that pretty much everything that has worked excellently in the previous seasons, and kept you coming back for more, can be found in this season's DNA as well. Every returning player in the cast combined with all the new faces (cast by casting directors Melissa Gethin Clarke and Nina Gold) makes the show so damn watchable and no one seems out of step when stepping into the delightful blend of high-stakes thrills and dark humour. In that arena, showrunner Will Smith and his writers' room maintain their high batting average of witty remarks, relentless pacing and compelling espionage drama, all the while rounding out the characters to a greater extent (presumably following the novels in that sense), which lines up perfectly with the actors feeling more comfortable with their respective characters.
When it comes to those actors and characters, the figurative trophy for the standout performer has been changing hands fairly regularly. This time around, Lowden earns that honour as the de facto lead of season four, as River's arc takes him to the past and back, in France and England, and to the muddy waters of family secrets. Lowden's portrayal of River's hero complex, morality, hunger for approval and his usual wobbly action star chops (there's about 3000-5000 running scenes just in these six episodes) is both entertaining and riveting, Pryce being a superb sparring partner for the latter part as the actor gracefully follows the footsteps of his esteemed British peers, playing a person who faces their mortality due to a cognitive decline. You wouldn't think of Slow Horses as a show that would make you tear up, but Lowden and Pryce manage to do that as well; a feat not to be dismissed.
Scott Thomas also gets an expanded role so the MI5 circus feels meaningful, plus the actor chews up plenty of scenery. Oldman is still firing zingers left and right, Chung makes Ho increasingly more punchable (complimentary), Eleazar's earnestness adds nicely to Louisa and River's evolving companionship and Weaving brings just the right amount of malice with his performance as a criminal mastermind of sorts.
Where the series leaps forward the most is in the story department. Perhaps it is because it's the most personal one thus far, or because the political manoeuvring at ''The Park'' plays a bigger part, or because antagonists like Harkness and Patrice are more menacing. Perhaps it's the combination of all of the above, but the writers and director Adam Randall find a hefty amount of urgency and fun in the process. Their storytelling is tight, it keeps things moving and somehow never overwhelms you with plotting or uninteresting character arcs that take up too much time (although Marcus' gambling is one more mention away from that territory).
While the series continues to possess elements that simply work—composers Daniel Pemberton and Toydrum's score drums up the tension with its metallic production flourishes, Randall and the crew's work with large crowds and bigger set pieces provides a lot of depth to the frame—what holds Slow Horses back from reaching its full potential is largely its lacklustre stunt design. The series cooks on eight stoves as a spy drama, it's brilliant as a dark comedy, but as an action thriller, it's rather inconsistent. Most memorable scenes in that regard are River's nearly inept rooftop and moped escape with a Chaplin-esque fall, Jackson's car rampage (maybe inspired by Roddy's season three tomfoolery, not that Jackson would admit that), and a grenade in a hoodie. But when gunfights and hide-and-seek games are introduced, there's no rhyme or reason to any of the blocking and plausibility. It's frustrating and flat out unremarkable.
Yet, against all odds (oh no, it's a gambling reference), the show keeps getting better and better as it goes on. You have Lowden in top form, great writing, richer characters and personal stakes ensuring that is the case. It's the best returning TV series of the year so far and we shall hope that it will keep returning as long as there are books to adapt. This river is not drying up, it seems.
Smileys: Story, Jack Lowden, characterisation, humour
Frowneys: Some issues with stunt choreography
Yes, this is indeed a TV show. I can see this is stated in the description.
4.5/5
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