Gary Oldman in “Slow Horses,” now streaming on Apple TV+. Apple TV+ photo
Once again, we find ourselves in the company of River Cartwright (the Bob Redford-ish Jack Lowden), grandson of a mysterious super spy David Cartright (Jonathan Pryce), the tough Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke), Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) and the house keyboard genius, Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung).
SERIES INFO
“SLOW HORSES”
Drama, Thriller
Follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve as a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes.
Rating: Severe profanity, moderate violence, gore, drugs, alcohol and smoking, with frightening and intense scenes.
Stars: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas
And did I forget to mention the cool, sophisticated but flawed “M,” Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), making a visit to a deserted warehouse? And there, climbing up the back stairs, we see the matronly House Mother of them all, Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves). Did you miss them?
Hold on, here they come again, in the long-awaited Season 3 of the terrific spy-thriller “Slow Horses.”
We happily greet the drunken, slovenly, disposed mastermind up from the third-floor dungeon with his mismatched flock of crippled pigeons.
It’s our sodden squire, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), getting his annual required physical, which is like hearing the damage report of the fleet at Pearl Harbor.
The show opens with a 10-minute curious, super-tense passage, that begins with two people we’ve never met who are making love.
The credits list them as MI5’s spy Alison Dunn (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam Waterston) and her lover Sean Donovan (Sope Dirisu). After Sope is caught going through her purse, Alison slips away, and Sope follows her in a long chase-scene through the mysterious Istanbul, until a moment by a bridge where…
Well, we can’t start by giving away 10 important minutes.
The opening chapter is full of footwork. After the first, there is River running to meet with our old villain James “Spider” Webb (Freddie Fox) on a bridge where “Spider,” who has been told the bad guys will kill his family and pets if he fails, tells River he has less than 15 minutes to run, don’t walk, to the infamous “Park” and convince the “Chief” to give him a document.
Is it the one that Alison Dunn, (we find out later) stole?
And oh! There’s River, running again.
That’s it. I’m exhausted already.
There’s a hitch. Catherine, the flock’s house-mother, has been kidnapped (Catherine, are you kidding?) and soon, a photo of her with a gun pointed at her head is shown and complicates everything.
River, worried about Catherine, continues running through London’s streets, bumping, shoving and flooring strangers, to the Park where … never mind. You go watch it.
Apple TV + dropped the first two episodes Nov. 29, and will drop one new episode each Wednesday night after.
Oh well, if snow hits us and the power goes out … there’s always poker by candlelight.
“Slow Horses” streams on Apple TV +
J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.
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