Slow Horses Season 6 Review: Running Out of Ideas — SkimNews
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- Slow Horses season six is the first season not written by creator Will Smith, the British screenwriter behind The Thick of It and Veep, with Gaby Chiappe (The Level, The Beast Must Die) taking over as lead writer.
- The reviewer argues Will Smith's drollery is missed in a more straight-faced new story, and that Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb — previously 'a brilliantly conceived and perfectly performed cartoon' — 'started to burn out' in season five.
- Season five itself is faulted for a flat story driven by 'generic terrorists' delivering payback for British crimes abroad, and for overpromoting showboating supporting character Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) into a pivotal role the reviewer calls 'unbearable.'
- The season six plot is described as 'a long chase' in which the two black-clad killers — played by MyAnna Buring and Kyle Soller — repeatedly turn conveniently incompetent so River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) can escape.
- The new season recycles previously departed cast members: Rosalind Eleazar as Louisa, Joanna Scanlan as Moira, and Hugo Weaving as Frank (implausibly also River's dad), plus a 'cruelly brief' return by Paul Higgins's Struan Loy, killed off in a shipping container on estuary mud.
- The review singles out Harry Lloyd as underused as a malevolent media mogul blackmailing Kristin Scott Thomas's Diana Taverner, while praising Lenny Rush, cast as a civilian caught in the crossfire, as the season's bright spot.
- The review concludes the series 'might have run its course,' citing dulled banter, muted geopolitical parallels ('besides some stuff about Russia'), and tropes like killers who can't shoot straight.
Why it matters: For viewers of the Apple TV+ spy series, the review suggests Will Smith's departure has cost the show its tonal edge: Smith wrote every prior season, and his exit coincides with a chase-driven plot and recycled cast that the reviewer reads as creative exhaustion rather than renewal.
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