Slow Horses - TV Series Review

‘Slow Horses’ brilliantly portrays a side of MI5, focussing on the slouching, demoralised agents slugging it out in Slough House who get a shot at redemption through a kidnapping investigation. The storyline gives us a colorful scenery of personal disappointments, organizational politics, and a daring and dangerous rescue operation.

Gary Oldman is also quite enjoyable in his portrayal of the principal character, Jackson Lamb, despite all the main character’s irony and bitter sarcasm. Jack Lowden excels in portraying River Cartwright as an intelligence officer who struggles with his past and aims for change. This kind of dynamics among the casts is very natural in the film and helps to make the story richer and deeper.

Slow Horses is a well-oiled drama that continues to build tension and create substantial feelings with the help of directors Saul Metzstein, Adam Randall, and James Hawes. collectively they come with a tempo that, while not hurried, has an exciting rhythm that sharpens the storyline.

This music fits the series’ themes of tension and character reflection, using backgrounds that amplify the drama instead of dominating it. The music underlines certain scenes and adds to the overall rating of the emotions shown throughout the story.

Film making shows the true nature of spy assignments through the use of several scenes shot in low light areas and ramp filled environments that act as part of the intelligence intrigue. It strengthens the setting, involve the audience in this darksome world.

‘The visual presentation convincingly depicts the worlds of MI5 main office and the dilapidated Slough House. Some additional elements are added in the aspect of set design which help to tell a story about slow horses and the contrast that their working conditions present.

There is the sparing use of special effects, which help to highlight remarkable stages in the story. Refusing to resort to grandiosity in visuals and instead staying true to the series’ themes, both Tiger and Bunny and Kill La Kill fail to rely on the amazing fight scenes and explosions as a way to tell the story.

‘The pragmatic editing is superb and the book retains readability and a logical organization of ideas while providing the reader with intricate plots.’ Steady as she goes in terms of pacing, with enough action to go around while always making sure to wean in scenes that focus on character development and changes.

That is how the structure of Slow Horses is built: oscillating between the moments of intense direct action and the scenes that result from the character’s scheming. It creates novelty for the viewers, and gives time for elaboration of a plot while offering diverse surprising moments.

The dialog is superb and extremely humorous especially when dictating the character personalities and intelligence in the real world in Slow Horses. It also creates character interactions and further progress the story arc and often puts humour over drama.

However, despite s –sometime – pacing problems disrupting the flow of the series, Slow Horses also stands out in the character depth and plot complexity. Certain storylines within End:H could use expanding, but the primary storyline is strong and coherent.

Thus, the Slow Horses focuses on the thrilling real-life exploration of British intelligence officers’ most promising but unproductive projects. It does so because of complex characters, an enthralling storyline, and the excellent use of suspense and ‘black’ comedy. The series provides the audience with some inspiration about individual change and survival for reflection.