Trailer for the second season of "Slow Horses" (Apple TV Plus)
The combination of the words "spy" and "British" almost automatically brings up an image that has been fixed in the collective imagination over the years: a charming man dressed in an expensive suit, an unmixed martini, an Aston Martin, a beautiful woman on his arm, expensive and secret gadgets that help him do his job, The best political resources are at his disposal, a lock of a million dollars and a set of capabilities of a billion.
The splendor of British creation, Her Majesty's missing hand.
It's hard to explain in words how much "Slow Horses" delights in exploding this image.
At times it seems that if we really focus on the corners of the screen, we will see one of her heroes standing in front of a James Bond poster with a triangular finger pointed at him.
While other series sometimes drag their feet for several years between seasons, the spy drama of Apple TV Plus managed to upload a first season last April, and even before the end of the year the second season is already coming when two more have already been ordered by Apple.
The plot, based on the "House of Slough" series of novels by Mick Heron, mainly deals with a (fictitious) hidden and notorious wing of MI5, the prestigious British intelligence agency.
Beit Slaw is the place where the agents who failed, made a mistake, embarrassed the organization and in general those who wish to forget their existence go to.
As the great original opening song by none other than Mick Jagger describes it: "Surrounded by losers / drunks and losers / holding on by your fingernails / you made one mistake / burning at the stake / you're done, you're stupid, you're a failure."
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The series would have been less successful if not for his performance.
Gary Oldman, "Slow Horses" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), the director of the department, is the epitome of the Slough house story.
An agent with an impressive track record whose exclusion from the organization led him to become the absolute antithesis of a spy: greasy and dirty hair, a tattered suit that he uses for everything from sleeping to running, holey socks, a stuttering and sleeping car, a protruding belly and a daily routine that includes smoking in the office, frequent snores and making out with anyone who comes by On his way. He looks like even if he goes through a car wash himself, he'll come out with several layers of filth. The house itself looks like a direct continuation of Lamb: neglected, dirty, piles of equipment thrown in bags. Real derelict. All this of course in complete contradiction to " The Glass House", MI5's official residence which is just across the road and gleams in its cleanliness, and through its spaces pass those spies: the well-tailored, the well-groomed, the pleasure-seekers.
On the face of it, the role of Beit Slaw is to reward and redeem those who fail, to allow them to prove to the top brass that they deserve another chance "on the court of the greats".
But Lamb is not interested in allowing them that, or so it seems.
He wants them to do nothing and spend their days like him embracing their own losers until the end comes.
But all these are just appearances.
In practice Lamb simply runs his underdog unit separately from the agenda of the larger MI5.
Thus, in the first season, the team formed in the Slough house traces the kidnapping of a young comedian of Muslim origin by xenophobic fanatics.
In the second season (all six episodes of which have been sent in advance for review), an old case of dormant Russian spies reawakens within Britain's intelligence agencies, which are active decades after the end of the Cold War.
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The exchange between her and Oldman is so fun.
Kristin Scott Thomas, "Slow Horses" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
Although it does everything, but really everything, to scorn all the excessive self-importance and glamor associated with the worlds of British espionage, "Slow Horses" is first and foremost a wonderful spy thriller.
In fact, she uses her immense cynicism as a form of deception.
While we concentrate on the twists and turns of the Torah, the series weaves complex connections and plot connections behind the scenes, lays foundations for rewards that will be revealed later, and above all is not afraid of twists or protecting its heroes.
The very fact that they themselves are considered "inferior" and therefore do not receive the same tools, backing and knowledge that their successful counterparts possess, only increases the danger around them.
So the chaotic and disorganized nature in which the agents of House Slough operate, places them in situations that other agents would not enter into.
Something always happens in "Slow Horses".
Not necessarily in the sense of cinematic and prestigious action scenes (although the few action scenes here are great in their own right), but in the sense that there is always a certain part of the puzzle that has not yet been discovered.
As if the series and its protagonists are chasing all the answers to the riddle together with the viewers.
In some cases it literally leads them physically to travel in one direction when events are going in the opposite direction, and in other cases it is more metaphorical.
This too is part of the play of "slow horses" on what we have come to expect from such characters.
Precisely because they do not see five steps ahead, precisely because there is no one directing them in the ear, precisely because they really will not succeed, all these make the occurrence much more tense and fascinating.
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Great game displays.
Jonathan Price, "Slow Horses" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
As expected in a British espionage series that gets to reach such a quality platform, the game displays are great in every way.
Among others, Olivia Cooke (Queen Alicent from "Dragon House") stars here as a mysterious agent at Slough House, Jack Lowden ("Dunkirk") as an agent who promises River Cartwright that a colossal failure in an agent test sends him to Lamb's "treatment".
Jonathan Pryce ("Game of Thrones", "The Crown") is also here as Cartwright's father who was formerly a senior officer, and Kristin Scott Thomas as the deputy director of MI5, and so on.
Not all the characters in "Slow Horses" are equally important and contributing, but they are interesting, funny and compassionate even in small doses.
And above all stand the verbal battles between them, cynical and sharp dialogues that produce laugh-out-loud moments precisely against the background of a place that is supposed to be so cold and barren.
And just as they are cynical about the house inside, things get much more intense when they come to communicate with the MI5 agents.
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Even the small characters are interesting and funny.
"Slow horses" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
"Slow Horses" could not have been so successful without Oldman's tremendous performance.
It's not just Lamb's tendency to find the most original way to insult the character next to him in every situation, but the nonchalance with which he does it.
Although he tries his best to convince everyone of this, he is not an evil character.
"They're losers, but they're my losers," he tells Diana Taverner (Scott Thomas) in one of their many meetings.
This is the best duel the series has, and the exchange between the two is so much fun.
The dislike between them almost borders on hidden love, and it equips the series with another war of minds over the one that is already going on in its main plot.
Unlike his team, Lamb actually sees a lot ahead.
In many cases he waits for others to catch up with his ability to think.
The series plays wonderfully on this duality between Lamb's formidable abilities as an agent, and his demonstrable reluctance to use them.
As she progresses, she also reveals details of his past, and creates justifications and insights into the way he acts.
The beauty is that things continue like this over the two seasons, despite the difference in the main plot between them.
So in the end, Lamb's background sheds a much clearer and more intriguing light on the person he has become.
It's a tremendous performance that turns a series that could have been good and that's it - into an excellent one.
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Even a car wash won't clean it.
"Slow horses" (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
There are not many series that manage to distill into six episodes of less than an hour such a combination of humor, great characters and a plot accompanied by twists and turns.
"Slow Horses" may not become a series that will generate web obsessions, blogs and discussions, but it is so good at what it does.
A refreshing take on a genre that works within it like a real master.
The second season of "Slow Horses" is broadcast every Friday on Apple TV Plus.
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