Slow Horses Season 5 Reflects the Turmoil of Slough House in Surprising Fashion

As TV shows age, the criteria by which we judge them change. How does the new season measure up to those prior? Do the puzzle pieces still fit together in a satisfying fashion? Has the storytelling evolved? And are the characters learning and growing with each new chapter? For a show like the Emmy-winning Slow Horses, in which each six-episode season is based on a novel by author Mick Herron, the answers to these questions are… complicated.

Every season of Slow Horses is mostly self-contained. Should one wish, they could watch the new installment without having seen the entries that came before and lose fairly little in the process (though that’s a terrible way to treat one of TV’s best shows). The fifth season adapts the novel London Rules and puts Slough House’s narcissistic hacker (and generally obnoxious human) Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) in the spotlight when he becomes a surprising target in a series of escalating attacks meant to destabilize the British government. With a story that revolves around Roddy and his mysterious new girlfriend (Hiba Bennani), the season is naturally more humorous than Season 4’s deeply personal dive into River’s (Jack Lowden) family. But while the pace never falters, the jokes still land, and the performances remain top-notch, after spending four seasons with these lovable delinquents, one can’t help but also wonder if these characters will ever evolve.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the show operating the way it does—as an adaptation of a lengthy book series, it’s not all that surprising—but being an MI-5 agent is dangerous work. There are real, lasting consequences to being in the security service, and the emotional fallout of these consequences carries over from season to season, but not in a way that dictates story arcs. The members of Slough House merely pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and move on to the next punishing task the Park sends their way until they inevitably stumble headfirst into yet another national emergency only they can prevent. This easily repeatable cycle works in the show’s favor, but the ability to replicate it as well as it does speaks to something larger.

Everyone in Slough House is stuck. It’s professional purgatory for the service’s biggest screw-ups, all of whom are trapped in various messes of their own making. But even though their inability to move forward serves a purpose, stagnation also eventually leads to decay. Season 4 was a high point for Slow Horses. It was the show’s most emotionally affecting outing yet as River and his grandfather (Jonathan Pryce) found themselves in the crosshairs of an assassin-siring monster who turned out to be River’s long-lost father (Hugo Weaving). Not every season can (or should) be as personal, but it’s a major narrative development, and it didn’t just affect River and his grandfather; it also indirectly resulted in Marcus’ (Kadiff Kirwan) death. So it’s the type of season that demands action and movement in the aftermath, more so even than previous installments that saw Slough House agents die. And in that regard, it’s initially difficult to be dropped into a new story that mostly hinges on the question “No self-respecting woman would willingly date Roddy, right?” and not wonder if the show is as stuck as its titular slow horses.

The good news is, the series doesn’t totally ignore the bomb dropped on River last season, nor does it gloss over the aftermath of Marcus’ murder. In fact, Slough House is under construction when the show returns, both a subtle reminder of what happened and an apt representation of the current states of those most affected by the prior season’s events. Understandably, Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) isn’t coping well with Marcus’ death, but she throws herself into protecting Roddy since she couldn’t do the same for her friend. Meanwhile, River has compartmentalized his trauma and chosen to prioritize work instead of processing that the health of his grandfather, the man who raised him, has declined significantly in recent months, or that his actual father just tried to kill him. All of this puts a strain on his already complicated relationship with Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), yet another father figure of sorts.