'Slow Horses' Season 5 Gets Going with “Tall Tales”

Each season of Slow Horses is a serial, one unfolding story divided into serialized chapters, with very few time jumps and surprising plot turns that lead us straight from one episode into another. When the dramatic inciting incident kicks in – in Season 5’s case, a mass shooting that left 11 dead in a residential London square – a countdown begins, and our hapless Slough House agents are running against the clock and an increasing intensity of obstacles until they’re eaten alive. Slow Horses has lively characters, but not rich ones; the show’s success is primarily due to its brilliant pacing, as every scene further advances the plot or underscores the stress of characters trying to navigate this universe.

This is not the first Slow Horses episode set at night, where the agents scramble to stay alive and (more importantly) stay off of the Park’s radar – the episode recalls “Visiting Hours” from Season 1, or the overwrought climax of Season 3. We pick up seconds after last week’s episode, with Roddy going back up to his apartment after his suspicious girlfriend, Tara, tipped off his anonymous assassins that he was alone.

Roddy suspects someone is in his flat, arms himself with a massive World of Warcraft replica sword – but it’s only Jackson Lamb doing a house call. Apparently, he’s taken Catherine seriously. If you find Roddy as annoying as this reviewer, then this tense opening is an excellent simulation of being a member of Slough House; as tempting as it may sound, we have to begrudgingly admit that it’s not great for Roddy to be murdered.