Slow Horses Season 5's Storyline Might Be The Show's Biggest Mistake

This article contains spoilers for "Slow Horses" season 5, episode 1: "Bad Dates."

There are two things the first four seasons of "Slow Horses" have in common. One is Jackson Lamb's (Gary Oldman) unique combination of keen but well-hidden understanding of spycraft and highly questionable personal hygiene. The other is that the seasons' narratives invariably explore the themes of the old guard of intelligence clashing with the new. Season 1 does this through the rash James Bond wannabe River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), and all of the following three seasons see the Slow Horses navigate blasts from the past that either are or soon become highly personal. Reemerging Cold War-era spy masters, scores that need settling, and spy vs. spy antics rage on the background of high-profile kidnappings and terror attacks, and the show's memorable characters and their entertainingly semi-hostile interactions take care of the rest. The most devastating moments on "Slow Horses" are always personal, not national. That's why the series is so great.

Unfortunately, the "Slow Horses" season 5 premiere "Bad Dates" throws much of the aforementioned stuff out of the window in favor of becoming as timely as a spy show can possibly get away with being. Instead of intelligence community supervillains and quiet moral conundrums, it sets the stage for a plot full of spree shootings, assassinations, killers inspired by a populist, and a high-stakes political battle between a regular politician and a "disruptor" type –- all before the episode is even halfway through.

"Slow Horses" has never really steered away from modern threats and issues, but putting its usual, charming spy shenanigans on the back burner in favor of tackling just about every sociopolitical problem out there is a wild mood swing. It might raise the stakes, but it also strips the show of some of its charm.

"Slow Horses" is a spy thriller that benefits from many secret sauces, including a stellar cast, great characters, and plot twists that push the envelope just enough. Still, the show's peculiar timelessness is the ingredient that ties everything else together. While the world (and intelligence community) around it has embraced modernity and fancy technology, Slough House exists in a temporal limbo that, with the exception of the occasional cell phone and computer, could exist at any time from, say, the 1950s onwards. They may thwart terror attacks and navigate the intricacies of modern society, but the Slow Horses are unstuck in time. This is a series with physical files, largely timeless wardrobes (except on Christopher Chung's Roddy Ho), and a lead whose top floor home base is effectively a filthy version of a noir PI's office. The best spy show on streaming has its own style that cannot function without one foot in the past.

This is why the underlined timeliness the season 5 premiere throws at the viewer — "Look, here are 10 things that could happen in the real world right now!" — is so jarring.  Yes, there's a chance that the series will tie it all together with a neat (if slightly frumpy) bow before long. Yes, it's worth remembering that the show is based on Mick Herron's novels — in season 5's case, "London Rules" — and can hardly be blamed for adapting its source material. Nevertheless, the point about "Slow Horses" suddenly becoming way more timely than usual stands as long as season 5 is in such a rush to throw all the contemporary threats it can think of at the screen.

"Slow Horses" is streaming on Apple TV+.