The big question going into Slow Horses Season 6, aka thus far the most consistently entertaining spy drama on TV, is whether new showrunner Gaby Chiappe can keep the quality level high after taking over from departing showrunner Will Smith. Good news, then: not only is the Apple TV series as thrilling as ever, this might be the best season yet.
If you have yet to catch up with the show, it stars Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the slovenly leader of Slough House, aka the place MI5 sends spies they don’t want anymore. Based on the books by Mick Herron, every season hits a similar-ish formula… MI5, in conjunction with the ambitious Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), has an operation that goes out of control that threatens the safety of the UK, with Slough House getting involved in either a direct or accidental fashion. Either way, the actually extremely competent members of Slough House usually save the day, led by Lamb and the action heavy River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), who desperately wants to get back to the big show. But due to complicated circumstances, Slough House never gets the credit and ends up right back where it was when things started.
Heading into Season 6, Taverner has been promoted to First Desk, aka head of MI5, while River is more pissed off than usual, as he was promised a return to MI5 proper, only to be denied (River doesn’t know that Lamb was doing this to protect him). Meanwhile, the rest of Slough House is pretty much business as usual, with hacker Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) unaffected by his central role last season, Lamb’s frustrated office admin Standish (Saskia Reeves) back in the fold, Coe (Tom Brooke) as laconic as ever, and only Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) going through it, still not over the death of a co-worker in Season 4.
Unfortunately for all of them, someone – or someones – is killing off ex-members of Slough House, one by one. The prime suspect? River’s father Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), the closest the show has to a Darth Vader level villain. Naturally, things aren’t as cut and dry as all that, there’s plenty going on with Taverner that’s tied into the overall mystery, and things very quickly spiral out of control as they are wont to do.
There are several aspects that elevate Season 6 over the regular season, and a large part of it is the propulsive pace. Slow Horses is never actually slow, but the bulk of this season happens over a condensed timeline, with the middle episodes boiling down to, more or less, one extended chase scene that just does not let up. The action is next level, elevated to a blockbuster movie without ever sacrificing the often very small and very personal stakes… Though Taverner is dealing with the security and fate of the United Kingdom, Slough House is mostly working on staying alive thanks to an unstoppable threat.
On a similar note, nearly every episode has a wild twist, huge cliffhanger, big character death/return, and sometimes all three. There are plenty of huge surprises that Apple has already spoiled with the Season 6 trailer which I won’t spoil here, because they’re so much more enjoyable for long-time fans of the series to experience clean. Sure, they’ve been bopping around in book spoilers for years; but if you haven’t read Herron’s novels, and manage to avoid the promotional materials, you’re in for an absolutely wild ride from the first episode to the final moments of the finale, which will have you begging for the next season (don’t worry, it’s coming next year like clockwork).
It’s also, perhaps even more shockingly, the funniest and most romantic season so far. In both cases, I’m again skirting how it’s romantic even though Apple has been very open about this aspect of the show. But in between the rollicking chases and jaw-dropping twists, you’ll find plenty to set your heart aflutter thanks to a smitten River*, and the jokes are sharper and more surprising as well… Though they’re very different series, the dark humor and intense action this time around reminded me a bit of prime Killing Eve more than Slow Horses, albeit with less Lesbian tension.
(*Lowden has often been tipped to potentially be the next James Bond, but this season proves he’s far more able as a bumbling, handsome fool in the mode of prime Hugh Grant rather than Daniel Craig, though he’s great at the action as well.)
Of the cast, beyond the as usual excellent, lived in performances from Thomas and Oldman, and action-romance-comedy from Lowden, Weaving gets the most time as the now over-the-hill mercenary, providing nuance to his previously one-note evil performance, albeit not much in the way of redemption. Andor fave Kyle Soller and MyAnna Buring make a solid and unnerving impression as a pair of Terminator-like assassins, while Lenny Rush as a child witness who needs protecting is extremely hilarious, particularly while sparring with Roddy Ho. Harry Lloyd shows up as a media mogul in a role that has odd parallels to the past season of HBO’s Industry, and as usual comes off as a snake in human skin.
The stand-out performances, though, come from two returning stars that – as mentioned – I’m not going to spoil here. Suffice to say the returning characters are both in very different places than we last left them, and the actors involved get to really chew the most meat off the bone, perhaps slightly to the expense of some of the regular cast… There’s a moment with Standish in particular that’s been building for six seasons, and when it happens gets too quickly shoved to the side for other matters. Lamb also gets less growth than he has in previous seasons, though Oldman is as caustically funny as always (a scene where he shows up in Taverner’s backyard is an all-timer).
Look, overall, if you like Slow Horses, you’ll be thrilled to have yet another solid entry in the most solid series on TV. If you’ve never watched Slow Horses? Well, go back and watch it all, it’s breezy and bingeable, and a fair amount of Season 6 is based on paying off plot points from earlier seasons in a less standalone way than usual. But the good news, as mentioned earlier, is the show hasn’t missed a beat under a new showrunner (and that will hopefully continue next season, with a third showrunner taking over). With the quality level this high, here’s hoping the yearly dose of Slow Horses doesn’t slow down any time soon.
Slow Horses Season 6 premieres September 16, 2026 on Apple TV, with one new episode a week until the finale on October 21, 2026.
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