{"id":10179,"date":"2023-01-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10179"},"modified":"2023-01-30T08:05:01","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T13:05:01","slug":"binge-or-nibble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10179","title":{"rendered":"Binge or Nibble? Watching Slow Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new season of the wildly (and deservedly) popular British TV series Slow Horses<\/em> puts fans like me in a quandary (trailer<\/a>). Do watch the whole thing in can\u2019t-get-enough mode, or do I parcel it out, one or two episodes a week, to make the experience last longer? I did wait until the distractions of the December holidays were over before starting the new season, and so far, I\u2019m taking it slow. But when an episode\u2019s closing credits roll, it isn\u2019t easy to turn away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a fan of British crime\/spy\/mystery dramas, you probably already know that Slow Horses<\/em> is based on the Slough House<\/em> novels of Mick Herron. The first season aired on Apple TV+ last spring (6 episodes) and the current season began in December (6 more).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The premise is that MI5 agents who\u2019ve messed up in some way are transferred to Slough House, where the \u201cslow horses\u201d are put out to pasture. There, under the harassing oversight of profane and obnoxious Jackson Lamb, they receive mind-numbingly dull assignments in the hope they will quit the service altogether. With everything going on in the world and in the U.K., MI5 faces innumerable internal security challenges. Even agents on the far fringes of the security establishment can find work to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Yorker<\/em> staff writer and historian Jill Lepore spent time with Herron recently and her article on Herron<\/a> appears in the December 5 edition of the magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently the books were a bit of a hard sell in the beginning. Publishers didn\u2019t know what to make of it. Too much humor. \u201cIs this a thriller or is it comedy?\u201d In fact, the audio narrators say they have to stop recording occasionally, so they can laugh off-mike. The Daily Telegraph <\/em>has called Slow Horses<\/em> one of the best spy novels ever written and Herron is widely considered the heir-apparent to the late John le Carr\u00e9. Heavy burden, that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes the books and the tv show so irresistible are the great characters. And, in the tv version, the cast is absolutely up to it. Lepore says Jackson Lamb (played by Gary Oldman, who makes Colombo look like a fashion plate) is \u201can old joe who\u2019s straight out of Dickens, if Dickens had ever invented a character who used the word \u2018twat\u2019 all the time.\u201d A decade ago, Oldman received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of George Smiley in le Carr\u00e9\u2019s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. <\/em>According to Lepore, Oldman believes Jackson Lamb \u201cis Smiley if everything had gone wrong, although arguably, everything has.\u201d In the age of Brexit, she says, Lamb is like Britain\u2014\u201cangry, embarrassed, and coming apart at the seams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve missed the books or tv series so far, do yourself a favor and get acquainted. And don\u2019t miss the show\u2019s theme music sung by Herron fan Mick Jagger. Just the right notes of discord and the impression everything is going off the rails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want interesting viewing? The next issue of my quarterly newsletter will be out soon. Issues contain book, movie, tv, and travel tips. Sign up here<\/a> and receive three prize-winning short stories!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new season of the wildly (and deservedly) popular British TV series Slow Horses puts fans like me in a quandary (trailer). Do watch the whole thing in can\u2019t-get-enough mode, or do I parcel it out, one or two episodes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Of course you're watching Slow Horses already. Here are some of the reasons why.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[269,193,67,104],"tags":[2042,1300,1978],"class_list":["post-10179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-espionage","category-television","category-the-morgue","tag-gary-oldman","tag-mick-herron","tag-slow-horses"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Eb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10182,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10179\/revisions\/10182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}