The show is set in England and it’s about a group of MI5 agents  who are members of Slough House, which is basically where all the misfit agents go who screwed up in the past, but not bad enough to get fired.  At Slough House they are basically given lame and thankless tasks like sorting through paperwork under their domineering director until they get fed up and quit. 

That director is Jackson Lamb, played by the inimitable Gary Oldman, who has been in a ton of things from playing commissioner Gordon in Batman movies to Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols in the movie Sid and Nancy. The other main character is River Cartwright, played by Jack Lowden. River is the young hotshot agent who screwed the pooch in a training exercise, but he’s the grandson of a retired MI5 big shot, so that’s how he ended up in Slough House. 

Each season is basically its own story with crimes to crack and bad guys to foil, and the Slow Horses are at the center of it all.

The show started off a little slow for me, but l ended up liking it enough to watch all 5 seasons. Oldman’s character is a hoot. He’s a crotchety guy who has been there and done that as an agent, and now he’s in charge of Slough House by choice and he has a love/hate type of relationship with his agents. He drinks, he smokes, he farts and he swears a lot, and it’s pretty fun watching his interactions with his agents and superiors. 

The plot lines of the series are solid, and it’s fun seeing the sights and sounds of London and the English countryside, where much of the show is filmed. 

It’s good, but not great. A solid B for me and l plan to watch the 6th season later this year.