The Best Spy Show On Streaming Isn't On Netflix

It's an odd irony of living in the streaming age that, in a time where every film and TV show ever made is available instantaneously, finding something to watch has never felt more daunting. This is actually an established phenomenon, dubbed the "tyranny of choice" by Barry Schwartz in his 2004 Scientific American piece. The article summarizes prior research and draws on the psychologist's own studies to explain how, "as the number of choices we face increases, the psychological benefits we derive start to level off. And some of the negative effects of choice accelerate." What are those negative effects? Well, you've probably experienced them yourself if you've ever found yourself stranded on the tides of Netflix's limitless sea of "content," despairing in the face of the overwhelming options before ultimately deciding to shut down the app altogether.

In such times, finding a TV series you genuinely love can feel even more exciting than it did when streaming apps were just a dream in the minds of today's tech overlords. Not only is it now harder to decide what to watch, quite often when you do settle on something there's a good chance that it's just fine — not great, not terrible, just fine. Thankfully, Apple TV has been making a strong case for the streaming age being more than a festival of mediocrity with a range of TV series that are actually pretty darn good.

So far, though, there's been a bit of a snag. Put simply, Apple TV has great shows but no one is watching them. From the mind-blowing unpredictability of "Severance" to the sleekly efficient murder mystery of "Presumed Innocent," Apple is offering the type of premium series with which HBO is typically associated. That would be even more of a blessing during our current moment if more people actually watched them.

Thankfully, in 2024, there are more reasons than ever to give Apple TV a go, and one show in particular is leading the charge: "Slow Horses." Thus far, Apple's spy thriller has been criminally overlooked, which is a shame because I think a case could be made for this being not just the best spy show, but the best show currently on TV.

"Slow Horses" gave us a reason to watch Apple TV years ago. But as it enters its fourth season, I'm seeing a little more buzz surrounding the series, a development that's both heartening and disappointing. It's great to see the show getting some shine, but it really shouldn't have taken four seasons to get here. "Slow Horses" has been brilliant since it debuted in 2022, and its fourth installment shows no signs of being any different.

Brought to the screen by showrunner and executive producer Will Smith, the series is based on the "Slough House" novels by British author Mick Herron. It focuses on a group of failing sleuths who, through various mishaps and slip-ups, have been banished to the dilapidated Slough House — a sort of holding pen for MI5 agents who, for whatever reason, can't simply be fired.

This band of misfits are the titular Slow Horses, and are led by the slovenly, obnoxious Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). Beneath his slobbish appearance, crass manner, and predilection for shamelessly passing gas in front of his colleagues and superiors, Lamb is actually one of the sharpest intelligence officers in the British Security Service. Though he treats his ragtag group of spies with a mix of indifference and outright disdain, Lamb appears to harbor a deep fondness for the gang, who frequently find themselves caught up in major terrorist plots and foiling assorted threats against Britain despite having been assigned to carry out menial tasks for what seems like the remainder of their careers.

A show about spies being banished from MI5 headquarters to a form of intelligence purgatory might not sound all that riveting, but the series' appeal comes not from any bombastic action set-pieces — great though they can be — but from its grounded nature. The characters and their relationships with one another feel real, and the show's biting humor and pervasive bathos make it a truly unique spy series.

It was Oscar winner Gary Oldman's idea to open "Slow Horses" with a fart. Had you heard nothing about this show, that fact might give you the suspicion that the esteemed thespian had abandoned his commitment to delivering some of the finest performances of his generation in favor of crass humor and schlock. But that couldn't be further from the truth. As Jackson Lamb, Oldman is characteristically brilliant, managing to somehow make one of the most obnoxious characters you'll likely ever encounter on-screen likable.

Though Oldman spends much of his time chewing scenery, often by way of delivering searing zingers with barely contained delight, he also brings a depth to Lamb. When, in the season 4 opener, the jaded spy seems unfazed by the apparent loss of one of his most loyal agents, you never fully believe that Lamb is as equable as he seems in the face of such tragedy. A simple sigh while he sits alone in the car is all you need to be convinced that Oldman's aging sleuth is actually going through it. It's a truly impressive and refreshing turn, and easily one of Oldman's best performances — which is saying something for an actor who's been consistently great for decades.

What's more, Oldman's own veteran status only adds to the realism of not just his performance but the show as a whole. While the actor is the de facto star, he's surrounded by newcomers and rising stars in the form of the Slow Horses themselves. As such, Lamb's leadership rings truer than it would if a less accomplished actor were in charge of this new crop — which in and of themselves are almost as impressive as their chief.

Beyond Kristen Scott-Thomas, who plays Deputy Director General of MI5 Diana Taverner, and Saskia Reeves, who plays office administrator Catherine Standish, the rest of the "Slow Horses" cast is made up of relative newcomers. Scottish actor and "Benediction" star Jack Lowden plays River Cartwright, an officer who's sent to Slough House in the very first episode of the series after ballsing up a live training exercise at Stansted Airport. Cartwright is hopelessly unlucky and, prior to his reassignment to Slough House, had been coasting on his nepo-status as the grandson of revered ex-agent David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce). Once in his new office, Cartwright is surrounded by other exiles including fellow officer Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) and Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), a tech expert who rivals Jackson Lamb for sheer obtuseness. Everybody in this cast does an absolutely stellar job, and in the case of Lowden, Eleazar, and Chung, prove that, unlike their characters, they all have promising careers ahead.

But beyond the individual actors' efforts, the magic really comes from their characters' interactions. Lamb chastising his wayward crew never gets old, particularly with Gary Oldman's deadpan delivery evoking a kind of uniquely British cynicism that rings a little too true for anyone brought up in Blighty. But the other interpersonal relationships work just as well on other levels. Lamb and Standish have a complicated history and a secret they're both hiding, while Cartwright's unwavering belief in the superiority of his own abilities — even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary — means he constantly clashes with colleagues, despite the fact he usually manages to pull things together.

When you combine these downtrodden, lived-in characters and their gloomy Slough House setting with the high-stakes plots in which they find themselves, it makes for a show that shouldn't really work but somehow does. "Slow Horses" is full of these apparent contradictions, most obviously in the contrast between its comedy and the typically phlegmatic spy thriller genre to which it belongs. It seems unintuitive — as though, like the Slow Horses themselves, it isn't quite fit for working in the field. But after four seasons of pretty much uninterrupted perfection (just look at those Rotten Tomatoes scores), it's more than proven that assumption wrong. Which is why, if you're still yet to watch this overlooked gem, now is the time to snap out of your streaming-induced malaise and get to it.

Apple doesn't release official subscriber numbers for its streaming service, with estimates ranging anywhere from 25 million to around 44 million subscribers. But what we do know is that Netflix remains the streaming king, with almost 278 million subscribers. The company's next biggest competitor is Amazon's Prime Video service, which is estimated to have around 230 million paying customers — though it's worth noting that Prime Video is automatically included in the overall Prime service, so that number might be somewhat misleading. The point is that Netflix won the so-called streaming wars long ago and has seemingly just maintained its standing ever since.

But aside from the fact that "Slow Horses" is just a really, really good show, it also represents a glimmer of hope for streaming as a whole. Perhaps we're not doomed to forever be inundated with movies like Kevin Hart's "Lift" or aggressively mediocre action flicks like "The Gray Man." Perhaps, if Apple TV can keep this up and more of us pay attention, the future of streaming will look a lot more premium than it currently does, and a big part of it will be down to Gary Oldman's flatulent MI5 officer and his burnout sleuths.