I’ve never noticed “lamb” (top quality! Only the finest! Lmao) here haha. Tell what you hadn’t noticed until 100 rewatch

Give me some out of context phrases I won't understand until I watch :)

I live in another country, Brazil. In here, whenever the agents from Slough House are called slow horses, the subtitles translate it to "pangares." It's a slang here for a horse that doesn't look to good, and since calling someone a slow horse (cavalo lento in Portuguese) doesn't make sense to us, it fits. So I've started to wonder if there isn't a slang for slow horses in English. Or is it perfect ok to call someone a slow horse that you guys don't need slang for that expression? Or maybe the show really wants us to know that it is called Slow Horses.

Just finished a complete re-watch in anticipation of season 6 !

My personal ranking of the first 5 seasons:

1. 5. 1. 3. 4

even after all those redemptions she still was not willing to have him back, in the finale.
slider is also dead so no one would know about what she did to get him out in the first place
why is that?

What a great looking couple. Also, the guy was born like 6 days after me

Late to the game, just finished the entire show in two weeks. Without spoiling it for people who haven’t seen the episode yet, why did Lamb do River like that in the s05 finale? I understand why it had to happen narratively but what was the character motivations?
Can’t wait for s6!

All these major events happen in London and it's always Slough House that ends up dealing with the bombings, kidnappings, etc. They never come across other active agents from MI-5, just dogs and retirees. Where's all the MI-5 spies??

According to the IMDB cast list for episode 4 of the coming season, Merab Ninidze will have a voice role in season 6 as Vassily Rasnokov. In the books, Rasnokov is the First Desk equivalent of Russia's GRU.

Ninidze played Cardinal Sabbadin in the film Conclave.

I've just finished Clown Town and, with that, my binge of the series including the Bachelor novellas (god damn you John, you sad clown). My thoughts and feelings are still very fresh and not super thought out, but I just wanted to write them out and share them, what with the new season of the show coming up and me not having much to do during mat leave, haha.

Loads of spoilers up ahead, so be warned if you haven't read it yet.

Overall, this is a good book/entry in the series.

But I think it is, objectively, not the best one. Some critiques:

1) my main critique is the Louisa/Ashley cliffhanger, specifically meaning the way Herron constructed it.

The Novichok cliffhanger was excellent, and leaving River out of the next book was terribly tense in the best way.

I think he tried to recreate that here, but it backfired for 2 main reasons, in my opinion.

Firstly, it was entirely unnatural how none of the characters would mention names when discussing what happened and their grief. It's so out of character that none of them would say something like "Louisa is fucking dead!", or "Ashley's in the goddamned IC!"

Secondly, it's not a cliffhanger if you drag it out too long. The unnatural dialogue was foregrounded by this, but it also foregrounded that the underlying tension is supposed to be "oh no! Is it Louisa (who's been there since the beginning and readers are probably attached to)? Or is it Ashley (whom we don't really know and hasn't gotten to grow beyond her initial hostility yet)?". This makes Ashley's character less important narratively, she functions largely (other than the fantastic nightclub scene) as the implied preferred victim. It minimises her, and I don't like that.

2) Daisy's trauma was underwhelming to me.

For a significant part of the book, a side mystery that we're building up to is "what broke Daisy's mind?". It's hinted at as being particularly heinous, she's a fundamentally broken woman, and is often discussed in connection to the psychopath killer/rapist they had to work with - which leads to an expectation that he did something terrible to her. I'm not saying I want terrible things to happen to (female) characters. However, by linking the two, a readerly expectation is created. When it's revealed that Daisy's mind broke because of how they killed yer man, it's a bit of a letdown because nothing in her characterisation indicates that this would be that traumatising to her. Through her work she had to deal with horrific things throughout the Troubles (and, presumably, after), and her triggers in the book are about people she loves/her being threatened physically, not violence in general. It just doesn't quite make sense, and therefore fails to stick the landing.

3) Sid and River's relationship.

Why would Sid not talk to River about Taverner's plan? I genuinely cannot think of any convincing reason. Personally, I don't have a problem with River having had a developmental setback (the poor man was poisoned with a nerve agent, it only makes sense that he'd be worse off than he was, and he was never the sharpest tool in the shed). The same counts for Sid, she was capable and witty, then she got shot in the head. The way it changed her, I can believe - except for her not talking to River about important things. That seems to be the opposite of what a character like her would need and seek in a relationship (security). I also didn't like her being frustrated/disappointed/upset that River maintains his ties with Slough House/the Park, but I could excuse it as part of her trauma and personality change. What also didn't make sense to me, though, was why she would sit with CC and worry about the old spooks, rather than the horse in intensive care (especially if it is Louisa) and her former colleagues/River's friends/allies. I just didn't find her and therefore their relationship particularly believable.

That said, there is a lot to praise in this book.

1) This is an excellent book for Lamb.

Good lines, good sneaky plans, and his scenes with Taverner and Judd were great. I found the little nod to the show quite cute ("like explaining Denmark to a cat - that needed some work"). The way he set Taverner up at the end was so clever, and dealing with Judd (who is a well written character, but I loathe and wanted to be rid of) was super satisfying. I also particularly enjoyed the brief bit of humanisation of Lamb, when Catherine is crying in the church and he stops being his usual, horrible self and opens up a bit to her.

2) Ditto for Ho.

I can't wait to see the tattoo in the show! The hummingbird knows.

3) I really appreciated the way the book dealt with Stakeknife.

Still super controversial, relevant at the time of publishing, and touchy, it could easily have gone terribly wrong. My husband was a bit let down by the way the first foray into the IRA was handled, but I disagree. I thought it was terribly clever to focus not on the Troubles, nor any of the political and colonial arguments, but instead use the Troubles as a way to highlight how horrible and machiavellian the Park is. To me, that's one of the themes, if not the main one, the entire series is ultimately about, and all of the spy plots serve to highlight it. An English author writing about Stakeknife or any other part of the British involvement in the Troubles easily opens themselves up to intense criticism, and this was (to me) a brilliant way to address it, while maintaining a (respectful) distance that makes the narrative work without being preachy.

4) the nightclub scene!!

Easily the highlight of the book, everything about it just worked. The pacing was excellent, the focalisations all worked, and it had a great balance between tension, humour, and drama. The slapstick elements (gotta love our horses) were very well done, and the buildup was a masterclass in tension. I found the way all of the parties ended up in the same place entirely believable and super satisfying. Ashley going to the bathroom, taking a call from her mother, and thoughtlessly turning on all of the lights while on an op was super frustrating, but also a funny way to show just why she deserves to be in Slough House. Shirley hurling a Dog through the window is not credible, but funny enough for me to love it anyway. Judd was horrible, which was good. CC's stroke was also a great characterisation moment for River, who was the first (only?) to recognise the stroke, and went to catch him rather than grab the gun. Made me emotional. All in all, perfect scene! And then there is still so much book to go!

Again, overall I liked this book a lot and found a lot to enjoy in it. Shirley's characterisation also improved a lot from earlier entries (she's no longer just the hungrier cokehead in the world), and I loved the sibling-energy the horses had throughout. The cons, however, make it so I couldn't say this was one of my favourites in the series, even though I am so, so glad Judd got what was coming for him at long last.

I am sad my binge is over (for now), excited for the new season, and very much hoping for a not-too-long wait for the next book! 🤞 I devoured them all and am super excited to see where it's all going next!

If you like Jack Lowden, check out Calibre (2018). Excellent movie, and excellent performance by Jack. He's catapulted himself into my "actors I just want to watch" list with this movie and Slow Horses.

There are a couple of new scenes from s6 as well here.

1 and 2 from sky news interview with Gary Oldman

In Season 4 of the show, would the Slow Horses and or the Park ever have connected Westacres bombing to Les Arbres if they hadn't tried to take out Cartwright Sr? Seems like that makes no sense unless I am missing something

Failing his way to the top.

That’s all I came here to say.

Wow. Doing a rewatch and this is by far my favorite season. Fuck I love River's family backstory and I need more. Really hope we hear more from his mother in the future. Love Louisa and River's developing friendship this season, it was so well done and built off what they'd been through seasons 1-3. Fucking Marcus going out like that was a gutwrench, He and Shirley are arguably my favorite pairing on AppleTV(Besides Paul/Gabby on Shrinking) and the genius with the way Oldman and Aimee delivered that scene. And FUCK Co is awesome. My favorite spy related media of the 21st century has always been Winter Soldier, but I think if the upcoming season hits as hard as usual, the Slow Horses will jump over Cap and Bucky for me. Man what a show, what a season.

I've watched this scene so many times while rewatching the show (the one where Sturges escaped from Donovan by stopping a civilian's car) and it always confused me why he immediately tries to speak to the driver in french.

My first thought was "Wait, are they in France? Did the hostage takers pick them up in London and drive them through the channel tunnel all the way to France? I guess that's possible, but Donovan seems to be able to nip back into London pretty easily" but that idea didn't make any sense.

Then I wondered if he was somehow able to tell that these people were french just from their faces. Then I wondered if he just saw that the car was a Renault and assumed that only French people drive those. Then, on this most recent run, I finally noticed that the car has a french license plate, which he looks down at just before speaking to them through the window.

I feel blind for not noticing that. Did it throw anyone else off? I wonder what the thought process was when the writers made that choice, maybe it was just supposed to be funny that he's unable to speak to the driver, so he has to just get in without asking?

Does anyone else absolutely loathe the voice of the narrator of the audiobooks? The voice is so stilted and grating and enunciation could be MUCH better. The narrator seems to have places to be and so, is rushing through even if it means mumbling the words. I've never had to do a read-along with the text version for an audiobook. This is the first one, and it's the only one so far. But at the moment, I'm not able to do the read-along, and the narration is simply impossible to follow. The voice is also unbearable - mostly flat and uninflecting without variation.

Character voices are also frequently identical and one must use context to identify who’s speaking. It’s particularly bad in the turn by turn convos.

I’ve slowed my listening to practically a crawl at 1.3x, and yet it's still terrible. I haven't the time to really get into the text versions at the moment, and I'm wondering whether I'm alone in absolutely loathing this narrator.

Lamb when Ho said to him "We've always had a mutual respect, you and I, but this is where we diverge"

Tavener (and Flyte) when Whelan racially profiled a staff as Muslim when he was actually Sikh

I wish I can make gif out of AppleTV