Over the past few years, Apple TV has quietly established itself as the new home of prestige television. While HBO has been adapting Harry Potter books and zombie video games, and Netflix has been glamorizing the lives of infamous serial killers, Apple has been pumping out banger after banger. From Severance to The Studio to Pluribus to Ted Lasso, Apple TV is responsible for some of the best television of the past decade.
Apple has achieved dominance over the streaming landscape (at least in terms of quality) by doing what Netflix and HBO used to do: take risks, trust visionary creators, and give their shows time to find their feet. That last one is the most important thing the other streamers are missing. While Netflix has mastered the art of the one-season cancellation, Apple has mastered the art of the two-season order. They’ve renewed Silo for two final seasons, giving the writers plenty of time to build to a proper conclusion, and they ordered two seasons of Pluribus purely off the back of Vince Gilligan’s reputation.
Slow Horses has been one of Apple’s slowest-burning hits. It’s been universally praised by critics for five seasons straight, but it’s only broken through and become a mainstream blockbuster in the last couple of years. In response to that breakout success, Apple has renewed Slow Horses for seasons 6 and 7 upfront.
Which Books Slow Horses Seasons 6 & 7 Will Adapt
Slow Horses is a gritty, grounded take on the spy genre, more in line with John le Carré’s chilling thrillers than Ian Fleming’s escapist adventures. But it doesn’t have the sobering bleakness and intense realism of le Carré’s stories; it’s a subversive satire of that approach to spy fiction, humorously highlighting the mundanity of most espionage work.
Based on Mick Herron’s book series Slough House, Slow Horses takes place in an MI5 banishment room; a miserable department where service rejects and humiliated agents are transferred to get inundated with dull, meaningless work until they either get complacent or resign. Gary Oldman stars as the acid-tongued head of Slough House, Jackson Lamb, while Jack Lowden plays River Cartwright, an up-and-coming agent whose ambition and optimism are contrasted with Lamb’s bitter cynicism.
The first five seasons of Slow Horses have adapted the novels Slow Horses (duh), Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, and London Rules, respectively. Season 6 will tackle the novels Joe Country and Slough House, while season 7 will be based on Bad Actors.
Over The Past 5 Seasons, Slow Horses Has Only Improved
Slow Horses was a rare show that hit the ground running with a strong debut season, and it’s only gotten better and better since then. As the actors have gotten more comfortable in their roles, and the writers have dug deeper into the source material, Slow Horses has managed to outdo itself every year.
Season 1 has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of the series, and it’s a near-perfect 95%. Season 2 and 4 have a rare 100% approval rating from critics, and seasons 3 and 5 came darn close.
How Long Slow Horses Could Potentially Run For On Apple TV
The Slough House series consists of nine novels, five novellas, and one collection, for a grand total of 15 books. All five novellas — The List, The Marylebone Drop, The Catch, The Last Dead Letter, and Standing by the Wall — could still be adapted for the TV show (although the writers might struggle to get a full season’s worth of material out of them).
Since season 6 is making the bold decision to combine two novels, there’s only one full novel left for the TV show to adapt: 2025’s Clown Town. But since Herron is still writing the books (and actually publishing them, unlike George R.R. Martin), Slow Horses could probably go on indefinitely.
Slow Horses
- Release Date
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April 1, 2022
- Network
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Apple TV+
- Showrunner
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Douglas Urbanski
- Directors
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Adam Randall, James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering, Saul Metzstein