Commandos kidnap one of Gary Oldman’s Slow Horses in season 3 trailer

Apple TV+ is cranking up the action in espionage-thriller series Slow Horses, if the season 3 trailer it dropped Tuesday is any indication.

Dissipated Cold War-era spy Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) sees his Slough House crew of remedial MI5 agents come under major attack, and one of them is kidnapped by an elite military unit. Is it an inside job? Per previous seasons, the Slow Horses tend to get in trouble with their more-accomplished MI5 colleagues.

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Slow Horses season 3 trailer shows action heating up in espionage thriller

Season 3 of the acclaimed series starring Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas comes from the third novel in Mick Herron’s Slough House series, Real Tigers. The series debuts November 29 with two episodes, followed by a new one each Wednesday through December 27, for a total of six.

Having read the novels and enjoyed the series — as has Cult of Mac’s film and TV critic — I’ve wished each season could be longer. This one probably won’t be any different. The show brings dark humor and gripping drama in equal measure, and it lives up to the excellent books.

Here’s Apple’s description of the show and its third season:

Winner of Best English-Language Drama Series at the 2022 C21 International Drama Awards, Slow Horses is a darkly humorous espionage drama that follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping-ground department of MI5 known un-affectionately as Slough House. In season three, a romantic liaison in Istanbul threatens to expose a buried MI5 secret in London. When Jackson Lamb and his team of misfits are dragged into the fight, they find themselves caught in a conspiracy that threatens the future not just of Slough House but of MI5 itself.

Oldman leads stellar cast

The streaming service also gives full credit to the show’s excellent cast and puts its newcomers for season 3 in context:

Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but misanthropic leader of the spies, who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes as they frequently find themselves blundering around the smoke and mirrors of the espionage world. The ensemble cast also includes Academy Award nominee Kristin Scott Thomas, BAFTA Scotland Award winner Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Freddie Fox, Chris Reilly, Samuel West, Sophie Okonedo, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan and Academy Award nominee Jonathan Pryce. Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù joins the season three cast as Sean Donovan, the former head of security at the British embassy in Istanbul, along with Katherine Waterston who plays Alison Dunn, an MI5 agent who uncovers a dark secret at the heart of the agency.

Watch the season 3 trailer

Credit where it’s due

See-Saw Films produces Slow Horses for Apple TV+. Will Smith (Veep) adapted the novel for TV. Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Douglas Urbanski, Gail Mutrux, Smith, Jane Robertson and Graham Yost serve as executive producers. Saul Metzstein directs season 3.

The show has nabbed BAFTA Television Award nominations, including Oldman’s first for Best Lead Actor and Lowden nom for Best Supporting Actor. Other BAFTA nominations include Best Editing: Fiction (Katie Weiland), Best Original Music: Fiction (Daniel Pemberton and Mick Jagger) and Best Sound: Fiction (Martin Jensen, Joe Beal, Duncan Price, Craig Butters, Sarah Elias and Andrew Sissons).

Catch up with season 1 and 2 on Apple TV+

If you haven’t tried Slow Horses yet, you can catch the first two seasons on Apple TV+. In addition to the upcoming third season, Apple TV+ previously announced a fourth season based on Herron’s fourth novel in the Slough House series, Spook Street.

And you can also bone up on some of Slow Horses’ spy lingo in this handy glossary.

Apple TV+ is available by subscription for $6.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.

After first airing in November 2019, “Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 299 wins and 1,451 award nominations and counting,” the service said.

In addition to award-winning movies and TV shows (including breakout soccer comedy Ted Lasso), Apple TV+ offers a variety of documentaries, dramas, comedies, kids shows and more.

Source: Apple TV+