‘Slow Horses’ Season 6, Episode 3: A Petri Dish of Intrigue

The Prestige TV Podcast

Hosts Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney recap the third episode of Slow Horses Season 6, titled 'Resurrection.' The discussion explores the hi

Key takeaways

• The return of Sid introduces significant tension regarding her history as a double agent.
• Jim and Jane are confirmed to be Russian GRU assassins infiltrating River's space.

Main topics

• Slow Horses Season 6 plot developments
• New York Times prestige TV list critique

Notable quotes

Are you making my trauma about you?

Conclusion

A detailed analysis of character evolution and the intersection of pol

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) you Speaker 2 (0:18) Welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast. Me and I'm Joanna Robinson. I'm Speaker 1 (0:21) Rob Mahoney. We're here Speaker 2 (0:22) to talk about Slow Horses, Episode 3, Resurrection, among a few other things that we want to talk about today. Speaker 1 (0:29) If Speaker 2 (0:29) folks want to email us, because we have plenty of emails about this and many other things, prestigetv at spotify.com. But what if it's just about Slow Horses? Speaker 1 (0:37) If it's just about Slow Horses, or you want to worm your way into our Slow Horses inbox for whatever reason, you could email us at arstimethepope at gmail.com. And getting some... Some revelations from listeners who have revisited earlier seasons, sorry, series of Slow Horses, and bumped on the Arse Time gag has been a great delight for Speaker 2 (0:57) me. Speaker 1 (0:57) They Speaker 2 (0:57) got Speaker 1 (0:57) really Speaker 2 (0:57) excited. Speaker 1 (0:58) As they should be, as was I when that gag first dropped and every time it dropped. Someone Speaker 2 (1:02) this Speaker 1 (1:02) week Speaker 2 (1:02) gave you the laurels. They were like, Rob Mahoney, what a tremendous email you came up with. Speaker 1 (1:06) Many people are praising my performance on these podcasts. Speaker 2 (1:11) We also have a lot of listeners writing in from the UK to help us out with some UK specifics. Last week we were asking about Damien's news channel. where Diana Tavenner made an ass of herself on last week's episode. Sure did. And we were sort of speculating US comps to the channel. We got a lot of emails from UK listeners letting us know what the actual UK comp is for this. The news channel is almost certainly based on GB News. The channel was launched in 2021, which aligns with Peter Judd saying they were fairly new and is very different to most other television news in the UK. Most networks, BBC, ITV, C4, Sky. They're so cool. Speaker 1 (1:50) They sound so cool. They don't seem cool, though. Speaker 2 (1:52) ITV, C4, Sky. Aim for a relatively balanced, neutral point of view, whilst GB News is pretty explicitly right-wing and regularly pushes the boundaries regarding what is allowed under UK broadcasting law. So the comparison with Fox News is appropriate. The channel has close ties to the Reform Party. Nigel Farage even presents a show on there. Wow. Speaker 1 (2:11) Great. Cooking show or what do you think? Speaker 2 (2:14) Home decorating. I Speaker 1 (2:15) would love that. Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:16) Home decorating with Nigel Farage. If anyone Speaker 1 (2:17) is in a position to give tips. What Speaker 2 (2:19) if it's like makeover your garage with Nigel Farage? Speaker 1 (2:23) Okay. See, now we're getting somewhere. Except they say Speaker 2 (2:24) garage, so it wouldn't rhyme. Speaker 1 (2:26) You're right. Speaker 2 (2:27) Tough. The Speaker 1 (2:28) pun just died on the vine there, but I thought it was beautiful while it lived. How Speaker 2 (2:31) do they pronounce petri dish in this episode? I think it's like petri Speaker 1 (2:34) dish. Speaker 2 (2:34) Petri. Petri dish. Loved it. This is sort of like a visual gag. Okay. Which makes for great podcasting, don't you think? Speaker 1 (2:42) Historically. Speaker 2 (2:43) But we got an email from a listener, Sri, who wrote in sort of testing our knowledge of UK matters. Wrote in with a visual, a photograph that you have had a chance to look at. Speaker 1 (2:54) Would you like to describe it? Speaker 2 (2:56) Sure. Just in case we can't get the licensing. It is rectangular. Speaker 1 (3:01) Okay. It Speaker 2 (3:01) is checked. Speaker 1 (3:03) Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:04) Blue and white checked. Yes. Is this particular one. This may not be. If we get a visual on here, it will have been Getty Images approved and it might not be the same color pattern, but it will be a similar thing. And Speaker 1 (3:14) so we're supposed to identify what this is. What would you call Speaker 2 (3:16) that? Speaker 1 (3:17) It looks to me like a kitchen towel. Speaker 2 (3:20) Okay. Speaker 1 (3:21) And I wasn't sure. And Speaker 2 (3:23) you would call it a kitchen towel. Speaker 1 (3:24) I think. I'm sure it has some more specific purpose that I'm missing, but to me it looks like a check. Like not quite gingham, but. Yeah. Gingham adjacent, checkered. Apparently, this tastes like navy blue and white, but... Speaker 2 (3:37) Could be red and white. Could Speaker 1 (3:38) be anything from what you say. Speaker 2 (3:40) I was expecting you to say dish towel instead of kitchen towel, but same thing. I think what Sri is going for is tea towel. I think the Brits call it a tea towel. Speaker 1 (3:51) I'm seeing the issue. Speaker 2 (3:52) Yeah. So, I mean, it's the same item. It's just they call it a tea towel. So it Speaker 1 (3:57) serves the same function as a dish towel or a kitchen towel. But it's called a tea towel. If Speaker 2 (4:02) we were trying to impersonate British people. Speaker 1 (4:06) As we often do. And Speaker 2 (4:07) we were like, barely. Would you hand me the dish towel? They'd be like, aha, you're American or Russian or something like it. That goes into something I want to ask inside of this episode. We open with, and we have some other things because we want to get into the New York Times TV list. We're not done beating that dead horse, content horse. Speaker 2 (4:28) This episode opens with like Satan River in the kitchen and it's quite a fraught reunion and she's basically goes like, cup of tea, right? So my question is, do Americans have a similar sort of like ritualistic, let's all calm down and do a thing together? And if not, should we? Of Speaker 1 (4:46) course we should and we don't. And this is part of why we're fucked up. Not to say that. the British have it all figured out. No, they're perfect. I mean, they've Speaker 2 (4:52) never done anything wrong globally. And I think, you know, that's true. Speaker 1 (4:55) Clearly, they've got a lot going on in their own problems. But I do think genuinely, as Americans, we have like a distinct lack of ceremony around a lot of things, just like a lack of tradition, a lack of like daily routine that is more universal. It's like we all have our little silos and we're min-maxing them and optimizing to various effects. But we're not just sitting down and having tea together. Speaker 2 (5:15) Right. And you could say, like, would you like a cup of coffee? But it's not as universally, like, I just love that all across the UK, and of course it is part of their colonialist past. It's Speaker 1 (5:25) true. Speaker 2 (5:25) It is one of the rituals. That people have their opinions on how a cup of tea should be made. Of course. But, you know, and when you should have it and what kind of biscuit you should have with it. We all know that you're out on biscuits. But, you know, in general, that whole— Wait, Speaker 1 (5:37) I'm out on biscuits? You said Speaker 2 (5:38) so the other two episodes ago. Speaker 1 (5:40) I think you're misquoting me. I Speaker 2 (5:42) asked you about jammy dodgers and a bunch of biscuits, and you're like, I'm kind of out on biscuits. No, Speaker 1 (5:46) I'm out on, like, those specific biscuits. The concept, very open. Speaker 2 (5:51) Okay. You think Speaker 1 (5:52) I'm turning down a biscuit? Be real, Jo. I think you prefer Speaker 2 (5:55) a cookie over a biscuit. And there's two different things. All right. Let's talk about the New York Times list. Sort of an assignment we're giving ourselves for no good reason is one do-over on our own list, our own completely non-controversial list that we posted on Instagram and people thought were very normal lists and supported us with their whole arts. I Speaker 1 (6:12) found that to be true. Speaker 2 (6:13) Yeah, yeah. So if you had one do-over on your list, what would you do? Speaker 1 (6:17) I think to... do what you did, which is smuggle more shit into my list. Speaker 2 (6:21) On the social asset, there's no smuggling and you know that to be true. Speaker 1 (6:25) That was noble of you, but on the pod, there was some real stolen value happening. Speaker 2 (6:29) I just bracketed. I just said in brackets. Speaker 1 (6:32) As you House of R people are ought to do. So Speaker 2 (6:36) what would you smuggle? Speaker 1 (6:37) I think for me, the Americans was the one that really, really hurt. Speaker 2 (6:40) Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:41) And I would love to find Six Feet Under or Andor or Dairy Girls or Veep or like a room for a bunch of stuff. But I think The Americans, when all is said and done, especially is going to be one Speaker 2 (6:51) of Speaker 1 (6:51) those shows we look back on so fondly because of the lead performances, because of the dramatic arc, because of the way it pulled off a lot of things that other prestige TV shows fail at in terms of the sustained tension, in terms of the teenage characters on that show. Like they made a lot of stuff work that really should not have worked. And it's just it's really an amazing, immaculate thing. Speaker 2 (7:11) So you're a big page guy. Speaker 1 (7:13) I think Paige versus, if you, like, if we want to make a bracket of prestige teens, I think Paige is among the best options available. Speaker 2 (7:21) Paige would go pretty far. I Speaker 1 (7:23) think she might win. Speaker 2 (7:24) Sally Draper's cleaning up, I think, at the end of the day. Sally Speaker 1 (7:26) is Speaker 2 (7:26) great. But Paige would go pretty far. How Speaker 1 (7:29) about you, Jo? What are you feeling do-over-wise? Should we do Speaker 2 (7:31) a teen bracket and pit children against each other? Speaker 1 (7:34) I mean. What is like Battle Royale, if not that? Yeah, exactly. It's been Hunger Games to death already. Why can't we get in on it? Speaker 2 (7:41) Let's do it. I think I regret not having like one of the big obvious ones. I got like so in my, these are my favorites that I think it- Speaker 1 (7:49) Don't do that to me. Speaker 2 (7:51) What? Speaker 1 (7:51) The these are my favorites. That's the list we were making. Speaker 2 (7:55) It's best versus favorite. Stop. Speaker 1 (7:57) You know what you're doing and I need you to stop. We're podcasting in front of many people right now. We can't get bogged down in best versus favorite. Speaker 2 (8:05) I'm just saying, I think not having The Wire or Mad Men or Succession, like one of those three on the list, I would put one of them on there. Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:14) You know. Which if you were to pick, which one would you pick? Speaker 2 (8:17) Probably The Wire, but the problem with The Wire, but this is the same problem with Justified, is like some seasons are phenomenal and some seasons are not as phenomenal with The Wire. So like, you know, you like get your school season and you also get your doc season. Now, I love Frank Sabaka. I do. But would I put that season up against some other shows? No. But like The Wire is, I think, similar to Justified and a few other shows that like the seasons feel so distinctly flavored that you could almost get away with what they did with True Detective, which is putting... This is the New York Times sheet. They put True Detective season one on their list. That Speaker 1 (8:50) was really something. So Speaker 2 (8:51) if you can pluck out a season of The Wire, it goes like straight to the top, you know? Speaker 1 (8:55) From a list-making perspective, I thought they did a lot of interesting things. I mean, clearly there's going to be debate about what's at the top and whatnot. Plucking out one season of True Detective is a choice. I was also kind of shocked at how many active shows were on this list and how favorably they were ranked. Shows that you and I love, you and I cover. You're like, get Speaker 2 (9:14) Slow Horses off this list. Speaker 1 (9:15) Good enough Speaker 2 (9:16) for the Prestige TV podcast feed, not good enough for the New York Times list. Speaker 1 (9:19) Slow Horses at 62 feels great to me. I feel great about that. White Lotus at 21. A show I quite like. In watching, it has never once occurred to me that this is a historically great show. It's good. It's very good. It's very enjoyable. It is so different season to season. It's like in the True Detective kind of way. Yeah. But is it the 21st best show of the century? It Speaker 2 (9:41) does feel high. I wonder if they're like, if you earn more Emmy nominations than any show ever, you need to be high on the list. Maybe so. Speaker 1 (9:49) But then where's like the studio on this list, you know? Well, Speaker 2 (9:52) give the studio time. Speaker 1 (9:53) Maybe so. But that was the other one. And that's one thing. It's like White Lotus is a season-to-season anthology series for the most part. Some minor carryover. The one that maybe surprised me even more was Severance at 30. A show I love. But like... Speaker 2 (10:06) It's mixed. It's very mixed in its quality. I would not put it nearly so high. I Speaker 1 (10:13) wouldn't put it nearly so high, but also as a puzzle box show, like I need to know more than other active shows how that ends in order to properly rate it in something like this. Speaker 2 (10:21) Yeah, absolutely. Anything else on the list that you want to talk about? Speaker 1 (10:24) I mean, I think there's just like the stuff that I was happy was included, you know, like happy just to be here, happy to be nominated, like how to a John Wilson, Penn 15. I think you should leave, especially where I think there's an understanding that when you get into the top 25, there's going to be a limited range for comedy and maybe overrepresented in the top 10 based on my expectations. But finding any room in this list for like unconventional comedy, I found to be among the delights of reading it. Speaker 2 (10:51) I like how high I May Destroy You landed because that's like such a phenomenal show and was a big deal of the year that came out. I feel like it has not stayed in the conversation the way that I would like it to. So I feel like this sort of cements it, however much this list cements anything, possibly cements it in that conversation. Speaker 1 (11:11) I think it might help. I know a good amount of people who have gone through the exercise of doing like the printout sheet that the Times has provided and going through and like checking off the ones they have seen or not seen. And I May Destroy You is just high enough on this list where you're like, man, if you didn't know what this was or missed it, you may really make time for it, which is, that's Speaker 2 (11:29) a Speaker 1 (11:29) win in and of itself. Is Speaker 2 (11:30) there anything that didn't make the list at all that you were sort of surprised or disappointed by? Speaker 1 (11:35) I mean, you were just reading through, was it the Men's Health or Men's Journal list of snubs? Men's Journal was like, where's Speaker 2 (11:39) Yellowstone? Where's Suits? Where's Suits? I think several, well, you were talking about Hannibal. There are several like geekier outlets I've seen are like, hey, some of the great genre shows are missing here. It just Speaker 1 (11:53) never occurred to me that Hannibal was going to be on this list. The Times isn't up on all that. Speaker 2 (11:57) Fargo, if you're going to put True Detective season one, would you not put Fargo season one on the list? That's Speaker 1 (12:01) a Speaker 2 (12:01) great point. Speaker 1 (12:02) I'm seeing a Ted Lasso shaped spot on this list that frankly any show could occupy. So, you know, there's room here. Speaker 2 (12:09) Ted Lasso season one. No? No. Okay. No, thank you. Great. All right. Upper Richmond does get a mention inside of this