‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 Premiere: The Saddest Horse

The Prestige TV Podcast

Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney recap the premiere of Slow Horses Season 6, analyzing the emotional stakes and character shifts. They discus

Key takeaways

• The premiere features the death of Strunloy in a shipping container housing unit called 'Studios in the Sky'.
• New assassins Jim and Jane are introduced as a highly efficient, albeit somewhat uninspired, duo.

Main topics

• Slow Horses Season 6 Premiere Recap
• James Bond Casting Speculation

Notable quotes

He's not the slowest horse, but he is the saddest horse.

Conclusion

An engaging breakdown for fans that connects specific episode beats to

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hello, welcome back to the Press TV podcast. I'm Joanna Robinson. Speaker 2 (0:22) I'm Rob Mahoney. Speaker 1 (0:23) It's Slow Horses season. Speaker 2 (0:25) It's always Slow Horses season in a way. Speaker 1 (0:27) In a way, but quite now it's literally Slow Horses season. Season six, episode one. Sorry, Speaker 2 (0:33) series six. Speaker 1 (0:35) Series six. The Speaker 2 (0:36) people get angry. Wow, that Speaker 1 (0:37) feeds right into a question I have for you in a minute. If folks want to email us specifically about slow horses, where should they email us? Speaker 2 (0:46) They should email us about slow horses at arstimethepope at gmail.com. That's spelled exactly the way you think it's spelled. A Speaker 1 (0:53) -R-S-E. Very important. Correct. Arstimethepope. It is a season four reference? I think Speaker 2 (0:59) it Speaker 1 (0:59) might have Speaker 2 (0:59) been Speaker 1 (0:59) series Speaker 2 (0:59) one. Speaker 1 (1:01) Wow. Okay. From like our massive recap episode that we did years ago. How long have we been doing this podcast? Speaker 2 (1:06) Honestly, too long. But if that's too difficult for you for any reason. PrestigeTV at Spotify.com will do fine. We Speaker 1 (1:12) also have a planned mailbag episode coming up and an indeterminate date. So PrestigeTV at Spotify.com is how you can send in questions for that. Please do. We will entertain the idea of answering literally any question. Whether or not we will actually answer those questions depends on how demented you, the listener, are. Okay. Anything else you want to say at the top? Programming wise. No, Speaker 2 (1:36) I think we covered it nicely. Speaker 1 (1:37) Okay. Our plan is to do this week to week for Slow House. Speaker 2 (1:41) Yeah. Speaker 1 (1:41) Six Speaker 2 (1:42) episode run. Nice and breezy. I Speaker 1 (1:44) love it. Actually, on that front, I was listening to McCarron, who's the author of the books on a podcast, talk about sort of why he likes to keep his books like. Very quick, very fast. He writes a lot of novellas in addition to the various Slow Horses books. But he says he likes to write his books so that you could, if you wanted to, read them all in one sitting. Because of Edgar Allan Poe. Who had me bringing up Edgar Allan Poe so quick on the pod? I don't know. This is something Edgar Allan Poe once said about how he prefers to write, why he prefers to write short stories. If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression. For if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere and everything like totality is at once destroyed. So basically, if you have to put the book down at any point, you're, you... break the spell of the immersion into this world and you have to go about your day. So I was thinking about this. Edgar, my Speaker 2 (2:46) guy. I was Speaker 1 (2:46) thinking about this in terms of like. why we love going to films in the movie theater. And you're just like, you get your complete story. You are sitting in the dark. You are not second screening. You're sharing it with other people. This fully immersive storytelling experience. It might be why some people prefer a binge. They just want to like binge all of Slow Horses at once. Get to Speaker 2 (3:06) the Speaker 1 (3:06) bottom of it. Yeah, just like you don't have to worry about your day. You can just watch all of it. I will say. I understand the allure of that. I love going to the movies and sort of having that whole experience. But also, like, what is this podcast if not letting, like, world affairs interfere inside of our digestion of story? It's very true. So I'm of two minds about it. But, like, I just thought that was really funny for him to be like, the reason I keep my book so short is because of Edgar Allan Poe, and here's why. I Speaker 2 (3:33) never thought an author of fiction would speak so directly to me. But Mick Heron's really doing it. Like, I just think we need both, right? Like, you need the digestible. beginning to end story. And then like you and I like to noodle a little bit, you know, watch an episode, chew the fat, see what's going on, theorize if we must. I Speaker 1 (3:50) have a noodle question for you later. A literal noodle question. I Speaker 2 (3:53) simply Speaker 1 (3:53) love to Speaker 2 (3:53) noodle. Okay. Speaker 1 (3:54) On the sort of series versus season front, Speaker 2 (3:58) here's Speaker 1 (3:58) the question that I told you I wanted to start with, which is, and I base this basically on the fact that you and I were exchanging texts. about the upcoming season of Taskmaster. So this is Slow Horses, a very British show. How do you rate our anglophilia? What kind of anglophiles are we? Let's say on a scale of one to five. Why not? Speaker 2 (4:22) Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:22) Arbitrarily. Speaker 2 (4:23) I mean, I think you and I are on totally different scales. I don't think Speaker 1 (4:26) we're on totally different scales. I don't know. Speaker 2 (4:28) To me, if you want to think about our larger ringer universe, you, Yossi, CR, are kind of like on a planet unto yourself, like draped in Union Jacks, if you will. I'm Speaker 1 (4:40) just dabbling, Speaker 2 (4:40) you know, I'm Speaker 1 (4:41) popping across the Speaker 2 (4:42) pond here and there. But like, I don't have a box, you know, like my familiarity with this stuff is knee deep and you're just full, you know, full head underwater. What's Speaker 1 (4:51) the most like anglophilic thing about you, do you think? I don't think I am. Okay. Yeah. Is it just watching? I think Speaker 2 (4:57) it's the Irish part of me simply won't allow it, frankly. Fair, Speaker 1 (5:00) very fair. Okay. Some of us are Irish and English and Welsh all at once. And we all have Speaker 2 (5:05) our problems. Yeah, we Speaker 1 (5:06) entertain all these things. I'm curious. Press CTV at Spotify.com if our listeners, maybe if our UK listeners have a test for how I would love to hear that. We are. Yeah. You like a scone. You like a scone. Would you eat it with clotted cream? I Speaker 2 (5:23) do like a scone, but do I like a scone? That's a whole different question. Would Speaker 1 (5:26) you eat it with clotted cream? Speaker 2 (5:27) Of course. Okay. Speaker 1 (5:29) Of course would. You're on the list. I Speaker 2 (5:31) mean, I'm inclined. Yeah. I'm not out here. I'm not going to defend British cuisine more broadly. Speaker 1 (5:36) What about a Jaffa Cake or a Jammy Dodger? Speaker 2 (5:39) They're fine. Speaker 1 (5:39) Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:40) Yeah. What Speaker 1 (5:41) about a Digestive Biscuit? Speaker 2 (5:43) No room in my life for that. Okay, Speaker 1 (5:45) you're kind of out Speaker 2 (5:45) on all biscuits, it seems like. I just think the whole biscuit culture is not what I'm after. Okay. I Speaker 1 (5:49) would like to continue this. Because an idea I had, and I didn't prep you for this, but like, should we consider in future episodes covering Slow Horses, like, most English moment or most English phrase or something like that from the episode? Speaker 2 (6:03) I did have a definitive answer for that in this one. Okay, what is your answer? And Speaker 1 (6:06) it Speaker 2 (6:06) is an estate agent getting bashed repeatedly in the head and then Catherine Standish being like, Would you like a cup of tea? Speaker 1 (6:11) There it is. And how quickly Speaker 2 (6:12) and eagerly he agreed. Speaker 1 (6:14) Okay, Anglophile Corner. I'm introducing it and we're Speaker 2 (6:17) going Speaker 1 (6:17) to entertain it. Okay. On this sort of Anglophile watch. James Bond. We talked about this in our Furious Finale episode, the shortlist that had been sent out about James Bond. We are pre-recording this episode. It is possible James Bond will be announced before this podcast hits the airwaves. The white smoke Speaker 2 (6:36) will go up. Yeah, Speaker 1 (6:37) exactly. Speaker 2 (6:38) The olive juice will be tossed in the air. And James Bond will be selected. Speaker 1 (6:42) But there's been an update on the casting. And I just wanted to talk about casting, especially since our guy Jack Loudon was sort of on the shortlist for a minute. Seems like he might no longer be may no longer be on the shortlist. The latest that I've heard is that it's down to three candidates and it's mysteriously still somehow Callum Turner. Jack O'Connell, who a lot of people were like, why is he missing from that other shortlist that came out? Can Speaker 2 (7:07) I posit a theory why he was? Sure. He's not James Bond. Speaker 1 (7:10) Okay, great. And then the third is a mysterious entry. Okay. Speaker 2 (7:13) You have my attention. Speaker 1 (7:14) Callum Turner, Jack O'Connell, both 36 years old. So if they're looking for like a 36-year-old handsome guy who can maybe do action and is suave, why is Jack O'Connell not Bond? Speaker 2 (7:26) completely different energy. Okay. I think too chaotic for Bond. Like Speaker 1 (7:29) more of like a brawler. I mean, would be a great Speaker 2 (7:31) Bond villain, would be a great, or not even that, but like another MI6 agent who's like kind of rogue, a Travellan type, you know? Speaker 1 (7:39) Like, I just think. You don't think he can suave it up? I'm sure he can. Speaker 2 (7:43) Okay. I just don't think even, everyone can suave up to a degree, but that doesn't make you James Bond. Speaker 1 (7:48) Okay. What makes you James Bond? Speaker 2 (7:50) I mean, they all kind of redefine it in their own ways, but like, what? What does Jack O'Connell bring to that role that's interesting? Is it that chaos? Like a Speaker 1 (7:57) psychotic gleam, I think. Daniel Craig, when Daniel Craig was cast, that was a real like, this guy's kind of too rough around the edges to play Bond, was my memory of that casting. Yeah. Especially off the back of Pierce Brosnan. Yeah. Okay. So third slot, third mystery slot. I have some options for you. Speaker 2 (8:14) Please. But none of them, I'm assuming, are Jack Loudon, who is now out of the race. Ours and Slow Horse's own Jack Loudon. Seems Speaker 1 (8:21) like he might be out of the race. Tough. Okay, if they want to go younger. Speaker 1 (8:27) Now, I know you rejected Jacob Elordi on Too Tall. Too Speaker 2 (8:30) Tall. Speaker 1 (8:30) What about a short king, Finn Bennett of True Detective Night Country and Night of the Seven Kingdoms fame? Speaker 2 (8:39) Is he that short? Speaker 1 (8:40) Yeah, he's a short king. Speaker 2 (8:41) Oh, wow. I mean, short, blended in the crowd nicely. Yeah. I don't hate it. Speaker 1 (8:44) Okay. He's 26. Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been on the, like, in the discussion for a really long time. He's also 36 years old. I do want to talk about Bullet Train actually a little later in this episode. Your favorite movie. He's Speaker 2 (8:59) great in Bullet Train. I Speaker 1 (9:00) know. Speaker 2 (9:00) That movie though. I know. A little rickety. Off the tracks. Speaker 1 (9:05) Yeah. Aaron Taylor Johnson Bond. Where Speaker 2 (9:07) are you? See that to me is like capturing what would work about Jack O'Connell but in a package that reads more James Bond to me. Speaker 1 (9:13) Okay. I Speaker 2 (9:14) think the way in which he. like is rough around the edges is more appealing to me within. I Speaker 1 (9:20) feel like you need to see Jack O'Connell in a tighter suit. I feel like you have not seen yet to see him in a suit tight enough to convince you. Maybe it is Speaker 2 (9:26) literally just that. Speaker 1 (9:27) Yeah. Whereas Aaron Taylor Johnson has worn many tight, occasionally shiny suits. But Speaker 2 (9:31) here's the thing. Now that the fashion world has moved slightly beyond the tight suit. Yeah. Are we poised for a true like Gen Z, Gen Alpha, slightly baggier suit? A Speaker 1 (9:39) baggy Speaker 2 (9:39) Bond? A baggy Bond. Speaker 1 (9:41) No. Gotta keep it tight if you're Bond. You can't do baggy Bond. Here's the Speaker 2 (9:43) thing. Bond, regardless of how old he is, is for the olds. Let's be real about it. It's Speaker 1 (9:48) very Speaker 2 (9:48) true. I'm not sure that younger people are glomming on to Bond in that way. Speaker 1 (9:51) Dev Patel, 36 years old. Sign Speaker 2 (9:53) me the fuck up. Speaker 1 (9:54) Okay. Why Speaker 2 (9:55) hasn't this happened? Speaker 1 (9:55) I really agree. Dev would be my number one. I have one last candidate for you, and I'm actually not sure if you're familiar with his work, but you watch Bad Sisters, maybe. Daryl McCormick, who was the lead in the movie Good Luck, Leo Grand. which is the movie where Emma Thompson fucks Speaker 2 (10:12) a Speaker 1 (10:12) sex worker. Yes, I'm familiar with Speaker 2 (10:13) the movie. Speaker 1 (10:14) He's the titular Leo Grant. Sure. He's also Mr. Bingley in the new Pride and Prejudice. He is extremely handsome, extremely suave, extremely British, Speaker 2 (10:23) extremely Speaker 1 (10:24) charming. Speaker 2 (10:24) Sounds like he's checking the boxes. I'm a fan. Speaker 1 (10:26) He's 33, so that's a possibility there. But Dev is my number one. And he's like, I told you this before we started recording, but I kept bringing up Dev's name. to other people and they're like, oh, he's too old alas. He's the same age as Jack O'Connell and Callum Turner. So Dev Patel for Bond, you agree with me? Speaker 2 (10:44) Completely agree. And it's but a number. Like, I really don't care how old Bond is. To me, Dev is like absolutely suave enough. Like, has the action chops. Like, you know, it's kind of self-taught in a lot of ways to be a kind of action hero. Speaker 1 (10:57) Monkey Man, not a great movie, but like, he had the moves. Yes. Speaker 2 (11:01) Honestly, what would really sell me more than anything on the Dev Patel. experienced more broadly, but as James Bond, him in Green Knight is like as opaque as I want Bond to be. Speaker 1 (11:10) I Speaker 2 (11:11) want like Bond is a character who has a lot of interiority, at least in the more modern versions and the Craig version for sure. You know, like smarmy octopus-y era Bond, maybe not so much. That's the direction they've taken it. And so a Villeneuve Bond, I would think, would share that. Speaker 1 (11:28) So the Dev Patel Experience, which is a new emo band that I will be debuting later this year, but also... What are you Speaker 2 (11:36) playing? Speaker 1 (11:36) Oh, I am... Yeah, Kazoo, I think. Speaker 2 (11:39) Oh. Yeah. I mean, new in the emo space. Yeah. I don't think I've heard a single emo band with a Kazoo reporter. And Speaker 1 (11:44) that's why Speaker 2 (11:44) we're Speaker 1 (11:44) the Dev Patel Experience. It's very true. But yeah, Dev would be so good. He would be the best. He would be really good. And he can be really funny, which Bond needs to be. Incredibly so. Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:54) And I think it's sort of aged out of like the daffy, goofy, funny into a different kind of dry cutting wit that would really work. Can I throw one more name at you? Oh, please. I never would have considered this until I saw Tony. And that's Leo Woodall. Leo Woodall. Speaker 1 (12:08) My obsession. Speaker 2 (12:10) As a very specific kind of like brawler Bond, you know, it would Speaker 1 (12:14) be, Speaker 2 (12:14) it would have to be a more hand-to-hand kind of movie, but. I'm open to that possibility more so than I ever would have thought. This Speaker 1 (12:21) is so fun because we literally had a meeting last week on a Zoom where we were talking about Louis Woodall and you had yet to experience Tony. So you were not like yet a total convert, but now you've joined the church of Woodall. In Speaker 2 (12:32) that movie. Yeah. Does enough drugs. Yeah. Crashes out hard. Yeah. Fights people. Speaker 1 (12:36) I don't know. Kind of steals Speaker 2 (12:37) the movie, honestly. Yeah. Speaker 1 (12:40) He's incredible in one day, really fun in White Lotus and scary in White Lotus, but in a great way. I think he's going to, and Tuner, you haven't seen Tuner yet, right? I haven't Speaker 2 (12:49) seen Speaker 1 (12:49) Tuner yet. Tuner, incredible. Tuner actually like, because in its own safe-cracking way, like very, very Bond-y. So, yeah. Okay, Leo Woodall. Let's just put him in the ring. Speaker 2 (12:59) Gary Oldman, do you want to throw him in the ring? Speaker 1 (13:01) No. Let's get into it. Slow horses. The book inspo for this season, it's a combo. For the first time, we're getting two books smashed together in one season. It's a book called Slough House and a book called Joe Country. Okay. Somehow he made it all the way, I think, to book seven in the series and he hadn't called one Slough House. You Speaker 2 (13:20) got to take the layup. Speaker 1 (13:21) Slough House, Joe Country. Joe Country is kind of a side quest book, so I understand why they're kind of folding it in because if you did a Joe Country season, you wouldn't really have Jax and Lim. or Diana Tavener, or your guy Roddy Ho, your absolute idol Roddy Ho. So it is a Louisa-centric book, though. So you would have... Speaker 2 (13:41) As they all should be. Speaker 1 (13:42) More Louisa. So I think they've just folded some of the storyline of Joe Country into the larger story of Slough House. Another thing that Joe Country has that this season is probably not going to get into is a lot of Prince Andrew royal scandal stuff. Why aren't they going to get into that? I feel like maybe they were like, let's just not. What if we didn't? What if we just didn't? And that seems to have been the move. Any thoughts or feelings you have about the season as a whole before we sort of get into the breakdown of the episode? I Speaker 2 (14:13) just think between the trailers for this season and this first episode, like it feels like such a culmination effect. Speaker 1 (14:19) And Speaker 2 (14:20) Slow Horses, I would say more than most shows, is a show I would recommend new viewers could kind of jump in at almost any point. And there's like some background you need, but... As long as you understand this is a mostly self-contained spy adventure, like starring some misfits, I would say maybe saving season four. That might be the one that requires some backstory. We Speaker 1 (14:40) did get an email about that from a listener who was like, can I just hop in in series six? Well, clearly not. Speaker 2 (14:44) I Speaker 1 (14:44) would say no. This one, Speaker 2 (14:46) absolutely not. Oh, okay, yeah. Which to Speaker 1 (14:47) me Speaker 2 (14:47) is why this is kind of an exception to the rule. Yeah, this Speaker 1 (14:49) one formally feels a bit different than the other ones. And then also, yeah, like... The fact that Strunloy, who we met in series one, Speaker 2 (14:57) is Speaker 1 (14:58) briefly back here. I was really excited to see him. Thrilled. Briefly. Harkness is back. River's father is back. So it feels like a lot of characters who have been and gone are coming back. And so it feels like a real payoff season in a way that the previous ones haven't. Agreed. I think Speaker 2 (15:16) just... It's been a welcome reminder even one episode in of like the institutional Speaker 1 (15:19) memory of the show. All Speaker 2 (15:21) of these little characters, all these bits that have been around the edges of the story. They're better and more realized and funnier and more lively than what you get out of most shows in terms of the main events. And so the fact that the cast offs are coming back, all of these plots are being tied up, stories that I would never have expected to collide are now colliding. I'm just thrilled for where we could be going. It feels like Slow Horse Christmas to me. Oh, Speaker 1 (15:41) nice. Let's get into the episode. We're going to go just scene by scene. Why not? Speaker 2 (15:45) Let's do it. The Speaker 1 (15:46) death of Strun Loy. Sadly. Speaker 2 (15:49) We open with a shot of roadkill on the road. Uncalled for. Very Speaker 1 (15:52) strange. Speaker 2 (15:54) In the moment, you see, I assume it's a dog. It could be a fox, I guess. Oh, Speaker 1 (15:58) interesting. Speaker 2 (15:59) Just get absolutely re-plastered into the pavement. Speaker 1 (16:02) Yeah, really tough. Speaker 2 (16:03) Gratuitous, frankly. Speaker 1 (16:04) Into a karate class. Speaker 1 (16:07) This gem from Strunloy, when someone comes for you, there's no time to think. It's your muscle memory that'll save you. Speaker 2 (16:13) He was right. Speaker 1 (16:14) Did not save him. Well, Speaker 2 (16:15) his muscle memory is like going to the pub and trying to make friends. Speaker 1 (16:19) Yeah. And Speaker 2 (16:20) then betraying those friends. Speaker 1 (16:22) Sat all alone grocery shopping. What do you make of his shipping container housing proposition? Studios in the sky. Speaker 2 (16:31) It doesn't seem great. No? Him living in there also doesn't seem great. I will say, which to you is... more quietly devastating. Is it being burned alive in your own shipping container condo? Yeah. Speaker 1 (16:44) Or Speaker 2 (16:44) is it the quiet mockery of the assassins just prior to their burning