This review spoils everything.
Every Slow Horses season has its own plot, and thus its own vibe, but this season's focus on personal relationships threw me for a loop that I wasn't expecting.
Specifically: River. Normally, River suffers from main character syndrome. He inserts himself into external events, convinced only he can save the world; or he is inserted into events by wilier folks who see him as a useful idiot. In this season, though, River actually is the point. As is his grandfather David Cartright, and, surprisingly, River's own father, Frank Harkness (played by Hugo Weaving).
The attempt on David Cartright's life is the inciting event, but the big reveal doesn't come until nearly the end of the season, when Frank Harkness and River sit down for a drink and both acknowledge their relationship. Frank's known all along; River figured it out after visiting Les Arbes, the rundown mansion in the surliest town in France where Frank sired, raised, and trained a little army of very maladjusted young men.
I don't remember when I first figured out the connection between them; it was certainly after River did. His separation from the team for so much of the season meant we got very little access to his thinking, which is another distinction between this season and the others. But I also didn't think I needed to puzzle anything out—with Slow Horses, I'm always happy to just go along for the ride.
In places, though, it was a rough ride. As Louisa said, River's family is a "car crash." Back in the early 1990s, David Cartright paid Harkness in weapons and fake IDs to get his pregnant daughter back; that's how River wound up raised by his grandfather. Frank, meanwhile, is just a sociopathic freakazoid. He's always got another card to play, another way to mastermind his way out of a situation. But he's just terrifying, especially because we've seen how badly he raised all of his poor sons. (Watching David Cartright struggle with dementia wasn't easy, either.)
All of that family drama was foregrounded against the usual spyjinks, although this season had a decidedly masculine flair. The new First Desk at MI-5 is Claude Whelan, played by the always-fun James Callis. I will always think of him as Dr. Gaius Baltar from BSG, and his Slow Horses character isn't very different: Claude Whelan is the kind of administrator who knows everyone's names and nothing else.
Jackson Lamb, on the other hand... well, I mean, he's still Jackson Lamb. But the final scene, where he and River sat silently in the bar together, was about as close as we'll ever get to kindness from Lamb, and it was clear River appreciated it. In a season that leaned heavily into the "bad fathers everywhere" approach to narrative, Lamb's little moment of compassion stood out.
Aside from Flyte, the new Head Dog, most of the other secondary characters with arcs of their own were male. Newbie Coe clearly has some issues—and possibly even had them before he experienced trauma. Marcus, who has always delighted me, died in a heroic attempt to save everyone, and that breaks my heart for him, for his family, and for Shirley. "Scratch and Sniff" no more.
The emphasis on the manliness in this season is not a complaint (although I did, as always, wish we got more Louisa). I think it makes the season cohere: you can see this as a set of questions and answers about how to be an adult given the persistent failure of authority figures, and the persistent failures of systems and structures (lol that Flyte thought MI-5 would be less corrupt and petty than her previous job). In this season, this show suggests that the best we can hope for is getting through. We're all like River being endlessly chased by a very angry, very fast French chien.
All of that sounds a bit dour, and I don't mean it to. As with every other season of Slow Horses, I got completely caught up in it. I love the character interactions, the way they play off of each other, and how even the smartest person in the room (usually Lamb) can be surprised by how things happen. This is a great show. No complaints. Just, I suppose, a slightly maudlin awareness of how much I'll miss Marcus and how difficult dementia can be for everyone.
The next season, I hope, will at least give us a bit more camaraderie to temper all of the depressing reality. And while Frank Harkness was a great character, I'm not sure I need to see him return any time soon. He's too powerful.
Four out of four tea kettles.
Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)
Excellent review!
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on in saying River suffers from main character syndrome. It’s one of the first things we know about him and I love it - it makes him sympathetic (don’t we all feel like we’re the center of the universe most of the time?) and it leads to a lot of good humor (and good plotting) when other characters see it and he does not.
Having read the books, I knew what was coming in regard to Marcus (sob! I liked him so much, especially in combination with Shirley).
But it’s fun to see new characters! I really like the casting of Coe so far. I always found him an intriguing person on the page and wanted to know more about him. He is a bit dangerous, and we get some hints of that here.
Frank, meanwhile, is extremely dangerous. You mentioned how awful he is to his sons, and that’s even more obvious in the books. He barely seems to notice the death of the false River. That’s cold, man :(
Speaking of which, it is such a great fake-out in the beginning when we know David is struggling with his memory and it actually seems possible he could have shot his own grandson. They directed that sequence so nicely, allowing the tension to build even though we were thinking “They wouldn’t REALLY…?” I felt so sorry for Louisa (what an absolute jerk Lamb is, not to reassure her immediately).
One of the sequences I saw criticized as “unrealistic” by an IMDB post was the almost slapstick bit where Shirley, Marcus, and Lamb (if I recall correctly) all end up stepping in to rescue the previous person from the bad guy. Sure, it was unrealistic, but it was fresh - you don’t expect more than one rescue in a section like that. I’d much rather have something interesting and entertaining rather than all the super serious “tough guy” shows.
You mention that the season has a masculine flair - I can see that! A lot of action, lots of running around, cat and mouse with Frank, etc. On the feminine side it was nice to meet Emma Flyte, who appears in later books too, and as always Catherine is lovely. Of course River would trust her to take care of his grandfather - and she did her best (even though her attempts to deceive Lamb were not brilliant haha).
In regard to other new characters: James Callis is not who I imagined as Claude Whelan (I was thinking someone older, balder, more “governmental”) but he’s great. You can almost feel bad for Diana, who is obviously just barely restraining herself from shoving him in a corner so grownups can get things done. I will say that he develops a LOT in later books, so I hope they get to them.
I won’t confirm or deny that Frank comes back, but some exciting things are coming for Season 5 if they follow the book. There are some sections at Roddy’s home that are hilarious. Shirley should have a chance to shine, too.
So your wish for a bit more camaraderie will probably be filled - at least I hope so!
I'm excited to know more about Coe. I'm waiting to binge the entire fifth season at once.
ReplyDeleteI totally enjoyed this season, although maybe not quite as much as season three. The set-up with David killing River was a shocker, even though I was relatively certain River wasn't dead. BTW, I lost my favorite aunt to dementia fairly recently and they did a masterful (and very sad) job through all six episodes with David.
ReplyDeleteUsually when actors age, they look more like themselves, not less. Not this time. I barely recognized Hugo Weaving, and he was horrifying. That sit-down at the end when they acknowledged their relationship made me think of Darth Vader asking Luke to join him in ruling the universe.
The bits with Diana as First Desk but without the title was so real life. James Callis is so spectacularly talented at playing high powered jerks, isn't he? All he did was lean on her while simultaneously getting in her way.
Coe is interesting. You can feel his backstory emanating from him like a bad smell, even though we don't know what it is. Poor guy. And poor Marcus! I felt his end coming. Maybe I got spoiled somewhere.
(I try not to read reviews when they go up, although I scan them for typos and coding problems, and when it's a show I'm not watching, facts don't usually stick. Maybe they did this time.)
Did you notice the mistletoe attached to a stick on Ho's office chair, dangling over his face? Ho is often very annoying but funny as well as efficient. This time he was mostly on the annoying side.
Thanks for another wonderful review, Josie.
I'm so curious to see what you think of the next season.
ReplyDeleteOn it!
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