Gary Oldman's slovenly spy returns in the Slow Horses season two trailer

In the British spy game, if you mess up, you go to Slough House. There, the Slow Horses, as they’re called (those whacky MI5 agents never miss a chance for a bit of slang), waste their talents and wait for something to drop into their laps. Usually, nothing does, but season one of Apple TV+’s thriller was full of surprises.

With a cast that includes Gary Oldman and Kristen Scott Thomas, Slow Horses brought the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy realism of Jon le Carré and gave it a little shot in the arm. Based on Mick Herron’s second Slow Horses novel, Dead Lions, the second season of Slow Horses delivers Oldman’s head horse Jackson Lamb a whole conspiracy to uncover. With the worst spies in MI5 to back him up, what could possibly go wrong?

Here’s the synopsis for season two:

In season two, long-buried Cold War secrets emerge which threaten to bring carnage to the streets of London. When a liaison with Russian villains takes a fatal turn, our hapless heroes must overcome their individual failings and raise their spy game in a race to prevent a catastrophic incident.

We were big fans of the first season. In our season review, we said:

Slow Horses’s first season is chock full of characters, lines, and moments that will work brilliantly for fans of spy thrillers—not gritty spy thrillers, not action-packed spy thrillers, but straight-laced, classic, by-the-book ones. There are more episodes on the way (and more books to adapt). But for now, this conventional addition to an already crowded genre counts as a confirmed kill.

The new season of Slow Horses premieres on December 2 on Apple TV+.