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Some shows take off like rockets. Others don’t rush. They linger, build quietly, then catch you off guard by becoming essential. Slow Horses is one of those. The Apple TV+ series, based on Mick Herron’s Slough House novels, wasn’t trying to be flashy. But with each season, it earned something better: trust. And now, before even seasons five or six are aired, the show has already been picked up for a seventh season.
That kind of early renewal doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a gamble, it’s a message. Apple knows exactly what it has here, and they’re not about to let Slow Horses go.
Why Slow Horses is unlike anything else on TV
This isn’t the world of tuxedos and martinis. The show takes place on the margins, among MI5 agents who’ve messed up badly enough to be cast aside, but not quite enough to be fired. They end up at Slough House, a dead-end department run by a man who smells like takeout and disappointment: Jackson Lamb. And somehow, he might be the smartest one of them all.
The show leans hard into the mess. The failures. The shame. It doesn’t offer redemption arcs on a silver platter. And that’s what makes Slow Horses work. These aren’t heroes. They’re just people, stubborn, bitter, funny, tired, trying to matter again.
Characters that stay with you
Part of what makes the show so compelling isn’t just the plot, it’s how these characters feel like real people you might pass on the street, or work with, or try to avoid at the office coffee machine. They’re not likable in a traditional sense, and the show never tries to clean them up. They’re petty. They’re awkward.
Sometimes proud, sometimes paranoid, sometimes all of it at once, in the same breath. They snap at each other, say the wrong thing, carry their baggage into every room. But somehow, you still want them to win. Maybe not because they deserve it, but because you see pieces of them in yourself.
That emotional weight doesn’t come from dramatic speeches or big performances. It comes from how quietly the cast lets these characters live. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Diana Taverner with this careful stillness, polished, unreadable, dangerous in the way silence can be. The others, Saskia Reeves, Jack Lowden, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, never overreach. They bring a kind of lived-in exhaustion, like people who’ve made peace with disappointment but haven’t stopped hoping it might turn around.
This world isn’t about heroes. It’s about people trying not to fall apart, just doing their best to stay useful, to stay seen. And in that space between giving up and hanging on, the show doesn’t just tell a good story. It tells one that feels like it knows exactly what being human actually looks like.
What’s happening with seasons 5, 6, and 7
Four seasons have aired. Each one adapting a different novel from Herron’s series. Season five, based on London Rules, arrives September 24, 2025, starting with two episodes and rest of the episodes airing weekly. Season six, adapted from Joe Country and Slough House, is already done filming and currently in post-production.
Short seasons, tight scripts, no fluff. That’s been the rhythm so far. And it’s paid off. The show moves at its own pace, slow, sure, and cutting when it needs to be. With Slow Horses, there’s no rush, just precision.
No big press release yet, but the news is out there. Multiple sources say filming for season seven is expected to start in September 2025. Which means it’ll be in the works before season six even hits the platform.
It’s a quiet kind of confidence. No fanfare. Just a team that knows it still has stories to tell, and an audience that’s paying attention.
What the season five teaser tells us about Slow Horses
The teaser for season five doesn’t scream. It simmers. Political fractures, rising threats, agents unraveling from the inside. Roddy Ho, often the comic relief, seems to be stepping into unfamiliar territory. And Lamb? He’s as bitter, brilliant, and reluctantly dependable as ever. Thank God.
The tension feels different this time, less about what’s out there, more about what’s cracking within. The world of Slow Horses isn’t black and white, it lives in the murky gray, and that’s where it thrives.
Why Slow Horses continues to resonate
2022 brought the first two seasons adopting two books, Slow Horses and Dead Lions. A year later, seasons three and four followed. The pace never let up. By 2024, filming on season five was wrapped. Season six filming came soon after. Now? Season seven’s already lining up. No stalls. No drama. Just work.
Critics love it. Rotten Tomatoes clocks it at 98%. Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb has been called everything from repulsive genius to the most watchable thing on TV. And the rest of the cast? Solid. Understated. Real.
It’s not a hype machine. It’s a story that grows in the quiet. Word-of-mouth has done the heavy lifting here, and honestly, that’s the best kind of endorsement.
What’s next
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Renewing before two full seasons drop is rare. But when it comes to Slow Horses, it makes perfect sense. This is a show that knows exactly what it is, and it’s only getting better at telling its story.
There’s still plenty of ground left to cover. And if the next chapters hold the same mix of bite, heart, and understated brilliance, then Slow Horses might just end up as one of Apple TV+’s best long-running achievements. No noise, no flash, just sharp storytelling, delivered one flawed agent at a time.
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