Apple TV+ just confirmed that "Slow Horses" is returning for a sixth season, which means we're getting even more episodes of Gary Oldman playing a flatulent spy boss who looks like he crawled out of a dumpster behind a Wetherspoons.
The show has quietly become one of the best things on television, mostly because it refuses to make espionage look cool.
For the uninitiated, the premise is simple: MI5's rejects get dumped into a department called Slough House, where they push paper and get yelled at by Jackson Lamb, a man whose personal hygiene is a war crime.
Season 5 hasn't even aired yet, but Apple is already betting you'll keep watching.
Bold move, considering most streaming services cancel shows faster than Lamb can finish a cigarette.
This renewal isn't really surprising. "Slow Horses" has been the rare critical darling that actually delivers, week after week, without needing a dragon or a superhero to get people talking.
It's just miserable British people being bad at their jobs in a way that feels deeply relatable to anyone who's ever sat through a mandatory team meeting.
What makes the show work is that it never pretends the stakes are world-ending.
Sure, there are terrorists and double agents, but the real drama is whether River Cartwright will ever get a win, or whether Roddy Ho will say something so insufferable that someone finally punches him.
It's a workplace comedy wearing a trench coat and pretending to be a thriller.
Season 6 will reportedly adapt another of Mick Herron's novels, though Apple is staying quiet on which one.
If you've read the books, you know things get progressively darker and messier, which tracks, because this show has never been interested in giving anyone a happy ending.
It's more interested in showing you how bureaucracy survives everything, including competence.
The cast is expected to return, which is good news for anyone who enjoys watching Kristin Scott Thomas deliver withering insults with the warmth of a frozen lasagna.
Olivia Cooke, Jack Lowden, and the rest of the Slough House crew have turned what could've been a one-note joke into genuinely compelling television.
No premiere date yet, because Apple enjoys making us wait like we're all stuck in some kind of digital DMV.
But it's coming, and that's more than most shows get these days.
The real question is whether Jackson Lamb will ever shower.
History suggests no. **Our take:** In a TV landscape obsessed with reboots and prequels nobody asked for, "Slow Horses" just keeps being quietly excellent.
It's the anti-prestige prestige show, and we're here for every grimy, sarcastic minute of it.
Final Thoughts
Apple can keep renewing this until Oldman forgets how to act, which, given his track record, will be never.