This darkly funny espionage drama follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes. Led by their brilliant but irascible leader, the notorious Jackson Lamb, they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.
There are so many Apple TV+ shows to look forward to in 2025! There are new seasons of some of the streamer’s best shows coming, along with new series and even a cool-looking film or two. Get ready for dramas, comedies and lots of sci-fi.
Cult of Mac writers picked the Apple TV+ shows we’re most excited about in the coming year. Keep reading or watch our video to fill out your Up Next queue early.
While it’s only about half the Golden Globe nominations Apple TV+ racked up in the awards for 2024, the streamer managed to snag eight nominations this year. The 2025 nominations include no movies. But three nods go to TV series Slow Horses, two apiece honor Disclaimer and Shrinking, and one goes to Presumed Innocent. This edition marks the Golden Globes’ 82nd year.
The acclaimed Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning spy drama series Slow Horses, starring Academy Award winner Gary Oldman, gallops toward a green-lighted sixth season even as season 4 just concluded October 9, Apple TV+ said Tuesday. This continues a trend. Season 5 won approval right after the season 3 finale — well before season 4 aired. And it also makes Slow Horses the streamer’s longest-running show by number of seasons. Though admittedly, at six episodes apiece, they’re not long seasons.
“Audiences around the world have fallen in love with the Slow Horses, and I’m delighted that Gary Oldman will be leading this star-studded cast on another acerbic and action-packed adventure,” said Jay Hunt, creative director, Europe, Apple TV+.
The trailer for Slow Horses season 5, coming to Apple TV+ in 2025, didn’t drop on YouTube or on the Apple website, per usual. Instead, the teaser for the darkly funny espionage thriller’s next season is tacked on to the end of the season 4 finale on Apple TV+, which aired Wednesday. But we found the trailer in standalone form on a magazine website, included below.
This time, Slough House IT guy and arrogant doofus Roddy Ho, played by Australian singer and actor Christopher Chung, is at the center of the action. And River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) share an awkward kiss for some reason.
Season 4 of Slow Horses stayed at the top of a rating’s company’s popularity chart for the second week. This darkly funny espionage drama starring Gary Oldman follows a team of British intelligence agents who’ve all made career-ending mistakes yet are somehow always in the center of the action. New episodes stream each Wednesday on Apple TV+.
Plus, Apple’s crime comedy Bad Monkey starring Vince Vaughn held onto popularity, too.
Apple TV+ scored 10 wins at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday, including the first for darkly comedic espionage thriller Slow Horses, plus a second for The Morning Show star Billy Crudup as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
In all, five Apple TV+ shows and one commercial won Primetime Emmys, on top of the eight wins that five shows garnered recently in the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Primetime-winning shows included Palm Royale, Lessons in Chemistry, Masters of the Air and Girls State.
London is under threat from shopping-mall car bombers and espionage masterminds, and somehow Gary Oldman’s MI5 screwups once again end up in the middle of the action. That’s according to the new Slow Horses season four trailer for the black-comedy spy-thriller series.
The Emmy-nominated and BAFTA-winning series stars Oldman as MI5’s irascible Slough House section chief Jackson Lamb. The six-episode season premieres September 4 on Apple TV+.
UPDATE: Season 4 of Slow Horses gets underway Wednesday with the first episode, entitled “Identity Theft,” on Apple TV+. “A London bombing triggers and explosive hidden past,” notes the streamer’s tagline. A season review in The Guardian calls the show “faultlessly directed,” notes the cast is even better than before and says “Gary Oldman roars like a bear dipped in chip fat.”
The Apple TV+ streaming service earned more Emmy Award nominations than it ever has before. There were 72 noms for 16 different shows, including The Morning Show, Palm Royale, Lessons in Chemistry, Slow Horses, Loot, Hijack and many more.
“We are so thankful to the Television Academy for honoring our storytellers with a record number of Emmy nominations today,” said Jamie Erlicht, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video.
Here’s your eagerly awaited dead drop, Slow Horses fans: The fourth season of the BAFTA Award-winning espionage series returns to Apple TV+ on September 4, according to the “first look” the streamer gave Thursday. That’s the image above. And once again, some makeup artist deserves major awards for making Gary Oldman look like sagging spymaster Jackson Lamb, poster boy for decades of booze, smokes, greasy food, stress and betrayal.
The BAFTA Television Craft Awards — a branch of the BAFTAs, often thought of as the British Oscars — awarded wins to Apple TV+ hit series Slow Horses and Silo, the iPhone giant said Sunday.
The acerbic espionage drama Slow Horses won for best editing and best sound. Sci-fi series Silo landed wins for best production design and best original music.
In addition, Apple TV+ received further nominations in the upcoming BAFTA Television Awards.
Fans of darkly comedic spy thriller series Slow Horses rejoice! Another of Mick Herron’s acerbic novels, Down Cemetery Road, is coming to Apple TV+. The show will star Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, the streaming service said Tuesday.
“‘Down Cemetery Road’ has all the hallmarks of Mick Herron’s funny and acerbic writing, and I’m delighted we will be bringing it to life for Apple TV+ with such a stellar cast,” said Jay Hunt, creative director, Europe, Apple TV+. “Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson will make it an unmissable companion piece for ‘Slow Horses’ on our service.”
The darkly comedic spy thriller series Slow Horses has three seasons ready to binge-watch on Apple TV+ — season 3’s finale aired last week — plus season 4 on the way and now a fifth season planned for production, the streaming service said Tuesday.
The critically acclaimed hit show starring Gary Oldman might as well keep rolling, as there are more novels in Mick Herron’s Slough House book series to base new six-episode seasons on.
Four of the top 10 most popular streaming series are all on Apple TV+, according to a market analysis. That’s a new milestone for Apple’s streaming service.
The list includes British spy thriller Slow Horses and Godzilla series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, as well as other shows that both audiences and critics like.
The Apple TV+ espionage-thriller series Slow Horses pulls in big audiences. It gets more viewers than almost anything else on streaming, according to a pair of market analyses.
Apple TV+ actually has two very popular series streaming now. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is also near the top of the rating charts.
Slow Horses, the Apple TV+ spy thriller based on the Slough House novels by British novelist Mick Herron, spices up its twisty-turny plots with witty dialogue and convincing performances.
Lead character Jackson Lamb, a rumpled British spook played by Gary Oldman, runs the misfit spy shop known as Slough House. Everyone on his team (known as the “Slow Horses”) screwed up in a major way professionally, earning them their one-way ticket to Lamb’s dusty, low-rent M15 leper colony. Lamb torments them at nearly every turn with a mordant mix of skepticism and ridicule.
Here are three reasons you should watch Slow Horses the Apple TV+, which fires up its third season today.
Apple TV+ is cranking up the action in espionage-thriller series Slow Horses, if the season 3 trailer it dropped Tuesday is any indication.
Dissipated Cold War-era spy Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) sees his Slough House crew of remedial MI5 agents come under major attack, and one of them is kidnapped by an elite military unit. Is it an inside job? Per previous seasons, the Slow Horses tend to get in trouble with their more-accomplished MI5 colleagues.
Jackson Lamb and his team of misfit MI5 agents return soon for season three of espionage thriller Slow Horses. Apple TV+ offered a first look Wednesday with some photos and plot tidbits about the trouble they will get into.
The award-winning show debuts December 1 with the first two episodes of the new season. As a big fan of the show and the books it’s based on, I can’t wait.
Although Ted Lasso is amazing and wildly popular, it’s not the only hit show on Apple TV+. A search engine focused on movies and TV released a top 10 list of everything on Apple’s streaming service, revealing which other series also draw plenty of viewers.
Subscribers to the streaming service might use it to find additional shows worth watching.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: We’re talking about all the Apple gear we’re certain will arrive in 2023 — and some we just hope will materialize.
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★★★★☆
Slow Horses‘ magnificent second season comes to its excellent, exciting conclusion this week on Apple TV+.
Louisa’s revenge is at hand. Jackson discovers why the Russians have it in for him. River, Roddy, Shirley and Kelly are headed for a showdown with Chernitsky. And Standish is close to the truth. A season of intrigue explodes into armed combat and tough talk as the spy thriller wraps up season two and prepares for its next outing — which can’t come soon enough.
★★★★☆
The second season of Apple TV+ spy drama Slow Horses is through warming up and starting to boil over. This week’s excellent installment has Lamb revisiting the past, Catherine playing a very important game of chess, River up a creek, Louisa and Marcus in the dark, and Roddy and Shirley on the run. Plus, the Tropper family is in trouble.
The whole episode, entitled “Boardroom Politics,” is about mounting tension and slow (but not too slow) reveals, as everyone races to either create or prevent a catastrophe.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ spy thriller Slow Horses nears its bogey this week, in an excellent episode full of richly drawn character detail from the show’s charismatic cast.
Lamb is on the hunt for more evidence, Louisa’s giving in to her grief over Min, River’s getting lost down a rabbit hole of suspicions, Catherine relives a bad moment from her past, and the Russians are cleaning house.
The episode, entitled “Cicada,” stands as a fine and compelling exercise in tension and unspoken personal development.
★★★★☆
There’s a man down this week on Slow Horses, the Apple TV+ show about underdog British spies and their disheveled bureau chief. The horses say goodbye to one of their own, but they don’t get much time to grieve.
Peter Judd’s giving everyone grief again, the Russians are in town doing damage, Lamb’s off the radar conducting his own investigation, and River’s in deep cover … though not that deep.
The episode, entitled “Drinking Games,” is a rough and engaging chapter of the saga. Everyone plays their part beautifully, and the stakes continue to climb.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ spy thriller Slow Horses returns this week for a slick second season of low-brow high tension.
Grotesque super spy Jackson Lamb (played by Gary Oldman) is on a personal crusade in the wake of a friend’s death. And the rest of his “slow horses” are desperately looking for work — even the ones who are still behind their desks at Slough House, the London HQ for MI5’s misfit spies.
Season two of Slow Horses starts at a good clip and just keeps galloping. The show, based on the Slough House series by British crime novelist Mick Herron, remains one of the most consistent secret pleasures of the Apple TV+ lineup.
It looks like something big and bad is about to happen to London, and it may fall to a team of remedial MI5 back-benchers to step up and stop it.
That’s at least according to the season 2 trailer of the darkly comedic Apple TV+ espionage thriller Slow Horses, which dropped Wednesday. The series resumes December 2. Watch the trailer below.