Slow Horses season 6 review opens with a blunt change: the first season not guided by Will Smith feels harder to enjoy. says the shift is already visible in the show’s sharper comic edge, and that the new run is moving toward a more conventional thriller shape.
Will Smith and Gaby Chiappe
Will Smith previously gave the series its sharp comic tongue through his work on The Thick of It and Veep. With Gaby Chiappe now leading the writing, the new season loses some of that drollery, and the review says the difference shows in the story itself.
The show has not lost its core figures. Gary Oldman remains Jackson Lamb, Jack Lowden is still River Cartwright, and Christopher Chung returns as Roddy Ho. Paul Higgins is back as Struan Loy, while Rosalind Eleazar returns as Louisa, Joanna Scanlan as Moira, and Hugo Weaving as Frank.
Jackson Lamb in Slough House
Jackson Lamb still anchors the series, and the review keeps him in the frame as physically disgusting but intellectually unbeatable. That contrast has long powered the Slough House formula, where comic suspension of disbelief and shabby urban spy settings have helped the writing bend spy drama into something less tidy than a straight thriller.
The review says that formula is now under strain. It notes that the series had already begun to suffer from promoting supporting characters and from Jackson Lamb starting to burn out, and that season six pushes harder toward convention just as the comic freshness is thinning.
Season six pressure
MyAnna Buring and Kyle Soller appear as black-clad killers in season six, and Hugo Weaving’s Frank is River’s dad, a story thread the review says had seemed to have played out perfectly well back in season four. By season five, that crisis had already descended, and season six is the first run without Smith guiding the material.
For viewers of Slow Horses, the practical takeaway is simple: the new season still has the same faces and the same central performance from Oldman, but the writing is being judged against a higher bar because the series is now leaning more on thriller mechanics than on the comic force that made it stand out. The open question is how much of that shift comes from Will Smith’s absence versus the show simply aging.
