One of TV's best spy series, Slow Horses, announces season 3 premiere

The Slow Horses are back this December, as Apple TV Plus has announced that Slow Horses season 3 is set to premiere exclusively on the streaming service on Friday, December 1. This is fantastic news, as Slow Horses is one of the best shows on TV and was one of WTW's top picks for 2023 fall TV shows.

Having premiered in 2022, Slow Horses is critically acclaimed (it has a 97% "Fresh" Rotten Tomatoes score) and loved by audiences (93% fan rating on RT). So consider its December release an early Christmas present, especially as new scripted series are going to be more scarce the rest of the year with the ongoing writers and actors strikes (Slow Horses season 3 was completed before the strikes took effect).

The spy thriller is based on the Slough House series of books written by Mick Herron. They follow a group of disgraced MI5 agents that have screwed up in one way or another and have been sent to Slough House to be forgotten. Though their boss, Jackson Lamb (a fantastic Gary Oldman), appears to be the epitome of the team's bottom-of-the-barrel status, the "slow horses" continually find themselves in the middle of major operations.

Slow Horses season 3 is based on the third book in Herron's series, Real Tigers. Here is the official synopsis for the new season:

"A romantic liaison in Istanbul threatens to expose a buried MI5 secret in London. When Jackson Lamb and his team of misfits are dragged into the fight, they find themselves caught in a conspiracy that threatens the future not just of Slough House but of MI5 itself."

Oldman is back as Jackson Lamb, while he is joined by the rest of the Slough House agents, played by Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Kadiff Kirwan. Also returning for the series are Kristin Scott Thomas, Freddie Fox, Chris Reilly, Samuel West, Sophie Okonedo and Jonathan Pryce.

There are also a couple of new additions to the cast, including Gangs of London star Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù, who plays Sean Donovan, the former head of security at the British Embassy in Istanbul, and Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts franchise) as Alison Dunn, an MI5 agent who uncovers a dark secret at the heart of MI5.

The December 1 premiere will include the first two episodes of season 3, with a new episode then releasing every Friday. With six episodes in total this season, Slow Horses season 3 will wrap up on December 29.

If you need to catch up with Slow Horses ahead of the season 3 premiere, all episodes are streaming on Apple TV Plus. The show has also already been renewed for season 4, though because of the strikes, it may be the first time that the series does not have as quick a turnaround.