For the uninitiated, Jackson Lamb’s disgusting appearance and rudeness might give us pause to ask why we are still seeing stories of a disgusting sexist who should have stayed in the Cold War? Well, one of the reasons, is the refined performance of Gary Oldman, the star of Slow Horses. And the other is because, in this spy series, the fun is to see the deconstruction of everything that has been sold about British Intelligence until now. The gangsters, or slow horses, are what one would imagine as the antithesis of James Bond and the 007 franchise. The rabble does the dirty work, but they save the day.

In this third season, I’m sorry to say, you need to have seen the previous ones to understand not only the dynamics but many of the ongoing plots. In general, England’s best spy, Jackson Lamb, lives a forced retirement where his goal is to be so unpleasant that they forget him. But there are two immediate problems: he is too good at what he does and always saves the day just like his past always comes knocking on the door with bills to pay. In some ways, that’s what this third season suggests once again. Although it is insufferable and disgusting, Jackson wins his team by defending/saving them no matter the cost.

Readers of the Mick Herron books appreciate the fidelity of the adaptation of the series, which is sensational, direct, funny, and tense in exact proportions. Here the basis of the story is the book Real Tigers which begins with a sequence in Istanbul that, without major revelations, costs the life of an agent’s girlfriend who returns to London 10 years later, placing Lamb as a target. After involvement in a near-terrorist attack in London, Slough House became a repository for useless old MI5 files. A nice metaphor for how they are considered, isn’t it?

As always, time is never wasted: Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), the office manager at Slough House, is kidnapped and everyone has a personal reason to throw themselves back into the storm. Especially River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), still arrogant but with a heart of gold, a wonderful role for Lowden, who perfectly handles the scenes with the brilliant Oldman.

Lamb’s agility is fascinating and his team of losers, always dreaming of recovering their careers, are increasingly in tune, perhaps except for Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns), who is still mourning the death of his partner in season 2. She stole a diamond from the Russians, everyone knows but there’s no way to prove it. What does she want to do with him? I’m sure it will come to light soon. Meanwhile, Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan), and Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) butt head, but without question follow Lamb’s orders to try to identify the kidnappers and what they want.

In the first two episodes, we still don’t understand what is really happening, but the non-stop action makes up for it. Of course, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is going through bad days after being in charge of Slough House’s problems, as well as Ingrid Tearney (Sophie Okonedo), and the Home Secretary, Peter Judd (Samuel West), will be involved with the kidnapping, but we still have to wait. It was fun to learn that the insufferable James “Spider” Webb (Freddie Fox) left MI5 and reappears, quickly, to say goodbye as the actor is now in the cast of House of the Dragon, after a great stint on The Great.

In other words, in the file that was stolen in Istanbul, there is some secret that the British Government wanted to hide and Jackson Lamb knows what it is. What do they want to do with the information? How will he save Standish? I can barely wait!

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