Slow Horses 5.1-5.5: Blasting On All Cylinders

Based on the first five of six episodes of the fifth season of Slow Horses, I think it's in the running for being the best season so far.   In fact, I was going to wait until the upcoming finale this coming Wednesday on Apple TV+ to review the whole fifth season, but this fifth episode was so good (even though I guessed the major twist) that I decided to review the first five.  I'll come back with a review of the season finale this coming week.

Here are some highlights of the first five episodes of the fifth season (with very slight spoilers):

• James Callis as MI5 Director Whelan has had his best season yet.  Actually, this is only his second season -- Whelan was introduced in Season 4 -- but Whelan was like fingernails on a blackboard being just the right mix of irritating and infuriating in these five episodes.  James Callus, memorable from his role in the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, will be memorable in his role in Slow Horses.
• Lamb delivers at least one great scene of flatulence in every season of Slow Horses.  The silent but deadly one in Season 5 was his most pungent, with someone commenting that they could get lung cancer from breathing it in. 
• River's grandfather David has a great scene in which he tries to explain that the team and MI5 are missing what the bad guys are planning to do in their "blind your enemy" attack.  He tries to explain it to River but can't because of David's diminished mental capacities.  Very touching.
• Coe, also introduced in Season 4, is an excellent addition to the team.  Tom Brooke puts in a fine chillingly spooky performance, especially suitable for this time of year, i.e., Halloween.
• Taking someone out with a can of paint via a complex Rube Goldberg chain of events is cool.  (I'll say no more about that because I said the spoilers would be slight).
• Mick Jagger's "Strange Game" as the Slow Horses theme song remains outstanding!
• Gary Oldman as Lamb is perfect in every scene -- they all are.

See you here next week with my review of the season 5 finale.

See also Slow Horses 4.1: River

And see also Slow Horses 3.1-3.2: Beatles Level ... 3.3: The Meaningful Difference Between "The" and "A" in the UK ... 3.4: "Clear the Board" ... 3.5: Winners and Losers, Part 1 ... 3.6: Winners and Losers, Part 2

And see also Slow Horses 2.1-2.2: Do Horses Eat Ramen? ... 2.3: Faster Than You Think ... 2.4-2.5: Lamb Firing On All Cylinders ... Slow Horses 2.6: Heralds of Humiliation

And see also Slow Horses 1.1-2: Fast-Moving Spy Thriller ... Slow Horses 1.3: The Fine Art of Bumbling ... Slow Horses 1.4: Fine New Song by Mick Jagger ... Slow Horses 1.5: Did You Hear the One About the ... Slow Horses 1.6: The Scorecard

 

Star Trek: Picard 2.7: The Bread was Tastier than the Meat

Star Trek: Picard 2.7 was a bit of a turkey, more specifically the Picard in a coma on a couch part, but the rest, including the last scene with Picard with Guinan in her bar, was well worth watching.

Let's start with the psychoanalysis or whatever it was with Renee going inside Picard's head. If I was up for a story like that, I'd watch In Treatment, any season.  It was good to James Callis, aka Baltar of Battlestar Galactica as the shrink, though, and let's just leave it at that.

Among the highlights of the rest [Spoilers ahead]:

• Rios and the doctor and her son -- both their relationship and his beaming them up to the ship -- were all fun and good to see.
• Agnes under the control of the Borg Queen is always good to see -- that is, it's bad, very bad, for all our characters, especially poor Agnes, not to the mention the Universe, but it's great for the narrative.  I say that even though breaking the window to boost her control of Agnes was a little on the weak side to see (especially given the damage that anyone under Borg control can likely do).
• And then there's that last scene in the bar.  First, it was good to see Jay Karnes (The Shield, 12 Monkeys) back in action, even if he does only play an FBI guy (which he did in 12 Monkeys). And, actually, though he may be an FBI agent, I think it's a pretty good guess that he's another member of the Q Continuum.  After all, Guinan was trying to summon Q, and the character who walked down those stairs had a Q-like feel, didn't he?   (By the way, I don't know what Star Trek can do about this, but whenever I hear anything about Q, I think of QAnon in our reality, which I'd really rather not).

Anyway, I'm up for the next episode, and I'll see you here next week with my review.

See also Picard 2.6: Borg and Soong .. Picard 2.5: Don't Walk Away Renee ... Picard 2.4: 2024 LA ... Picard 2.3: Agnes, Borg, Badge ... Picard 2.2: Q and Borg ...  Star Trek: Picard 2.1: Cameos and Time Travel ...  Star Trek: Picard (Season One): Non-Pareil 

                                                        a little time travel story -- free