Last year, the team from Slough House went up against as close to a super villain as can exist in their universe, River Cartwright’s (Jack Lowden) biological father, Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving). It is no wonder in Slow Horses Season 5, everyone—characters and crew—feels a little bit exhausted and at loose ends.

It is a hard thing to write about a top-notch series when it delivers a season that isn’t as good as the previous years, but is still great. To draw the distinction between Slow Horses Season 1-4 and Slow Horses Season 5 is a bit like ranking the 92-93 Chicago Bulls the worst team of their dynasty era(s). It may be true, but it still feels a bit petty. “Dammit, Slow Horses, why are you only one of the best shows of the year instead of one of the best shows of the 2020s?!”. That sort of thing. Nonetheless, here we are.

Things get off to what is now the classic Slow Horses manner. A shocking, seemingly impossible-to-anticipate event (although we will find that this too could’ve been avoided) costs several Londoners their lives. In this case, a lone gunman, Rob Trew (Edward Davis), opens fire in a plaza. He kills many, including a canvasser for London Mayor Zafar Jaffrey (Nick Mohammed). The shooter is white and a supporter of Jaffrey’s opponent, an anti-immigrant populist, Dennis Gimball (Christopher Villiers). That, combined with the fact that an unseen sniper takes out Trew after his shooting spree, points to this hardly being random at all.

A van connected to the shooting nearly runs over everyone’s favorite gross computer specialist, Roddy (Christopher Chung). Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) saves him and immediately becomes convinced the near hit-and-run was no accident. The rest of Slough House is various degrees of dismissive of her theory, more convinced that she is still struggling with the death of her best frenemy, Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan), last season. It is no spoiler to reveal that everyone is right here. Shirley is reeling AND she’s right about the van. In fact, the van is even more important than “just” being Roddy’s would-be end.

In what could very well be an example of form following function, Saul Metzstein (back from Season 3) pilots a Slow Horses Season 5 that seems off its game. The characters’ prickly chemistry, the delight of prior seasons, feels off. Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) has never been the outwardly kindest or most pleasant man, but here he is in rare form. The digs at his charges feel nastier. The flatulence humor—something this writer rarely enjoys in any film or series—more present and somehow grosser.

This also extends to the team’s sharpness. The “secret” of previous seasons has been that the Horses are actually good agents. They ended up in Slough through political machinations or psychological issues. They’re not talentless despite what Lamb and Second Desk Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) insist. This time out, they have moments of almost Keystone Cop-esque bumbling. Some of it is amusing—the season’s funniest gag involves an accident with an accidentally dropped can of paint—but it does make the Horses look every bit as incompetent as their worst reputations.

Again, this is—at least partially—intentional. The team has taken it on the chin over and over again, including disappeared members, killed members, secret evil parents, and mountains of disrespect. It makes sense they might be all a bit messy at this point. But intended or not, it undercuts some of what made the first four seasons such a blast. Slow Horses Season 5 might be doing exactly what it intends AND still not be as good as previous seasons. At least, that’s my assertion here.

Credit where credit is due, there are several standout scenes. In addition to the paint can mishap, the teaming of River and the suddenly talkative (for him) JK Coe (Tom Brooke) is comedy gold. Goldman makes Lamb’s tale of an MI5 agent tortured by the Stasi an arresting horror tale for the espionage set. (Although its postscript that suggests we know who the story is really about is obvious and adds little.) As usual, whenever the fighting reaches Slough House, the building chaotic layout and piles of hoarded items gives the action a compelling and chaotic energy.

There are performances to praise as well. James Callis as Claude Whelan has been amusing as an incompetent bureaucrat living above his abilities previously. This season, though, he’s at his best, a compelling mix of amoral power wielding that hints on how he got to be First Desk and his usual mix of “oh gosh I don’t know” and cowardice. Edwards plays the extremes of Shirley well, giving the audience a portrait of someone who is absolutely washed but retains skills enough to still recklessly careen forward.

She is perhaps the best metaphor for the dialectical at the heart of Slow Horses Season 5. She’s too good at her job not to get it done. And she’s still not as good as she has been. As it is with Shirley, so is it with the series.

Slow Horses Season 5 hit the track at AppleTV+ once again on September 24.

Slow Horse Season 5 Trailer: