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Peter Fenzel, Jordan Stokes, and Matthew Wrather overthink the critically acclaimed spy dramedy Slow Horses, where Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb commits full-out to the craft of acting by eating the hell out of some noodles. Understandably, the crew focus on Lamb, the day-drinking, noodle-slurping creature of appetite who is a terrible boss and, against all odds, a great spy. He knows the difference between winning a fight by doing something well, and winning a fight by doing nothing poorly. And he anchors a show that knows the crucial difference between starting with a real chase scene and a fake one.
They also spend some time on difference between spy shows and cop shows. Cop shows are about maintaining a certain moral order – whether that means protecting an innocent society from wicked criminals, or punishing a wicked society for being wicked. Spy shows are weirdly unconcerned with society. Spy heroes must necessarily fight spy villains: ultimately the world of the spies is a self-contained, self-referential system, in which every plot must be answered by a counterplot, and nobody outside of the spy world has more than a passing importance.
The crew also compare Slow Horses to a handful of other important franchises, such as Law and Order, The Wire, Spy vs. Spy, and Where’s Waldo.
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