Gary Oldman’s Slow Horses Ended TV’s Most Problematic Trend

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Gary Oldman is a highly respected and beloved actor with a long and successful career. While many know him from films like Léon: The Professional, Darkest Hour, and his portrayal of Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies, he’s recently gained recognition for his work in a popular and well-received television spy thriller series.

“Slow Horses” is a British spy thriller that premiered on Apple TV in 2022. Based on Mick Herron’s “Slough House” novels, the show features Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the boss of a group of MI5 agents who haven’t quite lived up to expectations. The series has been critically praised and received numerous award nominations. However, it’s also quietly ended a frustrating trend in television.

Slow Horses Doesn’t Take Multiple Years to Debut a New Season

The popularity of streaming services has led many actors to create and appear in new shows on platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, and Apple TV. However, this has also created a new challenge: fans now often face longer waits between seasons of their favorite series.

The science fiction series first appeared in 2016, with Season 2 following quickly in 2017. However, as the show’s actors gained popularity, making each season more complex and costly, the time between seasons increased. Season 3 arrived in 2019, and Season 4 in 2022.

It took longer to create Season 5 of Stranger Things than previous seasons, premiering in 2025 – three years after Season 4. The Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller Severance also had a three-year gap between its seasons. Compared to these streaming shows, older series that originally aired on network TV often had longer waits; for example, aired its 100th episode with Season 5 after four years.

Traditional network TV shows often had more episodes than today’s streaming series, partly because they included episodes that weren’t essential to the main storyline. Despite this, many shows successfully captivated viewers with fresh plots and intriguing puzzles, ultimately becoming classics in their genres.

Many British TV shows have long gaps between seasons – for example, a second season of the spy thriller The Night Manager isn’t arriving until 2026, a decade after the first. However, the show starring Gary Oldman has broken this pattern, releasing a new season every year since 2022.

The spy thriller Slow Horses currently has five seasons, and has been renewed for two more. Each season is based on a different book from the Slough House series – the source material that also inspired the show’s name. Seasons two, three, four, and five are adaptations of Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, and London Rules, respectively.

Compared to other shows, Slow Horses has already released a significant amount of content. It’s been on air for four years and has five seasons with thirty episodes. For context, a show from 2010 to 2017 only lasted four seasons and thirteen episodes, including a special. More recently, Netflix’s Stranger Things, which ran for nearly ten years, has a total of forty-two episodes.

Shows like Stranger Things are increasingly spaced further apart between seasons, and often have fewer episodes than traditional television. While some viewers appreciate this new release strategy, others struggle to stay engaged with shows that take so long to return with new content.

Slow Horses Is Already Renewed for Seasons 6 and 7

I’m so excited for more! The show originally aired in September and October of 2025, and the good news is it’s already been picked up for Seasons 6 and 7! While we don’t have a firm date yet, I’m guessing the next season will probably arrive sometime in 2026. I’ve heard Season 6 will cover the stories from Joe Country and Slough House, and Season 7 will bring Bad Actors to life. I can’t wait!

Gary Oldman is well-known for his roles in spy thrillers, including the Academy Award-nominated series Slow Horses. The show also features a talented cast including Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards. Adding to the show’s appeal, Mick Jagger, the lead singer of The Rolling Stones, created and performs the theme song.

Many viewers have been wishing for TV shows to return to the old format of having longer seasons with quicker releases, and Slow Horses has delivered on that desire. While it doesn’t have a huge number of episodes, the show doesn’t make viewers wait a long time between seasons – a welcome change for many.

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2026-01-27 22:09