Slow Horses Review: Bad Tradecraft (Season 1 Episode 3)
We learn a bit more about Jackson Lamb on Slow Horses Season 1 Episode 3, “Bad Tradecraft.” Surprisingly, the episode portrays him in a slightly better light. He fights to protect his people, and he is the reasonable one when Diana is forced to explain what she’s been orchestrating.
After the Slow Horses premiere episodes, reasonable is not a word I would’ve used to describe him. I would’ve gone with some less nice descriptions.
This is why we really needed to see this side of Jackson. He isn’t magically a better person or anything, but we learn that he isn’t completely callous. He may not be the nicest boss, but when there’s a dead body on the staircase and you’re linked to a shooting, he will protect you. That counts for something.
While it’s not necessary to like every single character on a show, it helps, especially when the character should be one of the good guys. Slow Horses appears to be setting us up for a Slough House vs MI5 proper when it comes to the handling of this case with Jackson running point.
So, now there’s a bit of willingness to follow whatever orders Jackson comes up with, and after his chat with Diana, you definitely want him to succeed instead of her. At least, I do.
Diana’s brief on her scheme/operation puts some of the pieces together, but there are some finer details and moving parts are still going a bit over our heads, especially the various groups that are mentioned either by her or by Robert Hobden.
Hopefully, this will be the investigation that the rest of the episodes primarily focus on, and then we can catch up and fill in some of the gaps in what we know/understand as the season progresses.
Right now it isn’t necessary to know all the specifics in order to follow along with the mission at hand, but it would just be nice to understand a bit more of the bigger scope of the operation.
Why we spent time with the kidnappers on Slow Horses Season 1 Episode 2, “Work Drinks,” makes a bit more sense after Diana’s tale, but it still doesn’t make our time with them any more entertaining.
However, there is a bit of tension with them, especially towards the end of the hour when it’s clear one of them is considering violence. It helps build some dread and urgency as Jackson and company make their way over to the house to give the signal.
I think we would’ve been better off not spending time with them at all, and we could’ve had that tension and urgency come about another way. Do you agree?
The most exciting thing to come out of “Bad Tradecraft” is that a good bit of the Slough House group is together working towards something that isn’t busywork. It’ll be interesting to see them working together, doing some proper investigative work for a change. With SId currently out of commission, I’m hoping to see River partner up with Jackson a bit.
Stray Thoughts
- I’m going to need a status update on Sid ASAP.
- Not River trying to fight his way out with a shoe in a bag.
- I’m here for this office romance between those two people whose names I don’t know (I’ll learn them eventually).
What did you think of this episode of Slow Horses? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).
2 comments
Those two people are Louisa Guy and Min Harper. In later books, Louisa develops into by far the steadiest and most capable of the Slow Horses (next to Lamb, of course). The faithful readers of the books know what happened to Sid post book 1 (“Slow Horses”), but they don’t learn for quite a long while. No spoilers! Incidentally, stuff about Catherine’s boss Charles Partner comes from later (perhaps *much* later) books; it isn’t in “Slow Horses”.
Ah thank you! I feel like the show said their names once, and then it just hasn’t repeated them. I definitely can see that Louisa is one of the more capable people at Slow House.
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