The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast PEL Presents PMP#211: Slow Horses and Predecessors
Dec 10, 2025
The hosts dive into the Apple TV adaptation of a gripping British spy show, exploring its roots in anti-007 literature. They discuss how it contrasts the glamorous spy genre with realism and humor, emphasizing the human cost of espionage. The cast's performances and the show's brisk six-episode structure are praised, along with its effective mix of comedy and pathos. They also debate the adaptation's fidelity to the source material and the intricacies of character backstories, all while addressing moral ambiguity and narrative pacing.
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Le Carré Tradition Updated
- Slow Horses follows the John le Carré tradition of cerebral, morally complex spy stories rather than Bond-style action thrills.
- The show updates that tradition to critique modern British bureaucracy and political weakness while centering human cost.
Mark's Le Carré Prep
- Mark read Call for the Dead and watched Tinker Tailor to prep and found early Le Carré felt Agatha Christie-like.
- He noticed the show makes characters slightly more heroic than the bleaker book endings.
Dark Humor Humanizes Characters
- Comedy and human flaws keep Slow Horses from taking the genre too seriously and make characters likable.
- Sarah Lynn Bruck found Jackson Lamb's lines repeatedly laugh-out-loud and deeper in the book.
