Gary Oldman’s 6-Part Spy Thriller Officially Takes Apple TV’s No. 1 Spot

Gary Oldman is probably your father-in-law’s favorite actor by this stage. A man who was the bad guy in countless movies throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and who is now officially the world’s most repugnant yet effective spy thanks to a winning combination of remarkable intelligence and flatulence. Yes, this current role might be his most entertaining yet, even if the man himself looks like he hasn’t washed his clothes since the Cold War.

Slow Horses is continuing to dominate Apple TV’s streaming charts, just as its latest acclaimed season continues to wow viewers. Based on Mick Herron‘s bestselling novels, Slow Horses follows a group of MI5 agents assigned to Slough House, a miserable office where intelligence officers are sent after making career-ending mistakes, but these folks are almost too competent to fail where they’re expected to. Season 6 sees the Slow Horses on the run as Diana Taverner embroils them all in a fatally high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge.

The cast is led by Oldman (Darkest Hour) as Jackson Lamb, alongside Jack Lowden (Dunkirk) as River Cartwright, Kristin Scott Thomas (Darkest Hour) as Diana Taverner, Saskia Reeves (Luther) as Catherine Standish, Rosalind Eleazar (Missing You) as Louisa Guy, Christopher Chung (Waterloo Road) as Roddy Ho and Aimee-Ffion Edwards (Peaky Blinders) as Shirley Dander.

The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.

You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.

You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.

You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.

You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.

Why Is ‘Slow Horses’ So Popular?

Slow Horses has generally been considered one of the most critically adored series on television since debuting back in 2022. However, what is most adored about it is the consistency at which the series is churned out. Because, yes, we are on Season 6 just four years after it first aired. Can you imagine? Stranger Things could never. The series has also benefited from its shorter seasons, with each installment adapting another of Herron’s novels and allowing the story to move at a much faster pace than many traditional espionage dramas.

Slow Horses has also become one of Apple TV’s biggest awards success stories, earning 23 Emmy nominations and three wins, including Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series in 2024 and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series in 2026. The spy thriller has also enjoyed plenty of success at the BAFTAs, winning awards for writing, editing and sound across multiple seasons.

Slow Horses is streaming exclusively on Apple TV.

Slow Horses