Slow Horses Season 2 is anything but slow. If you liked the first season, there's no doubt you'll love the second — and, if you haven't watched the show at all yet, here's your sign to do so ASAP.

This spy series takes a fresh new look at the genre by focusing on a ragtag team of disgraced MI5 agents, who operate out of the appropriately titled Slough House. Led by the curmudgeonly Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), this group of screw-ups gets itself into some sticky situations — and this season, even more so than last, reminds you of the dangerous work they're doing for the good of their country.

RELATED: 'Slow Horses' Season 2 Ramps Up the Action, Emotion, and Stakes | Review

Setting the Scene for the Slough House Spies

A diverse skill set in Slough House from Slow Horses

The series starts off with a heart-thumping scene in which River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) attempts to apprehend a man armed with a bomb in the middle of a busy London airport. As he communicates back and forth with the second-in-command at MI5, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), the tension builds. River tries to keep his cover and save the day at the same time, with not-so-great results. River's under a lot of pressure to excel at MI5 since his grandfather (Jonathan Pryce) was a much-heralded agent in his day.

However, when he gets his chance to shine, River royally screws up his mission, and the bomber not only gets away from his reach but also detonates an explosive at the crowded train station attached to the airport. Luckily for River and for the hundreds of people in the station, this was all a training exercise. And, if you didn't guess yet, this is how River ends up working for Jackson Lamb at Slough House. Instead of taking down bad guys, River's tasked with sorting through someone's garbage. To add insult to injury, he doesn't even know what it is he's looking for. When he says as much, Lamb responds glibly, "The remnants of a once-promising career."

These smart-ass one-liners are Jackson Lamb's forte, making him somewhat charming and irritating at the same time, just like a real-life boss you may have had. Lamb also doesn't have the greatest hygiene, which is often a punchline of the show as well. The man seems to eat, sleep, and basically live at Slough House, stretching his holey sock-covered feet onto his messy desk and looking as if he hasn't bathed in a good while.

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Image via Apple TV+

Season 1's main storyline follows the kidnapping of a Muslim university student (Antonio Aakeel) by a British nationalist group calling themselves Sons of Albion. As it turns out, the garbage River's sorting through is that of a right-wing journalist named Robert Hobden (Paul Hilton), who likely has ties to the kidnappers. It's all part of an intricately woven plot that offers drama and action to the kidnappers' plan, the inner workings of Slough House and its agents, and the many plot twists along the way.

Slow Horses does an excellent job of making each of the agents seem like real people, but not all of them are likable. In addition to Jackson Lamb and River Cartwright, the team boasts recovering alcoholic Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), tech genius Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), the hapless Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns), the can't-wait-to-get-back-to-the-real-MI5 Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), tech guy/muscle Jed Moody (Steven Waddington), and that co-worker who always wants to go for after-work drinks and sell his daughter's raffle tickets, Struan Loy (Paul Higgins). There's also that one agent who seems too good to be at Slough House, Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke) — and as it turns out, she actually is at Slough House with an ulterior motive.

The Stakes Are Always High for the Slow Horses

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Image via Apple TV+

The characters all combine to make an interesting set of subplots, ones that will grow even more intriguing in Season 2 — for those that make it out of Season 1 alive, that is. The team at Slough House may all be screw-ups that ruined their own careers, but they're also MI5 agents, and that brings with it some inherent dangers.

While there are some of the agents you don't get to know that well, the ones that you do get to know (and love) are nuanced, multidimensional characters with lives of their own outside Slough House. Well... some of them have lives outside of it, anyway. You come to really care about them, and then, before you know it, they've been killed by one of the bad guys. Or perhaps died in an accident. It's just like real life in that way — you don't really know when someone's time might be up. And, even if they're in the opening credits, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll survive every episode. (And, by the way, that montage is pretty perfect, with Mick Jagger's "Strange Game" providing the perfect backdrop for this gritty yet darkly funny spy game.)

Season 2 proves even more so that none of the Slough House "losers," as Jackson calls them, are safe. We get to know more about their private lives and how they ended up at Slough House — and just when you're rooting for them, along comes some Russian mob guys.

Jackson Lamb Does Care for His Agents — But Tries to Hide It

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Image via Apple TV+

Though he refers to them as losers and constantly reminds them that they're useless, it becomes obvious when some of his "Joes" falls in the line of duty that Jackson Lamb does really care about the people who work for him, even River, who seems to give him the most trouble. In fact, Lamb periodically wonders aloud where Cartwright is. It could be seen as irritation with a worker who's gone off the grid when he shouldn't have, but instead, you get the feeling that he's concerned for his agent's well-being.

He also compliments Sid on her skills as a "spook," even though he immediately reminds River that Sid is two times the agent he is. The truth is, each of them offers their own specific set of skills that help Slough House achieve its mission, and Lamb knows it whether he'd admit it or not. When meeting with Diana Taverner in Season 1, she comments on how he really does care for his agents, after all, to which he replies, "They're losers. But they're my losers."

Kristin Scott Thomas Is the Quintessential Boss

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Image via Apple TV+

And speaking of Diana Taverner, who Lamb not-so-affectionately calls "Lady Di," Kristin Scott Thomas is perfect as the unflappable second desk of MI5. The woman is all toughness and authority, barely showing any emotion and definitely not ever smiling. Her stony expression remains much the same, whether she's disciplining or complimenting an agent. Taverner takes exactly zero bullshit, and you can't help but admire her for it. She's the boss, and no one is going to question it. Even when she makes bad decisions, they're for the good of Britain in her mind. And even if they're not actually the best choices for the country, Taverner would never admit otherwise.

Her relationship with Lamb is also a good reason to watch the series. Taverner is all class and authority, never a hair out of place, while Lamb makes no qualms about farting in her presence and even admits that he doesn't regularly brush his teeth — or bathe, from the looks of it. She finds him vile, but he's also a necessary part of her existence at MI5, and she'll ultimately have to go through him if she ever wants to be more than the second in command. Since Slow Horses has already been renewed for a third and fourth season, it will be interesting to see how her partnership with Lamb plays out in the long run.

It's a Bold Twist on the Spy Genre

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Image via Apple TV+

Because of its very nature as a show about a team of "losers" who happen to be MI5 agents and spies, Slow Horses turns the spy genre on its head. Don't expect to see these guys be badass agents with witty one-liners. They're more likely to let a suspect get away or call in a threat that turns out to be nothing than save the day.

But that's what makes this show so excellent. River Cartwright and the other agents bumble their way through national emergencies, and somehow everything is okay in the end. Or is it? That's what keeps you tuning in to each episode. You want everything to be okay for the Slough House folks, even when you know there's no way what's happening could end well. The show is so expertly done, and its cast so perfect and realistic, Slow Horses is an absolute must-watch.

Season 1 and the first four episodes of Season 2 are now streaming on Apple TV+, with Episodes 5 and 6 set to air on December 23 and 30, respectively.