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| January 19, 2023 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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Page 16 ~ Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023
Review: ‘Slow Horses’ remin
continued from page
Thrones”) into Joel’s lap.
Hints of why Ellie matters so
much are dropped in the first episode,
and while Joel’s plan is still to return
custody of Ellie to the Fireflies by
the end of the pilot, it’s already clear
that she’ll be joining him on his cross-
country trek westward.
While the world of “The Last of
Us” is unafraid to wear its storytell-
ing influences on its sleeve, its world-
building remains richly immersive,
as the initially mutually antagonistic
Joel and Ellie are shown sharing a vi-
ciously feral streak in common, with
Ellie glaring in grim approval when
Joel beats a FEDRA soldier to death
with his hands. ‘
I’ll be intrigued to see where the
story goes, Once it’s completed its
quest plot arc, but in the meantime,
the main characters and the trans- ’
formed environments they inhabit
are successfully maintaining my
interest.
Must-seestreaming:
'Slow Horses’
on Apple TV+
When I previously solicited TV
show and movie recommendations
in my column space, one of my alert
responding readers was John Skans,
who listed two streaming series; the
British spy thriller “Slow Horses,”
and the Native American teen dram-
edy “Reservation Dogs” on Hulu.
“Slow Horses” wrapped up its sec-
ond season Dec. 30, on Apple TV+,
with third and fourth seasons already
confirmed, and I’m kicking myself for
not checking it out sooner.
The premise of the show is that
M15 Military Intelligence, Section
5, the same real—world UK security
agency that James Bond works for
—— maintains ‘a branch called “Slough
House,” as a purgatory for agents
now known as “Slow Horses,” due to
them having performed poorly in the
field, but not quite badly enough to
be fired.
Part of the fun in the premise is
the gradual reveals of the unlucky
missteps and/or catastrophic inepti-
tude that condemned each agent to
Slough House, as well as whatever
connections, favors or blackmail have
kept them liminally “in the game.”
Ever since Tom Stoppard’s 1990
film adaptation of his own stage play,
“Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are
Dead,” Gary Oldman has been one of
thoSe old British actors whom I would
gladly watch reading the phone book
aloud, and he’s in fine form as J ack—
son Lamb, the aggressively unhygien-
ic and unrestrainedly flatulent head
of Slough House.
Lamb’s openly expressed contempt
for his own “Slow Horses,” and his
warnings to those agents to avoid any
involvement in high-stakes missions
if possible, belie his well-hidden but
heartfelt loyalty toward his “Joes,”
as well as the savvy insights he’s re-
tained' on spycraft. ‘
Oldman’s acting is ably supported
by Saskia Reeves as his long-suffer-
ing office administrator, Catherine
Standish, whom he emotionally abus-
es and safeguards in equal measure,
and his more posh colleague and
tools. garaen,‘ h as
more! may aim/0y
‘ av; "Miriam.
, 18m. 9:06-4:009m
Reach over 21,000 PotentialBuyers Each Week
With your Classified Reader'Ad
iscent of ‘Broken Badges’
frenemy, M15 Deputy Director-Gener-
al and.“Second Desk” Diana Tavern-
er, played by Kristin Scott Thomas
as a mashup of Lady Di’s social grace
and Maggie Thatcher’s steel will.
As the “Slow Horses” are put
through their paces by domestic ter-
rorists, racist hate groups, “false flag”
operations, backstabbing coworkers
and conspiracy theories regarding
Russian sleeper agents supposedly
left over from the Cold War, all the
obvious comparisons to John le Carré
(“The Spy Who Came In From the
Cold”) and Armando Iannucci (“Veep”
and, “The Thick of It”) occurred to me,
and are well-earned by this show.
But what it reminded me of most
strongly was a single-season Stephen
J. Cannell cop show from 1990', “Bro-
ken Badges,” which starred Miguel
Ferre'r and Ernie Hudson, because
bothshows feature colorfully unbal-
anced characters who run as much
risk of sabotaging themselves as they
do of running afoul of their would-be
opponents’ plots. ‘
“Slow Horses” ultimately betrays
an‘unexpected sentimentality, as
much because of its ruefully wry wit
as in spite of it. ’
Avoid at all costs:
'Velma’
on HBO Max
When I first heard the news that
Mindy Kaling of “The Office” was .
heading up a Cartoon Network
“Adult Swim”-style animated reboot
of “Scooby Doo,” complete with a
more racially diverse recasting of its
. ~, [,..1Sheltou ;Va lley’s
~ COWBOY GOSPEL; PRAISE
Christian open Mic Format
core characters, I eagerly anticipated
the result.
When Kaling recruited fellow prov-
en comedic talents Constance Wu
from “Fresh Off the Boat” as
Daphne, Sam Richardson from
“Veep” as Shaggy, and Glenn How-
erton from “It’s Always Sunny in
Philadelphia” as Fred, I only grew
more excited. v
“Velma” premiered on HBO Max
on Jan. 12, and for once, professional
reviewers and online commenters
are in complete agreement about a
sweepingly changed reboot of a famil-
iar franchise: In the words of “Mys-
tery Science Theater 3000,” it stinks.
The puerile humor smacks of a pa—
thetic desperation, in its bid to be in-
your-face transgressive, but it’s not
even inventive or committed enough
to be as offensive as it’s aiming for.
. Most of the jokes feel like they
were cut from early script drafts of
“The Venture Bros.” and “Harvey
Birdman, Attorney at Law” for being
weak and overly self-indulgent, and
in spite of Kaling’s quickness to at-
tribute criticisms of the show to rac-
ism, its portrayals of the now-racially
diverse Mystery Machine gang suffer
from what. comes across a lot like in-
. ternalized racism. .
Top this all off with the blatantly
pandering sexualization of underage
teen characters, and a random one-
liner that seems to blame the #MeToo
movement for a decline in standup
comedy, and you’ve got a total failure
to entertain that both sides of the po-
litical aisle can loathe equally.
I Contact Kirk Boxleitner at
kboxleitner@masoncounty.com
Cowboy Gospel Praise Host Allen Radke ‘f‘
(on right, in the red shirtand hat) keeps the i,“ ,
beat. while some looal (and not-so-Iocal) I
musicians stick around ton an “After Open-
Mic Night” jam session.
Up to 20 words for just $15.00 per week.
I MANY CATEGORIES TO CHOOSE FROM
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