All hail Slow Horses: why does the best show on TV miss out on awards year after year?
Share:
The Golden Globes sprinkled a little stardust over LA last night. There were surprise winners, deserving victors and a few results to raise eyebrows. But for one brilliant show it was the case of the same old story as they walked away empty handed... again.
Who are these forgotten pilgrims? Why, the cast and crew of Slow Horses: aka the spy-tastic thriller drama that’s currently one of the best TV shows on Apple TV+. The one in which Gary Oldman dons a greasy wig and eats greasy food as spook gone-to-seed Jackson Lamb, who still is a few steps ahead of MI6 and everyone else when it all kicks off.
Critically acclaimed, massively successful, it should be an awards juggernaut in the vein of Succession, The Bear or White Lotus. Certainly, the critics think so – Slow Horses has been called “the best show on streaming”, “one of the best shows on TV” and boasts a 98 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The show’s blend of action, wry British humour and compelling characters should be catnip to the voters.
And yet, it’s hardly won anything. Oh, it’s been nominated: 12 times, in fact, across the Baftas, Emmys and Golden Globes (and 35 times total, counting every single awards body). Despite that, they’ve only walked away with one major trophy. That was a 2024 Emmy for writer Will Smith, who scooped Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and much deserved it was too, but what about everyone else involved? As one Redditor complained online, “Can anyone explain how Gary Oldman still hasn’t won a major award for his performance on Slow Horses?”.
