Slow Horses: Apple TV's Fast-Paced Series Sets New Streaming Standards

Mar 03, 2026 - 00:31

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Slow Horses: Apple TV's Fast-Paced Series Sets New Streaming Standards

Jonathan Pryce as David Cartwright looking off at someone in Slow Horses.

Published Mar 2, 2026, 3:00 PM EST

Zach Moser is a Philadelphia native who loves films, television, books, and any and all media he can get his hands on. Zach has had articles published on satirical sites such as Points In Case, Slackjaw, and McSweeney's.

Apple TV's Slow Horses isn't just one of the great modern spy thrillers; it shows that streamers don't need to wait years in between seasons in order to tell a compelling story. Slows Horses is one of the best original series of the last 10 years, despite it not always getting the pop culture celebration it deserves.

Slow Horses Has Released 5 Seasons In 4 Years

What may be Slow Horses' most amazing feat, beyond Gary Oldman giving one of the best performances of his career, beyond introducing Jack Lowden as an actor to pay attention to, beyond expertly adapting Mick Herron's series of novels to the screen, is that we've had five seasons in four years.

Slow Horses Release Dates

Season	Release Date
1	April 1, 2022
2	December 2, 2022
3	November 29, 2023
4	September 4, 2024
5	September 24, 2025
6	Finished filming
7	Pre-production

Slow Horses premiered in April 2022, and less than a year later, in December 2022, season 2 dropped. Since then, there has never been a 12-month period without a new season of Slow Horses. There are reality competition shows that would dream of this sort of consistent production schedule.

How Slow Horses Releases New Episodes So Fast

Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) raising up a large sword in Slow Horses season 5, episode 2.

With Slow Horses season 6 already wrapped, and season 7 in production, it's clear that Apple TV and showrunner Will Smith are not going to slow their pace anytime soon. The director of seasons 3 and 5, Saul Metzstein, spoke with ScreenRant and shared that he's actually found the roughly 110-day shoots to be "leisurely", surprisingly.

So if it's not the shooting schedule that gets new seasons of Slow Horses out so quickly, it's obviously something occurring in pre- or post-production. It seems that Apple doesn't want to waste time getting a ready show on the streamer, perhaps a result of Apple TV not having as large a library as older streaming platforms.

Slow Horses' Schedule Is Only Surprising Because Of The Streaming Age

River (Jack Lowden) handcuffed to the car's grab handle in Slow Horses Season 4 Episode 5

As commendable as Slow Horses' streaming schedule is, it's a little bit sad that we are at a point where it seems like a new season every year is a feat. In the past, shows always had a new season every year. If a show took longer than a year, it meant that something had gone seriously wrong.

Now, it's considered normal for almost two years to go by before another season of a show. Many notable TV shows have taken over three years between seasons. Slow Horses is really showing audiences that these long waits are actually an aberration, and not a necessary norm.