Slow Horses’ heroes are as crazily dysfunctional as ever in its fifth season, yet the Apple TV+ spy series, now streaming, is starting to show signs of losing its fastball.

Creator Will Smith’s latest tale of London’s “Slough House”—the department of MI5 misfits led by the disreputable Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman)—is hampered by frustratingly shoddy plotting, with characters behaving so illogically, and downright stupidly, that much of its suspense stems from events that strain credibility to the breaking point. Its slovenly, sarcastic personalities still carry the day, but with its comedy veering into cartoonishness, it proves a wobbly return engagement.

In the aftermath of their latest mission, Slough House loses one of its members: Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar), whose forthcoming six-month

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