The week ends on a moderately high note: the Eagles won their first game of the 2025-2026 season last night, so a little cautious optimism is in order. You still have a few days to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concert production of Tristan und Isolde. And a reminder that Pursuit, the new podcast series from the National Constitution Center, premieres next week.
If you find this a good weekend to cuddle up with a little British TV, you can start it off with the new season of The Great British Baking Show, which launches its new season on Netflix today. Also, I’ve come a little late in the game to Slow Horses, the spy drama which premiered on Apple TV a few years ago, but I highly recommend it. Gary Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, a cynical, flatulent, foul-mouthed, and very likely alcoholic version of George Smiley who oversees a bunch of MI5 agents; they’ve badly screwed up intelligence operations in one way or another and find themselves languishing in a shabby London outpost of the intelligence service. (Oldman has played Smiley, too, in the 2011 film of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and he received an Oscar nomination for his performance.)
It’s a well-constructed and fast-moving thriller that enjoys delving into the eccentricities of its characters, not to mention dropping a few shards of social and cultural criticism along the way; it’s won some awards here and there, and Oldman himself has been nominated for an Outstanding Acting Emmy this year (it’s also been nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, as well as Writing and Directing nods). As Lamb describes the men and women under his supervision, “I think they’re a bunch of fucking losers. But they’re my losers.” My kind of spymaster.
You should add The Penguin Lessons on Netflix to your list of things to watch.
I will. Big Steve Coogan fan here. He was excellent in the National Theatre’s Dr. Strangelove a few months ago.