{"id":467685,"date":"2025-10-02T05:42:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/467685\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T05:42:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:42:21","slug":"why-slow-horses-ridiculous-roddy-moment-this-week-was-a-thrilling-cliche-buster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/467685\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Slow Horses’ ridiculous Roddy moment this week was a thrilling clich\u00e9-buster"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s something uniquely special about Slow Horses<\/a>, and we’re not just talking about its annual release schedule (an increasing rarity in today’s streaming age).<\/p>\n

No, what makes Slow Horses<\/a> stand out is how it grounds the usually glamorous spy genre with grit and dirt. Season five even promises “a story-based fart” at one point \u2014 according to showrunner Will Smith (via Empire<\/a>) \u2014 and it doesn’t get much grittier or dirtier than that.<\/p>\n

It’s precisely because of how real the show feels that its writers can get away with occasionally absurd moments such as these, but that’s not to say they aren’t important too. <\/p>\n

What to Read Next\"slow<\/p>\n

Apple TV+<\/p>\n

Based on the fifth novel in Mick Herron’s Slough House series, London Rules, the new season kicked off with the most outrageous, unbelievable turn of events yet: Roddy Ho has a girlfriend. <\/p>\n

Obviously, everyone was suspicious, because who in their right mind would date Roddy? The team’s perpetually deluded hacker has an ego so vast and over-inflated that it’s eclipsed only by the magnitude of Jackson Lamb’s body odour. <\/p>\n

“Nothing raises my Spidey senses as much as hearing a real-life woman is happy to spend time with you,” points out Lamb, and rightly so. After Roddy was nearly run over by a van in the premiere, episode two doubles down on the idea that his so-called “girlfriend” might be an enemy spy.<\/p>\n

Coming home after a night out, Roddy hears someone inside his house, so he does what any well-trained MI5 agent would do and grabs the comically large fantasy sword replica hanging on his wall. <\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

The thing is so huge and unwieldy that Roddy knocks the overhead lights with it at one point. It even glows different colours.<\/p>\n

The intruder is just Lamb, but then they hear someone break in for real.<\/p>\n

Lamb confronts the masked intruder with a squirt of bleach in the face and then Roddy, who’s hiding by this point, suddenly jumps out from under the bedcovers in his underwear and shouts, “I am DEATH!” before pushing the guy out through the window with his sword. <\/p>\n

“You mess with the best and you’re gonna get messed!” taunts Roddy. But then more attackers show up with guns and things get a lot more serious.<\/p>\n

\"christopher<\/p>\n

Apple TV<\/p>\n

Yet none of this detracts from how silly it is to see a grown man in silk boxers fight off an intruder with his giant toy sword like he’s the mythic fantasy hero of his dreams. Especially one who always takes himself so seriously.<\/p>\n

Despite that, there is a serious point to make about all this, and you’re going to have to bear with us to get to the seriousness: the point is that Roddy’s body is absolutely ripped. Really. It almost sells the hero fantasy he’s going for in this moment, if only Roddy himself weren’t so ridiculous.<\/p>\n

Other characters comment on it too, even if they’re reluctant to praise Roddy in any shape or form. That’s how undeniable his abs are. <\/p>\n

Showing off idealised male bodies in this fashion isn’t exactly new to the spy genre, of course: Daniel Craig made an entire career out of those tight blue trunks in Casino Royale. What is groundbreaking, however, is this idea that someone as geeky as Roddy could be presented as physically attractive too.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

Beyond him just owning that fantasy sword, Roddy also makes a reference to Star Wars later on that makes no sense to any one but him. And that’s important too.<\/p>\n

After decades of stereotyping on screen, it’s really unusual to see nerdy characters portrayed as physically desirable (Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante in Peacemaker being another rare exception to the rule). That’s true even now that stories once deemed niche and geeky have become far more mainstream. Think Marvel, Star Wars, and anime as an entire medium.<\/p>\n

Even in Herron’s original Slough House books, Roddy’s defining physical characteristic was just his thick black glasses. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but it’s refreshing to see a nerdy hacker like him portrayed as someone who can be more sexually appealing than usual. And there’s an extra dimension to this given the fact that Chung is of Malaysian Chinese heritage.<\/p>\n

During a recent chat with The Guardian<\/a>, Chung remembered how quick directors were to pigeonhole him for stereotypical Asian roles before Slow Horses: <\/p>\n

“They were very much like: ‘This is the Asian part’,” he says, recalling how an executive producer on Waterloo Road once suggested his character could “go to China on a boat.” Chung adds, “I didn\u2019t have the vernacular at the time to say: ‘What are you talking about?'”<\/p>\n

\"christopher<\/p>\n

Apple<\/p>\n

With such stereotyping, Chung was forced to navigate his own “unconscious bias”, often auditioning for roles he didn’t really want \u2014 “stereotypes like the takeaway worker or the Asian nurse \u2013 peripheral characters that don\u2019t have any autonomy.”<\/p>\n

Western media has historically pigeonholed Asian actors as either gangsters and martial artists or unattractive nerds. They’ve rarely, if ever, been presented as the attractive lead. But in Slow Horses, Roddy doesn’t fit any preconceived mould of what an Asian character ‘should’ be. <\/p>\n

He’s geeky but attractive, and physically competent without playing into martial artist tropes. Even with his fantasy sword in hand, Roddy remains a fumbling idiot who also happens to be extremely ripped. <\/p>\n

It took five seasons, but Roddy is finally taking centre stage at last, allowing Chung and the writers to foreground a well-rounded Asian character in a predominantly white, British show. <\/p>\n

Okay, he still doesn’t have the most depth just yet, but trust us when we say that subsequent episodes will delve deeper into Roddy than ever before, reminding us why this show \u2014 and diverse representation onscreen \u2014 is so special in the first place. <\/p>\n

Slow Horses<\/a> season 5 premiered on Apple TV+ on 24 September, with episodes dropping weekly. Seasons 1-4 are available on the <\/strong>same platform.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new edition of <\/strong>Living Legends<\/strong> is here! <\/strong>Buy Gaga in newsagents or online<\/strong><\/a>, priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ <\/a>storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.<\/p>\n

David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more \u2014 not to mention countless Drag Race<\/a> legends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times<\/a>, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek<\/a>, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s something uniquely special about Slow Horses, and we’re not just talking about its annual release schedule (an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[1380,155996,1331,77,1330,155995,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-467685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-48369f5d-4a53-46a9-a724-35191ecd4fbf","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-locale-gb","13":"tag-shorttitle-slow-horses-absurd-roddy-moment-was-unexpected","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115302979891743442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}