Summary

• Oldman's portrayal of Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses subverts audience expectations of him typically playing villains.
• Lamb is a hero at heart, despite his unpleasant qualities, showcasing Oldman's range as an actor.
• The character of Lamb combines Oldman's best hero and villain strengths, adding complexity to his performance.

While Apple TV+'s adaptation of Mick Herron's spy series Slow Horses has been almost universally praised by critics, most acknowledge that the key to the show's success is Gary Oldman's performance as Jackson Lamb. As the foul-mannered and flatulent head of Slough House, Lamb is both thoroughly unpleasant and undeniably charismatic. Understandably, this is a combination that few actors would be capable of pulling off. In doing so, however, Oldman has not only underlined his impressive abilities but revealed a deeper truth about his whole career.

Even considering Slow Horses' consistent critical success (with each season earning 95% or above on Rotten Tomatoes) Gary Oldman has been particularly singled out for praise. The Guardian called his performance "grimy perfection", while Den of Geek identified him as "the best character on TV". As an Oscar-winning superstar, it was predictable that Oldman would be able to bring Lamb to life so effectively. However, what is perhaps more surprising is that Lamb's character actually goes against the popular perception of the 66-year-old, particularly for mainstream audiences.

Slow Horses Proves How Good Gary Oldman Is At Playing Heroes

Although Jackson Lamb can be extremely unpleasant, he is fundamentally a heroic figure – frequently stepping in to save the day, however reluctantly. While this makes him complicated and adds to the nuance of Oldman's performance, it also subverts audience expectations of Oldman, given that he is best known for playing villains. The early years of his Hollywood career, for instance, were defined by villainous characters, such as Count Dracula, Drexl Spivey in True Romance, and even Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK.

This trend continued throughout Oldman's Hollywood breakthrough years. He memorably played Norman Stansfield in Léon The Professional, John-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element, and Mason Verger in Hannibal. Such an array of villainous roles would lead many people to assume that Oldman is best suited to playing antagonists. Slow Horses, however, proves just how wrong that assumption is. While Jackson Lamb still has many negative characteristics, Oldman's performance is complex enough that his ultimate good heart shines through the veneer of hostility. This proves definitively that Oldman is more than a villainous stereotype.

Gary Oldman's Had Some Great Hero Roles, Despite Starting Off As A Villain

There's no doubt that most of Oldman's most recognizable early roles were as villains. However, while these performances helped raise his profile, he's actually had great success playing heroes too. Memorably, Oldman played Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series and James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, while he won his only Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the biopic Darkest Hour. There are even examples of him previously playing heroes in the spy subgenre, such as George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

While (Oldman's) most famous villains have become notorious for their almost cartoonish levels of evil, his heroes arguably highlight a greater range as an actor

These performances, combined with his portrayal of Jackson Lamb, prove just how varied Oldman is as a performer. While his most famous villains have become notorious for their almost cartoonish levels of evil, his heroes arguably highlight a greater range as an actor. Sirius Black, for instance, is clearly a very different type of character from Winston Churchill, requiring a completely different approach. In many ways, while he is better known as a Hollywood villain, Oldman's hero roles are the best examples of why he has had such a successful and enduring career.

Jackson Lamb Combines Gary Oldman's Biggest Hero And Villain Strengths

The main reason why Jackson Lamb is both perfectly suited to Gary Oldman's acting style and such a popular character is that he embodies the greatest strengths of the actor's best-known characters. Lamb is simultaneously slightly flamboyant and ostentatious in his poor treatment of others, like many of Oldman's most dastardly characters, while also being a fundamentally good person underneath the surface – an ambiguity that helped make the likes of Sirius Black so memorable. The fact that Lamb cannot be comfortably pigeon-holed is because he contains elements of both light and dark.

This moral nuance has helped define many of Oldman's best characters. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, for example, part of the reason why his take on the Count is so appealing is that he is not straightforwardly bad or good – although he does clearly lean towards evil. In many ways, Jackson Lamb is on the opposite side of Dracula's coin, being mostly horrible to his team but still fighting for what is right. Ultimately, Gary Oldman's role in Slow Horses is so successful because it is a melting pot of all the actor's best characteristics, exemplifying why he is much more than a great villain performer.

Sources: The Guardian, Den of Geek