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Cathal Gunning
Published 15 minutes ago
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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Although The Asset’s streaming success makes the show seem like an ideal replacement for Slow Horses, the awkward reality of its season 1 ending makes this harder to envision. Netflix's Danish thriller The Asset follows in the footsteps of Apple TV’s Slow Horses in one major way.
Like Slow Horses, The Asset is atypically grounded for a spy thriller. The show focuses on the day-to-day work of espionage and is more concerned with grounded realism than high-flying theatrics. Avoiding the glamor that viewers might associate with famous spies like James Bond, both The Asset and Slow Horses are more interested in the drudgery of spy work.
This description might make the two shows sound as dull as dishwater, but this could not be further from the truth. On the contrary, both Slow Horses and The Asset enjoyed streaming success upon release precisely because of their unusual approaches to the genre. Of course, The Asset’s twisty storyline didn’t hurt, either.
The Asset’s Ending Makes A Season 2 Renewal Tough
Image courtesy of Netflix
The Asset tells the story of Clara Dessan’s secret agent, Tea, as she goes undercover to uncover a drug trafficking operation run by a local crime boss, Miran. Things get complicated when Tea unexpectedly becomes close with Marin’s girlfriend, Ashley, and realizes that the life of Ashley and Miran's young daughter will be ruined by Tea’s upcoming bust.
Tea needs to end Marin’s operation to get her career back on track, but she is uncomfortably aware that this will likely separate Ashley from her daughter. Eager to avoid destroying the life of their daughter, Tea reveals her status as a secret agent to Ashley, so Miran’s girlfriend can flee with her daughter before the big bust.
In The Asset’s ending, Miran is finally caught and imprisoned, but he surprises Tea by claiming that Ashley was an unwilling accomplice in his crimes. This isn’t true, but it does mean that Ashley can continue to live an ordinary life and raise their daughter while he goes to prison for his drug-running operation.
However, when Ashley discovers a stash of cash and drugs in a hidden storage unit, she is left in a catch-22. The money and the further fortune she could make from selling the drugs could get her back to the glamorous life she enjoyed with Miran. However, ignoring the storage unit would let her live a normal life with her daughter.
Meanwhile, Tea celebrates a job well done after the bust, but her story isn’t over yet. Just as she seems ready to leave Denmark's Security and Intelligence Service for good, Tea is shot by an unseen assailant and barely escapes with her life. While the unsolved mystery of who shot Tea is a cliffhanger, this ending doesn’t bode well for season 2.
The Asset Doesn’t Share Slow Horses’ Secret Weapon
Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses season 1, episode 4
Both Tea and Ashley receive cliffhanger endings in The Asset season 1, so it might seem like the show is perfectly set up for a season 2 renewal. However, that’s not quite the case. The main storyline is wrapped up and doesn’t invite a sequel, even if season 2 could explore what Ashley chooses to do or who shot Tea.
Both of these questions are intriguing, but neither of them holds enough dramatic weight to justify an entire second season. To succeed the way Slow Horses did and become a slow-burn cult classic, The Asset would need the secret weapon that made Apple TV’s spy series so successful.
Unlike The Asset, Slow Horses has a large ensemble cast that allows each new season to focus on a new character, even as the same familiar faces crop up in each new adventure. The titular department, Slough House, is a banishment room for spies who know too much to be fired, but who are too incompetent to remain employed.
From River and Jackson to Kristin Scott Thomas’s Diana Taverner and Jonathan Pryce’s OB, the cast of Slow Horses is a broad intergenerational coalition who each have their own backstories and intersecting interests. Plenty of backstabbing and double-crossing occur throughout the show’s five seasons, but the cast's size means the series is always free to switch perspectives.
The Asset Season 2 Needs To Move Beyond Tea and Ashley’s Story
Image courtesy of Netflix
In contrast, part of what makes The Asset season 1 work so well is precisely the fact that the show is squarely Ashley and Tea’s shared story. The two women are the central characters of season 1, and one of them is considering leaving the Security and Intelligence Service at the end, while the other has never even worked as a spy.
If The Asset season 1’s ending revealed that Ashley was a spy all along, who had been undercover for longer than Tea, it would be easy to see whose story season 2 would explore. However, Tea is already on her way out the door when season 1 ends, and Ashley’s money quandary isn’t connected to the Security and Intelligence Service storyline.
This means that season 2 would need to either follow Ashley’s story, meaning it would become a conventional crime drama and cease to be a spy show, or follow Tea’s story and ignore Ashley’s moral quagmire. Neither of these plots, on their own, makes The Asset season 2 sound as promising as another outing of Slow Horses.
9.1/10
The Asset
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Drama Crime Thriller Release Date October 27, 2025 Network NetflixCast
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Clara Dessau
Tea
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Maria Cordsen
Ashley
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The Asset
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Slow Horses
We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Do you think The Asset's focus on grounded realism rather than glamorized spy work makes for a more compelling story? Why or why not?
Cathal
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15 minutes ago
Some viewers may find The Asset's realistic portrayal of espionage more engaging, as it offers a refreshing change from the typical high-stakes, glamorous spy stories. The focus on the day-to-day challenges and moral dilemmas faced by the characters could make the story feel more relatable and emotionally resonant. However, others might argue that the lack of action and spectacle makes the show less exciting and harder to get invested in compared to more conventional spy thrillers.
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