Slow Horses: ...so our hero gets ambushed by ex-KGB thugs only for them to reveal their plan to bomb a financial skyscraper in London in solidarity with an anticapitalist march
me: no, no, let them cook
I actually really appreciate le Carré because he's so deep in it that it's not even really political anymore, it's just a game. Spy versus spy. Even when he tackles the politics, as in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, he's willing to give the left at least a degree of sympathy.
And clearly Mick Herron—at least as filtered through the TV show—fancies himself in like with le Carré. Jackson Lamb is just George Smiley if he weren't a bit posh. Smiley even gets name-dropped in the first season. But he can't resist making his characters out to be heroes in a way that just fundamentally doesn't quite work.
All that said I am still enjoying the series a lot, don't let this sour you on it if it's your kind of thing!
Post season 2 update: you now what they kinda landed it. I'm impressed. Like it still has the hero problem but that aside the plotting here is genuinely very good.