The first season of The Old Man seemed like another highlight in the long career of Jeff Bridges. Seeing as the actor had survived Non-Hodgkin lymphoma where a huge tumor was removed from his stomach, but he also battled Covid. Bridges’ health along with the pandemic led to the series production being delayed a long time.
Bridges’ is one of those actors who can play good guys, bad guys, and everything else even though he’ll mostly be remembered for his role as Starman and The Dude. That’s why it was amazing seeing him as a direct opposite of those those characters. Based on the book by Thomas Perry, Bridges plays Dan Chase, a Vietnam vet turned retired CIA operative.
But this wasn’t another John Wick/Nobody character about a retired white man who seems average but is actually the one who you don’t mess with. It was a surprise hit with critics and viewers when it premiered on June 16, 2022 on FX and then was renewed for a second season shortly thereafter. It makes me think this was supposed to be a one-and-done limited series because the first season ran for only seven episodes instead of the typical eight or 10.
This leads me to suspect the powers that be had to redo and reshoot some of those latter episodes to roll it into a second season that seems mediocre compared to the first. When the first season ended, Dan’s daughter, Emily (Alia Shawkat in a great role), was arriving in Libya to be with Faraz Hazmad (Navid Negahban), the leader of a major terrorist organization. It’s also revealed Emily or Parwana is actually Faraz’s biological daughter.
The second season picks up with Dan in the Middle-East with Harold Harper (John Lithgow) a former FBI assistant director who has a complex past with Dan. It’s nice to see Bridges and Lithgow together in this show but this season felt sluggish with a lot of episodes written and filmed to stretch out the second season. There’s not much suspense and the action scenes are few and far between.
The plot of the whole series is convoluted. The series seems to move away from focusing on Dan and more on Emily. Shawkat does shine in the role. But the whole deal between Emily and Faraz doesn’t really work. I also didn’t understand how Zoe McDonald (Amy Brenneman) who was somewhat of Dan’s love interest would continue to be involved knowing his past and thus putting herself at risk. She works as an assistant to Morgan Bote (Joel Grey), the former head of the CIA who both trained Dan and Harold.
There hasn’t been word yet whether FX will renew the series for a third season. I would suggest they cancel if they can’t create a better premise for the third season. The Old Man seems to suffer from problems that hurt Under the Dome, which was originally a limited series, and Dexter (in which Lithgow played a serial killer). They electrify coming out of the gate and rather than seeing how things play out, the networks are already wanting to renew.
Sometimes less is more. The Watchmen TV series is a testament to that.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 