The Old Man is a thriller drama series loosely inspired by Thomas Perry’s homonym novel. Very entertaining considering that the show’s hero is somehow different than the one in the book. Doesn’t matter very much because of the two main stars: Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow. A bright contribution was provided as well by Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat. She was good even if she wasn’t required to be funny here.
Jeff Bridges in The Old Man
[source:imdb.com]
The Old Man – Plot
I’m afraid most of you haven’t read the book, but let me assure you that it’s not very important for now. Actually, I read it after watching four or five episodes, just to find out more, maybe even how it ends. The book was better rendered, of course, I can say that the series is very poorly researched, only some acting is making it really exciting. I’m not sure the producers don’t want to dilute the syrup with a new season, because, after the last episode, it wasn’t clear at all.
A young American is helping an Afghan warlord fight the invading Soviets. This thing seems so ancient that nobody cared to be more specific. He has a friend with a certain degree of power, who can distribute some funds and weapons. He believes in the Afghans’ cause even when his CIA superiors abandoned it, or at least didn’t sanction an open American involvement. He was very talented, a skilled CIA black ops killer. He raided the Soviet camps at night, all alone, killing tens or hundreds with his knife. They nicknamed him Baba Yaga, a violent killing spirit, or a soul eater. Anyway, that’s why I said it’s poorly researched (of course, why would we need something accurate when a superficial bullshit filling would be enough for today’s youngsters?), the Eastern Folklore character is an ambiguous female spirit closer to the witch in Hansel and Gretel.
Nowadays, the mature former killer played by an over seventy-year-old Bridges is on the run somewhere in rural America accompanied by tho strong dogs. We don’t know why, we are scarcely fed drop by drop during the whole first (or only) season, that it is because of something that happened years ago in Afghanistan. He has a daughter with whom he speaks on “burners” pretty regularly. In his quest to hide more deeply or to fix the problem, he kidnaps an old lady, not very classy, not beautiful (on the contrary), just because he can’t bring himself to make her disappear.
That’s all I’m disclosing for now, you have to watch it yourself. I strongly recommend you to read the book, you’ll be better pleased by the subject. In the novel, this Chase character played by Jeff Bridges is a rogue agent who stole back some twenty million dollars from a middleman who didn’t dispose of the money -received from the CIA through the same Chase- to Qaddafi’s opposition. A more logical reason to become a fugitive. He did it because that middleman used the money for himself and the dictator remained in power until recently. He wanted to return them but CIA brass was interested only to cover their faeces, so Chase went into hiding with a thief’s reputation. There is his girl who isn’t quite hiding, they use burner phones but more for his protection than hers, there is a lady, but she’s classy and quite good looking, an asset for Chase in mingling somewhere else, only she went with him on her own volition, and he indeed has two faithful dogs like in the show. All the rest is just enriching the lecture.
Cast
Jeff Bridges is Dan Chase, probably “The Old Man” himself, if that’s not a certain “gray” entity in a wheelchair, a big manipulator more in the Robert Ludlum’s than Thomas Perry’s style, because he was referred as such. John Lithgow is Harold Harper, a former CIA something, now a big shot in the FBI. E. J. Bonilla is Raymond Waters, some CIA guy chasing Chase. Bill Heck is young Chase, the local dialects-speaking CIA undercover operative who went rogue. Alia Shawkat is Angela Adams, Harper’s young assistant at the FBI. Gbenga Akinnagbe is Julian Carson, a killer on Chase’s track. Amy Brenneman is Zoe McDonald, the kidnapped lady. Succession’s Hiam Abbass also appears, just in multiple cameos. Joel Grey is Morgan Bote, the mysterious manipulating entity whom you’ll find out handled both Harper and Chase before the Afghanistan era. Leem Lubany is Belour Hamzad, the warlord’s trophy wife. Pej Vahdat is Faraz Hamzad, the warlord. Rade Serbedzija is an aging former Soviet officer whose life Chase saved in Afghanistan.
Trailer
The Old Man was released on FX in seven episodes. If they won’t continue watering the wine like they did with Handmaid’s Tale, it’ll be enough entertaining. The very bad thing is that Jeff Bridges has cancer. Some good news are that it’s not terminal yet, so the show will maybe go on.
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