The Old Man

In 6 months, Jeff Bridges will turn 73 years old. Indeed, he is an old man. His character makes those grunting noises from the effort of arising in the morning, and you also overhear a very sporadic urine stream in the middle of the night. Starting in Peter Bogdanovich's seminal "The Last Picture Show," Bridges continued to build an enviable career out of numerous carefully drawn roles, each one truly unique and most of them more memorable than the last. He was finally awarded his long overdue Best Actor Oscar for "Crazy Heart" a few years ago, and then last year we almost lost him because of CoVID-19. But he's back as a beat-up old ex-spy and is perfect for and in this latest complex part.

In 4 months, John Lithgow will be 77 years old. Also by most narrow definitions, an old man. Is he the obvious villain of this story, or might he actually be the hero? You are never quite sure with a Lithgow character, and this one's no exception.

Supporting roles for such long-time pros as Amy Brenneman and Joel Gray are also well written and, of course, superbly well performed. But no mistake: this miniseries totally belongs to the one and only Jeff Bridges. And by extension, to all of us who remain his long-time fans more than a half century later. Not to be missed. 9/10.

Enjoyed the first Season. The pacing, story, and characters were in good form. Costumes, set design, and music are top notch in both seasons. Various elements have become diluted with the 2nd season. The actors still give committed performances, but most of the dialogue is ridiculously ponderous. Some of Lithgow's lines come off as so basic that it's nearly laughable. His character appears to have just been hired into the intelligence community. This is not the actor's fault, it's the script. Many scenes feel like a Parade of Preciousness. Ironically, this tactic diminishes the potential of mystery. The languorous script is in harmony with the camera pace: there are enough long shots to flood a swimming pool. I plan to finish this season (just one more episode to go), but I'm not too keen to watch Season 3, assuming there is one. Maybe this show would have worked better as a movie.

I loved the book. Unfortunately the adaption is stretched into a drawn out affair. I love Jeff Bridges, but the jumping past and present leaves the present day narrative poorly attended. This story could easily have been told in 4 episodes.

This will be a short review. Season 1 was great.

In fact the first number of episodes were just epic, Jeff Bridges is sublime. It keeps you totally glued to see what happens next. Good back ground story and he is basically kicking ass, which less face it, is what we want to see from this so called Old man. Well, I know it is what I wanted to see anyway. It did deliver too, in buckets.

Unfortunately, season 2 has started off like a completely different show, slow, boring, bad story, I would almost stretch to say, bad acting from Lithgow. Just all around really the opposite to everything that was great about season 1. Very disappointing so far. It's looking like they should have just made a mini series and left it at that.

Episode one had so much promise; Jeff Bridges, his Rottweilers and the taste of danger and drama to come. Enter John Lithgow as the perfect foil/nemesis and I thought we were really cooking. Add some intriguing flashbacks to spice up the recipe, but finally, the ridiculous Afghan-Russian conflict and the pseudo sensitive conversations that go nowhere... blah blah blah, yada yada yada. Great big let down; episodes two through six. Hopefully, they can save this one, but I wouldn't count on it.