Genre: Spy Movie
Time: 7 episodes x average 50 minutes
Platform: Disney Hotstar
SEASON 1
“You get to be my age in this business and one way or another, you will have something personal with just about everyone”.
“Better way is to keep things buried in the ground than to wish them away”.
These two quotations appear in the first episode of The Old Man Season 1 but it is also symbolic of a sub-genre in spy films and TV series – “the blast from the past that is not buried but has a bearing on the present and is going to affect the future”.
There are quite a few films about “retired spies” going about their business, who are suddenly confronted with events beyond their control, which is based on some distant event in their past. However, The Old Man deals with it in a realistic way in that the central character Dan Chase aka Henry Dixon aka Johnny Koehler (Jeff Bridges) is old and past his prime. He has to take multiple medications in a day for multiple health issues. He is also fearful that he would end up with Alzheimer’s like his wife Abbey. He has two fierce Rottweilers for his protection and they listen only to him and no one else. The past soon comes knocking.
He shoots dead an intruder, who is cornered by the two dogs. Clearly he is no ordinary intruder as he has a silencer attached to his pistol. Chase calls the Police, gives his statement, talks about going to meet some relatives and disappears from the town, changing his mobile, identity and all other documentation. He lands up at the guest house of a lone woman Zoe McDonald (Amy Brennerman). Simultaneously his old handler Harold Harper (John Lithgow), retired from the FBI, is also wondering why people are out to get Chase. He knows that it is connected to Chase’s past, running guns to one of the Afghan warlords, during the period of the Russian Intervention (1979-1989), as not only did Chase give Faraz Hamzad, the warlord lots of material support, but also quit Afghanistan with Faraz’s wife Belour Hamzad whom he married, and their daughter Parwana , whom he adopted as Emily Chase (Alia Shawkat). Emily is however working in the FBI as Angela Adams and Harper knows that Emily is the key. Emily as Angela, declares that Emily Chase is dead and that’s a dead end, while sharing information about the investigation with her “father” Dan Chase. Meanwhile Chase is forced to kidnap Zoe and run with her to escape another assassin, which is followed by a Police Swat assault which he escapes.
The plotting is complex and sweeps back and forth between the present and the “Russian times” as to what happened in the past that has a bearing on the present. The wheels within wheels, the tight intelligent plotting keeps you guessing as to what is about to happen but around episode 5, when Harper identifies Angela as the real Emily, we know that things are going to take a turn for the worse.
The gun play and explosions are kept to a bare minimum though one does question how can Chase take out a sniper rifle from his car’s boot, in broad daylight, and shoot down a drone without anyone in the neighborhood reporting it back to the Police.
The end is a foregone conclusion and is a clear indicator of what’s about to happen in Season 2.
Of the cast, Lithgow towers above all, as his is the most well written character. However, watch out for Joel Grey as Marvin Bote, the creepy ex-CIA handler of both Harper and Chase for whom the game is the end in itself and not a means to an end.
Like most enthralling stories that absorb you, this story too is a quest. Chase and Harper into their past. Hamzad into his past, identity, filial bonds and honor. Emily aka Angela aka Parwana into her own identity – is she Afghan or American or something else altogether. The series takes about two episodes to get going; so do hang on till then.
Script – 4 out of 5
Story – 4 out of 5
Direction – 4 out of 5
Photography – 4 out of 5
Total – 4 out of 5
SEASON 2
“If you once turn it on you can’t turn it off. Ever.”
This statement becomes true for Emily, now known as Parwana and who is grappling with her kidnapping by Faraz Hamzad (Navid Nigehban) . Hamzad is a warlord who is sitting on a huge lithium deposit and expects that someone would take over from him. Harper and Chase are in Afghanistan clandestinely and on Emily’s trail. Omar is a local Taliban spy who misguides the duo, captures them but pays a price when Chase escapes. Harper and Chase meet Emily and the questions start. Faraz Hamzad has two axes to grind – for the kidnapping of both his wife and infant daughter. The Taliban now attack Hamzad’s compound and wound him. It’s time for Emily to stand up and be counted after she sends Chase and Harper back to the USA.
Season 2 somehow is heavily predictable and doesn’t have the “suspense” of Season 1. We expect that Zoe will somehow come back when the duo is back in the US. She does. Bote is also the man who has all the answers but is shot dead by unknown assassins before he can reveal anything. Again, its Lithgow who stands out among the cast.Once again, the ending points to a Season 3 on the cards, with Parwana now in charge of Hamzad’s group. (I suspect that this Series will continue till its ratings drop.)
Script – 3 out of 5
Story – 3 out of 5
Direction – 4 out of 5
Photography – 4 out of 5
Total – 3.5 out of 5
Hi Rammesh!
As always, a great review!
Thank you very much
I’m watching The Old Man Part 1, on Rammesh’s recommendation.
Slow paced, but executed brilliantly.
Enjoying it.
Glad to hear that you are enjoying it.