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Sep 12, 2024 By Kyle Mullin Photography by FX/Bryan Cohen Web Exclusive

Though you won’t want to look away, you might flinch and cover your eyes during the Season Two premiere of the FX spy series The Old Man. That’s because the risk of a gouged socket feels palpable when Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) grimaces menacingly before jabbing, grasping and even biting a supposed ally who is clamoring to kill him. Director Steve Boyum’s (The Boys, Gen V) visceral closeups and clear sightlines make it obvious that Bridges, rather than a stunt double, is wrestling his antagonist like a bear.

Before forcing each other to the craggy dirt, they had been trekking across mountainous Afghan terrain as picturesque as the fight scenes are ugly. They are on a mission to rescue former CIA agent Chase’s daughter Emily from Faraz Hamzad. This warlord captor is still bitter at Bridges’ character for wooing his wife from him and her Afghan village to America. Hamzad is by turns mercurial and unsettlingly vulnerable at the start of Season Two, thanks to a richly complex performance from Navid Negahban (24, Homeland).

The bruising action sequences, and Bridges’ physical preparation, have been a hallmark for the series since it debuted in 2022. That first season centered on Chase, a 70-something former CIA operative notorious for his brutal operations in 1980s Afghanistan. He was forced out of retirement in the series premiere when assassins began closing in on his humble home in Vermont. Despite his haggard appearance, Chase handily neutralized those attackers. But he spent the rest of the season not only fighting for his own life, but tracking down his assailants’ associates who did something even more vindictive: kidnapping Emily played by Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Search Party)

By Chase’s side on the Afghanistan rescue mission is high ranking FBI official Harold Harper, who is given a brilliant but pencil pushing aura by TV and film’s most famous nerd-dad, John Lithgow (3rd Rock From the Sun) and repressed sociopaths (Dexter). Lithgow reveals unexpected layers here as a bureaucratic beta male to Chase’s alpha, years after they were both 1980s operatives in Afghanistan. Harper spent several of the ensuing years as a father figure to Emily, though she kept her connection to Chase. What’s more, Harper proves surprisingly capable with a pistol in The Old Man’s latest episodes, though he struggles to keep up with Chase. This is mostly because the local food doesn’t agree with him. His alleviating roadside stops being one of the few moments of levity in this admittedly stern series.

Though the vivid and close-knit action made The Old Man’s first season thrilling and distinct, its dialogue-heavy scenes sometimes became leaden. Flashbacks to Chase and Harper’s prime as operatives in Afghanistan were even worse, in part because we viewers could care less about young actors imitating legends like Bridges and Lithgow when the series’ main draw is the real thing. Both those flaws persist in the early episodes of Season Two. They carry through in some talking scenes between Emily and her captors. Other scenes with her kidnappers are more successful and a revelation. She is thrust into the daily life of her mother’s Afghan mountain hometown. Thanks to deft screenwriting and direction, it is rife with lived-in details like daily household chores her aunts and cousins carry out. Hopefully the series strikes a better balance as the second season unfolds.

Shawkat shines as Emily, who stares down a volatile Hamzad. At one point she even stares down the barrel of a pistol he points at her. He is possessive of her, but also longs for vengeance against Chase for making off with his ex-wife, Emily’s mother. The material penned for Shawkat veers from captivating to dull. Instead, the script’s focus is on Chase’s and Harper’s road trip rescue mission and is more consistent. These weathered frenemies drive and, when the road gets too rough, mount horses over terrain as treacherous as the relationships they soon need to navigate. The characters’ rich history makes their thorny but affectionate scenes sing. Though he’s legendary for portraying a hilarious stoner in The Big Lebowski, on The Old Man,Bridges is reminiscent of his more recent role as a graying cowboy on the 2010 hit movie True Grit, especially when he trades barbs with Lithgow in a low, drawling growl. Lithgow is even more perfectly cast, as his Harper all but harrumphs while retorting he was never as nebish or dithering as Chase dismissed him to be.

They quickly have to set aside their differences when the driver of the truck they smuggled aboard fails to properly bribe an Afghani patrolman. These grisled American stowaways emerge from the trunk to find the patrolman and their driver dead in the road after shooting each other. Their driver’s handler proves even more wretched. When he makes contact, Omar (small screen journeyman Artur Zai Barrera) with his fluent English and quick dispatching of local thugs intent on squeezing triggers to splay Chase and Harper’s brains, seems like a godsend. Like any good spy tale, Omar is not what he seems and Bridges puts his undeniable stunt prep to work, slugging it out with this sneering adversary a quarter of his age until they grapple, claw and gnash their way to a gory finish. Lithgow isn’t exactly cavalry personified, but Chase is lucky to have him ride in on horseback and help him make a much needed getaway in an endearing end to this scene, considering both actors’ age and rapport on the show.

The first two episodes of this season end on cliffhangers that maintain commendable suspense, despite some expository scenes that tumble into proverbial valleys compared to action packed and sharply acted road buddy sequences that are The Old Man’s peaks. Nevertheless, the exquisitely shot Middle East landscapes, Shawkat’s steely portrayal of a character in perilous danger, Bridges’ pitilessly pugnacious fight scenes, and his sparky chemistry with Lithgow make The Old Man a must watch, and prove some elder operatives need not be scurried out to pasture. (www.fxnetworks.com/shows/the-old-man)

Author rating: 7/10