Usually, a two-year gap between seasons is both customary (in the streaming age) and frustrating to viewers. Any resulting impatience would also ordinarily be the case for an FX series that has shades of both John Wick and Taken, two vengeance-focused action worlds that have viewers eagerly coming back for more, and sure, Jeff Bridges devotees are slightly impatient to see more of him in decades-spanning thriller-espionage series The Old Man. However, Bridges has had a hell of a time lately, which makes two years look like a fast turnaround. He recovered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after shooting the first season with a sizable tumor inside his stomach.
The Dude cannot stay down for long. Bridges now returns for more gripping action (and realistic action, as we will soon discuss) as ex-CIA operative Dan Chase, and fortunately, Bridges insists that he’s “feeling great now.” He’s also now acting alongside John Lithgow as Harold Harper as the two characters unite for a mission, so let’s roll into what to expect from the second season.
Plot
As The Old Man‘s new trailer reveals, this season will bring back a key attraction: realistic action for a 75-year-old former assassin, who has still got “it,” but he’s slower and cannot exactly bash together heads like an Arnold Schwarzenegger character would do. As Bridges and executive producer Warren Littlefield have further hinted, the series will head “deep into Afghanistan” (with or without dogs, but Rottweilers will be present), and as the trailer previews, Dan and Harold (who is surely feeling outside of his cushier element right now) will attempt to retrieve Emily Chase/Angela (Alia Shawkat) from the clutches of warlord Faraz Hamzad. However, that trailer also suggests that perhaps she might not be so willing to be rescued.
That apparent turn of events jibes with FX’s second-season synopsis, which operates under the clusterf*ck of “all three men” (Dan, Harold, and Faraz) “claiming her as their daughter.” Cue an identity crisis and more chaos:
As Chase and Harper fight their way to get to Emily, Hamzad is forced to make decisions that could endanger his family and the village he has led faithfully for a lifetime. Khadija, Hamzad’s sister and trusted advisor, is concerned about the path her brother has taken and what it will cost them. As the stakes get higher and more secrets are uncovered, Zoe McDonald makes surprising moves after having been drawn into a new world by Chase….
The series is, of course, is based upon Thomas Perry’s 2017 same-named book, which paints layers of Dan Chase’s history and parties whose motives are not as they appear to be. The trailer suggests that Dan’s own “painting” will bite him in the butt this season, although to be semi-fair, Dan would have preferred that he would have never come back from his off-the-grid lifestyle in the first place. The fallout from the resulting confrontations will surely lead back into the show’s lingering question of who the “old man” of the show’s title will actually turn out to be.
As the aforementioned trailer also reveals, Amy Brenneman’s Zoe seems to be enjoying her changed lifestyle more than expected. As Brenneman has elaborated, “She’s an outsider” to Dan’s world, but “[s]he’s an American woman living in the twenty-first century. Her life is just as complex. She has to shape-shift and dissemble just as much as any spy to get through her day.”
By the way, the show’s resemblance to John Wick is pure coincidence but a welcome development, considering that John Wick was written about a 75-year-old ex-assassin ahead of Keanu Reeves joining the project.
Cast
Alia Shawkat will return as Emily/Angela. Perhaps it’s her world, and Jeff Bridges, John Lithgow, and Pej Vahdat/Navid Negahban (who both portray the Afghanistan warlord at different ages) are simply living in it. The second season’s cast also includes Jacqueline Antaramian, Amy Brenneman, and Gbenga Akinnagbe.
Release Date
September 12 is when dads (and those who love them and their TV choices) will want to hop in front of the TV. FX will debut two episodes with next-day drops on Hulu, and weekly releases will follow for a total of eight episodes.
Trailer
This trailer doubles down on Soundgarden while showing Emily’s new situation and Harold roughing it by literally getting into the saddle: