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The Old Man
Genre	Action drama Thriller
Created by	Jonathan E. Steinberg Robert Levine
Based on	The Old Man by Thomas Perry
Starring	Jeff Bridges John Lithgow E. J. Bonilla Bill Heck Leem Lubany Alia Shawkat Gbenga Akinnagbe Amy Brenneman Navid Negahban Jacqueline Antaramian
Composers	T Bone Burnett Patrick Warren
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	15
Production
Executive producers	Jonathan E. Steinberg Dan Shotz Warren Littlefield Robert Levine Jon Watts Jeff Bridges David Schiff Craig Silverstein Ann Johnson Graham Littlefield
Producer	Judd Rea
Running time	47–64 minutes
Production companies	Quaker Moving Pictures The Littlefield Company 20th Television
Original release
Network	FX
Release	June 16, 2022 (2022-06-16) – October 24, 2024 (2024-10-24)

The Old Man is an American drama thriller television series based on the 2017 novel The Old Man by Thomas Perry. It was developed by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine and premiered on FX on June 16, 2022. The first season consisted of seven episodes. Following its premiere, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on September 12, 2024. In December 2024, the series was canceled after two seasons.

Premise

Dan Chase is a former CIA operative and Vietnam veteran, who 30 years ago was in Afghanistan. After killing an intruder who breaks into his home, Chase goes into hiding. He rents a room from Zoe McDonald, who becomes his forced partner while on the run.

FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Harold Harper is called to apprehend Chase because of their complicated past during the Soviet–Afghan War. Working alongside Harper are his protégé, FBI agent Angela Adams, CIA officer Raymond Waters, and Julian Carson, a hit-man hired by Harper to kill Chase.

Cast and characters

Main

• Jeff Bridges as Dan Chase / Henry Dixon / Johnny Kohler / Peter Caldwell / Lou Barlow
• John Lithgow as Harold Harper
• E. J. Bonilla as Raymond Waters (season 1)
• Bill Heck as young Johnny Kohler / Dan Chase (season 1; guest season 2)
• Leem Lubany as young Belour Hamzad (née Daadfar) (season 1; guest season 2)
• Alia Shawkat as Angela Adams / Emily Chase / Parwana Hamzad
• Gbenga Akinnagbe as Julian Carson
• Amy Brenneman as Zoe McDonald
• Navid Negahban as Faraz Hamzad (season 2; guest season 1)
• Jacqueline Antaramian as Khadija (season 2; guest season 1)

Recurring

• Hiam Abbass as Belour Hamzad (née Daadfar) / Abbey Chase (season 1)
• Jessica Harper as Cheryl Harper (season 1; guest season 2)
• Joel Grey as Morgan Bote (season 1; guest season 2)
• Kenneth Mitchell as Joe (season 1)
• Pej Vahdat as young Faraz Hamzad (season 1; guest season 2)
• Noor Razooky as young Khadija (season 1)
• Echo Kellum as Mike (season 1)
• Rade Serbedzija as Suleyman Pavlovic (season 2; guest season 1)
• Janet McTeer as Marion (season 2)
• Artur Zai Barrera as Omar (season 2)
• Sara Seyed as Faruza (season 2)
• Amir Malaklou as Tarik (season 2)

Guest

• Nelson Franklin as Dr. Howard (season 1)
• Christopher Redman as young Harold Harper (season 1)
• Jessica Parker Kennedy as Woman at Bus Stop
• Rowena King as Nina Kruger
• Jordan Bridges as Zachary (season 1)
• Faran Tahir as Abdellaatif Rahmani (season 1)
• Brad Beyer as Chip Harper (season 2)
• Ana Mulvoy-Ten as Anna Rollins (season 2)
• Nikolai Nikolaeff as Fedotov (season 2)
• John Ales as Ben (season 2)
• Nick Boraine as Pete (season 2)
• Daniyar as Pavel (season 2)

Episodes

Season 1 (2022)

Season 2 (2024)

Production

The series was announced in July 2019, with FX ordering a pilot with Jeff Bridges cast to star. In September, Jon Watts was set to direct the pilot and be an executive producer, with John Lithgow and Amy Brenneman added to the cast. Alia Shawkat joined in October. In November, Bob Iger announced that the show would air on FX on Hulu, and Austin Stowell was added to play a younger version of Chase. In February 2020, Kenneth Mitchell disclosed he had a role in the series. Stowell would be recast in March 2020 with Bill Heck, and Gbenga Akinnagbe, Leem Lubany, and E. J. Bonilla was cast in main roles. Navid Negahban and Pej Vahdat were cast in recurring roles in December 2020.

Shooting the series was two-thirds complete when production shut down in mid-March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in late 2020 with three episodes remaining to film, but was soon halted when Bridges was diagnosed with lymphoma in October 2020 and departed for cancer treatment. The show stayed in production for a short period after his diagnosis to shoot scenes from the remaining episodes that do not feature his character. In September 2021, he announced his cancer was in remission. Production ultimately resumed in February 2022.

The first season consisted of seven episodes. The series was scored by T Bone Burnett and Patrick Warren, with incidental music included Elvis Costello, Charlie Parker, Robert Plant, and others.

On June 27, 2022, the series was renewed for a second season. In May 2023, it was reported that filming of the second season was suspended due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. On December 17, 2024, the series was canceled after two seasons.

Release

The series premiered on June 16, 2022, on FX in the United States and Canada. It also premiered on Disney+ (Star) on July 13, 2022, in Australia and New Zealand, Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ Hotstar in India. The second season premiered on September 12, 2024, on FX.

Reception

Critical response

For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 97% approval rating with an average rating of 7.4/10, based on 61 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Old Man is just as intrepid and spiky—and derivative—as younger action heroes, with Jeff Bridges lending invaluable gravitas to this bone-crunching thriller." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 72 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

For the second season, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 64% approval rating with an average rating of 6.5/10, based on 14 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus states, "Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow remain a compulsively watchable pair, but there's a nagging sense that The Old Man has lost a step in this overextended sophomore season." Metacritic assigned a score of 66 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

Footnotes

1. Touchstone Television is credited as copyright holder for season 1 as it was originally developed at Fox21 Television Studios, later rebranded to Touchstone Television in 2020 before being shut down and folding into 20th Television.

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External links

• Official website
• The Old Man at IMDb 

• 2022 American television series debuts
• 2024 American television series endings
• 2020s American drama television series
• American action television series
• American thriller television series
• American English-language television shows
• FX Networks original programming
• Soviet–Afghan War fiction
• Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• Television series about the Central Intelligence Agency
• Television series about the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Television series about old age
• Television series by 20th Century Fox Television
• Television shows based on American novels
• Television shows set in New York (state)
• Television shows set in Afghanistan