Sometimes all it takes to make you excited about a show is the cast list. And The Old Man, coming to Disney+ UK in September, has an incredible one. In fact, it features the stars of my favourite ever film and my favourite ever TV show: Jeff Bridges, who starred in Fearless, and Amy Brenneman, who was brilliant in NYPD Blue.
Both actors are of course known for many more well-known films and shows, but they're enough to make The Old Man a must-watch for me. And that's before you look at the rest of the cast, which is just as stellar: John Lithgow (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 3rd Rock) , Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, The Final Girls), E.J. Bonilla (Gemini Man, Guiding Light) and Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Wire, The Taking of Pelham 123).
I'll be honest. With that cast the show could just be them all talking about cows and I'd still tune in. But The Old Man sounds brilliant.
The Old Man: a critical hit that sounds like a hoot
The Old Man is based on the thriller of the same name by Thomas Perry, and while some reviewers suggested Liam Neeson would be perfect in the titular role I think Jeff Bridges is perfectly cast here. He plays Dan Chase, a man who seems to be a quiet retiree who minds his own business and loves his dogs. But Chase is a retired intelligence agent with some serious skeletons rattling around in his closet, and when an assassin tracks him down he's forced to go on the run and face up to his past. The book got rave reviews, not least because of the highly cinematic action scenes, and the Disney+ version clearly has the budget to bring those spectacular set-pieces to life.
I'm properly excited about this. While the plot is a little hackneyed Jeff Bridges is an incredible actor, and the supporting cast – Lithgow as the FBI assistant director hunting him down, Akinnagbe as the special ops agent on his tail and Brenneman as the person who helps him hide before discovering his explosive secret, among many others – should be just as good. The show is already streaming in the US where it's got an 8/10 rating on IMDb and a whopping 95% from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
UK subscribers will be able to stream The Old Man on Disney+ from 28 September.
