One last job
The “old guy’s still got it” is a running theme from politics (your Joe Bidens) to sport (your Tom Bradys) – and films or TV programmes that show old guys who still have it are sure to appeal to, well, old guys. And so to The Old Man (Disney+), a TV action thriller about a former CIA agent played by Jeff Bridges, who can still kick ass.
Fabulous Bridges brothers
It’s Bridges’ first major foray into prestige TV. Let’s jump to 1989’s acclaimed The Fabulous Baker Boys, a romantic drama in which he starred opposite his brother Beau, as a piano-playing duo whose act is revived by a lounge singer played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Things go swimmingly until Jeff and Michelle start makin’ whoopee.
You think you’re better than me?!
The brothers’ father was Lloyd Bridges, a well-known actor of stage and screen. One of his final roles was in Seinfeld, as Izzy Mandelbaum, a neighbour of Jerry’s parents who is obsessed with fitness and proving the old guy has still got it. “It’s go time!”
Kith fit
Jerry Seinfeld turned heads in a campaign for fashion brand Kith, landing between “how do you do, fellow kids?” and Kendall Roy. “I regret to inform you that Jerry Seinfeld is hot”, declared the Daily Beast. Kith isn’t shy of a TV crossover – last year it launched a partnership with HBO, selling a collection featuring the network’s logo, with plans for pieces based around its shows. Kendall from Succession seems an obvious Kith campaign model.
Chase sequence
The great Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass plays Logan Roy’s mysterious wife, Marcia. A household name in her homeland, she’s less known in the Anglophone world but increasingly visible. She appears in The Old Man as the wife of Bridges’ Dan Chase, a CIA agent involved in dark business in Afghanistan who finds himself on the run and hunting those hunting him. The chase continues.
Pairing notes
Watch The show’s creators Jonathan E Steinberg and Robert Levine made Black Sails, a “tremendous high seas yarn” about pirates.
Drink The sum Jeff Bridges + beverage inevitably equals The Big Lebowski and the Dude’s iconic White Russians. If you’re feeling abstemious, stick with that film and go for that good sarsaparilla.
