Espionage

The Old Man – XII

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Old Man – XII
  • IMDb: link

The Old Man - XII

After the death of Morgan Bote (Joel Grey), Harold (John Lithgow) takes Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) and Zoe (Amy Brenneman) home with him leading to revelations and unexpected bonding over the tragic end of events in Afghanistan. There’s a scene in the middle of this episode featuring four people in a dark room on a phone call with someone half a world away, unable to do anything but listen, that hits home for each of them, and for the audience, as frenzy of uncertainty gives way to finality and leaves Dan Chase with only regret and revenge.

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The Old Man – XI

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Old Man – XI
  • IMDb: link

The Old Man - XI

Episode “XI” feels a bit as if multiple episodes have been condensed into one due to time constraints. We get the conclusion of Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) and Harold Harper’s (John Lithgow) time in Afghanistan, Angela (Alia Shawkat) choosing to stay and the death of her father, the return of Zoe (Amy Brenneman), Dan and Harold confronting Morgan Bote (Joel Grey), who never got developed as much as I would have liked, and also his murder. It’s an insane amount to somehow fit together in one episode, but it does allow the story to finish on another cliffhanger with Angela’s best chance now dead by the minions of Suleyman Pavlovich (Rade Serbedzija) who has overtaken both Hamzad (Navid Negahban) and Bote as our true villain (at least for now).

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The Old Man – IX & X

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Old Man – IX & X
  • IMDb: link | link

The Old Man - IX & X

Episode IX catches up with Angela (Alia Shawkat) since her abduction. We see her learning the truth about her biological parentage and some antagonistic back-and-forth dialogues with Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban) including one where the pair attempt to murder each other. What’s surprising is the turn that happens afterwards with Angela being invited into the family and the shift in focus from what her abduction means to these core characters to what it means for the region.

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The Old Man – VIII

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Old Man – VIII
  • IMDb: link

The Old Man - VIII

The Old Man returns for its Second Season with Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) and Harold Harper (John Lithgow) attempting to work together. Having successfully infiltrated Afghanistan, things quickly go wrong leaving them with few allies to find and save Emily (Alia Shawkat). The episode stays with the old couple pairing of the two, and sharing thoughts on Emily and the steps Dan went to to hide the truth from her, with the action coming from dangers they run into including a friendly face who turns out to be anything but and nearly ends the pair’s adventure before it gets started. Good stuff here, although Emily’s own thread isn’t picked up on just yet and I do miss Amy Brenneman.

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The Union

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Union
  • IMDb: link

The Union

Thu Union is dumb even by the sliding scale of throwaway action movie standards. A blue collar intelligence organization (which no one has ever heard of) has allowed a list of all the spies in the world (which shouldn’t even exist) loose into the world which will be sold at a blind auction to the the highest bidder. To get the list back, and prevent its sale by a privateer (Jessica De Gouw), one of the agents (Halle Berry) of “The Union” chooses to recruit her high school prom date (Mark Wahlberg) who never made it out of New Jersey and lacks both useful experience or a desire to get involved.

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