Critical Praise and ‘Great Acting’ Fail to Save This ‘Unwatchable’ TV Show From Cancellation

When The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges, premiered on FX, it was heralded as the channel’s next big drama. However, after two seasons, the network decided to cancel the show, and that fact shows the split between the critical opinion on the series and how audiences received its second season.

The Old Man, which started production in 2019 and was set to be one of FX’s premiere series with big-name stars like Bridges and John Lithgow, hit production snags thanks to the pandemic, Bridges’ cancer, and the WGA strike. That meant that it took five years to get two seasons out, a long time for fans to stay excited, and many didn’t. That meant that the incredibly popular first season saw a major viewership drop when the second season started.

It also didn’t help that many fans found the series slumped in its second season despite its pedigree. Kensi Knows All on X noted that the show turned into nothing but talking, saying, “Season 2 devolved into a series of epically long personal conversations about completely irrelevant crap. Did anybody have any idea what the story was?” Many agreed with that sentiment.

Those opinions are in stark contrast to the critical reception of The Old Man, which was fantastic for both the first and second seasons. In fact, the show’s second season picked up multiple Critics Choice Awards (Best Drama Series, Best Lead Actor in Drama Series, and Best Supporting Actor), showing that despite audiences not tuning in, critics loved it. It’s highly likely that many viewers had positive opinions, too, but the delay in the show’s production just made people forget or give up on it.

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The series focuses on Bridges’ ex-CIA character Dan Chase, who, after leaving the CIA, goes off the grid until an assassin shows up to get rid of him, forcing him back into action. The second season sees Chase rescuing his daughter, though the storyline becomes narratively heavy and convoluted. Theoretically, a third season would have been on the table if the show had done well, but we will never know what it would have been about.