With the exception of Better Call Saul, TV remains in a wasteland phase. To paint with a broad brush, quality drama got replaced by wokeyness, and fantasy, and wokey fantasy. Wokeyness gets you virtuous accolades but nobody watches -- sorry, but partisan politics is poison to drama and entertainment. Fantasies are so thoroughly troped-out post-Game of Thrones that they tend towards dreck, see: Wheel of Time. Wokey fantasies…well, Amazon's woke Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power, is widely being identified as a kind of rock bottom. The response to this commercial disaster appears to be a slide deeper and deeper back into the '70s. The '70s was characterized by formulaic private-eye/cop/crime-adjacent shows. The TV world may have stumbled on to this rebirth when Reacher hit it big earlier this year. Two recent shows fall in that category.
The Old Man -- Trope: An aging special operative is thrust back into the game when events of his past return with a vengeance. This one starts out with a bang but slows down after a couple of episodes. What it has going for it is an absolute murderer's row of acting talent. Jeff Bridges, John Lithgow, Amy Brennemen. Their consummate skill elevates what is really a garden variety action series. The direction is thoughtful, nothing looks or feels cheap. The exposition is done skillfully. I'm on the fence as to whether it's worth watching. If watching Bridges and Lithgow dominate a scene is something you'd like to see, then give it a look.
The Terminal List -- Trope: Navy seal goes rogue to exact revenge on the people who killed his family. Remember that campy old Swarzenegger film Commando, where bad guys kidnapped Alyssa Milano and Arnold went on a rampage? Take that film, make it completely serious and grim and gory, stretch it from 2 hours to 8, and you've got a good grip on this one. This is Chris Pratt's pet project and, while I like Chris Pratt and his work in any number of films, this character is a little one dimensional and dark for an actor who is so well calibrated for comedy. There is some controversy about this series, as a number of reviewers have deemed the hero to be an immoral vigilante and therefore "right-wing". Pratt's character does horrific things outside the law -- probably not setting a good behavior example. This doesn't phase me because, as I might have mentioned, I grew up in the '70s where all heroes were immoral vigilantes, but I see their point. The result of this is that critics have largely panned the show, while the audience is eating it up. And so a Commando-level trope-fest comes to take its place in the culture wars. I'd skip this one, but if it sounds like something you'd like, you probably will.
In the era of the new wasteland, I can only sigh and suggest you watch Better Call Saul. Or rewatch Deadwood. Or The Sopranos. Or Mad Men. Or read a book.
