You Need to Watch ‘The Old Man’ Tonight on FX

There are a lot of ways you can spend a Thursday night, from making a healthy dinner for your family to wasting another four hours on Elden Ring. But there’s only one right way to spend this particular Thursday. If you’re a breathing human who likes awesome things — and we know you are — then you need to be watching the premiere of The Old Man on FX.

Based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Perry, The Old Man revolves the titular, well, old man: Jeff Bridges’ Dan Chase. Years ago, this former CIA operative was forced to go off the grid. Now his past has returned to hunt him down in the form of a roving list of assassins and his former rival in this cat-and-mouse game, the FBI’s Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Harold Harper (John Lithgow). Eventually, Chase finds a safe house that’s being rented out by Amy Brenneman’s Zoe, whom he pulls into his mission. But for this first episode all you really need to know is that Dan Chase is forced to re-enter one of the deadliest games imaginable at his old age.

Directed by Spider-Man: Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home‘s Jon Watts and written by Black Sails‘ Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine, The Old Man‘s first episode is a masterclass in how to start a show. It always knows how to communicate what’s happening in the fewest words possible. Stray notes on a fridge tell observant viewers that Chase’s wife had trouble with her memory before she passed. The gruff way Chase refuses to directly acknowledge what happened to Abby indicates that he’s worried he may be experiencing the same thing.

That’s the world The Old Man lives in, one in which the smallest shift of the eyes or a sigh communicates volumes. It’s a minimalistic aesthetic that’s always complimented by the series’ careful directorial work, calculated cinematography, and quiet musical language. But that’s not why you need to drop everything to watch this premiere. No, that reason occurs in the last 15 minutes of this hourlong episode.

Without spoiling too much, The Old Man’s first episode ends on one of the coolest and most anxiety-inducing fight scenes brought to television. There are little to no special effects in the scene and few punches that would make John Wick jealous. Instead, the tension of the confrontation rests in how believably chaotic and crass it is. We’re currently living in an era of television that’s dominated by superhero shows and Star Wars lightsaber battles. And yet this masterpiece of an action scene appears in a somber FX drama.

Good art can’t be merely watched or explained. It has to be experienced. That’s exactly the caliber the first episode of The Old Man resides. Don’t rob yourself of this force of television.

The first two episodes of The Old Man premiere on FX tonight, June 16, at 11/10c p.m. Episodes will then be available on Hulu Friday, June 17.