The Kominsky Method (2018-2021)

TV shows used to give work for actors at the beginning or at end of their careers. Jumping board for young unknowns, retirement shelter for washed-up has-beens. Their entertainment value was accordingly measured. That has shifted (to realize how much, check how many of the first X-files episodes you can watch and compare the experience with what you get from a just below-average show of today). Although it's old news that TV shows have caught up with feature films in prestige and surpassed them in quality, it's still quite rare, and therefore feels special, when an A-movie actor appears in one. 

Michael Douglas has always been one of my favorite actors, even in childhood when the rest of them comprised mostly action heroes. He played every role as if he was born just for that one: the horny, impulsive cop (Basic Instinct), the frustrated average citizen (Falling Down), the romantic adventurer (The Jewel of the Nile), the college professor struggling with writer's block (Wonder Boys), or most famously the ruthless capitalist of Wall Street. He was perfect in comedy, drama, crime, or thriller.

At 76, Douglas plays Sandy Kominsky, the (past) middle-aged acting coach, who is long in the tooth, has done many things to regret, but not yet done with life. For Douglas in his twilight years, the promiscuous septuagenarian actor role is a hilariously fitting job.

For Hollywood male actors the time can eventually come when they can present themselves with the wisdom of age, while still retaining the appearance of youthful virility (see the re-emergence of action movie stars of the nineties). Michael Douglas passed that age 15 years ago. He is old. I don't know how much of his look is the result of the make-up or the lack of it, but he is authentic. He looks good for his age, no mistake, but shows it nonetheless.

The plot revolves around how Sandy, accompanied by his misanthropic life-long friend Norman, confronts the depressing trials and tribulations of old age. Prostate problems, cancer, never-ending series of funerals, lost loved ones, haunting regrets. But old is not necessarily elderly, life with an enlarged prostate is still possible, cancer can be defeated, and funerals are funnier than you think. Even senior citizens can enjoy weed and late-life romances and only they can have old friendships.

And besides those poignant affairs, Sandy still has to manage his everyday life. Tutoring his oversensitive Generation Z students, navigating in the rules of modern speech codes and varieties of internet porn, being the lucky recipient of occasional casual sex (and surviving its physical aftereffects), getting away with tax evasion, and always keeping the hope of a breakthrough role kindling. Norman, his equal, has his own problems of being filthy rich and cursed with a drug-addicted forty-some daughter and an idiotic Scientologist grandson and has his own romantic interests to pursue and Viagra-aided sex life to enjoy.

This joyful mixture of ageism and zest for life makes The Kominsky Method so charming and full of heart. The relaxingly delightful storyline is carried not only by Douglas, who is characteristically superb, but the great cast of supporting characters, with occasional short rules or cameos of other A-listers, like Danny DeVito, Elliott Gould, or Morgan Freeman. And when Kathleen Turner appears as Sandy's ex-wife, that's a priceless moment for anyone who remembers movies from the 80s. 

Like in most comedies, in The Kominsky Method as well, there are plenty of scenes to capture the essence of the whole show. I find it most fitting to mention the last of those. At the end of the final season, Sandy's dream comes through. He stands of the podium, holding the Emmy Award, fighting off his tears as he says thank you to his best friend and his ex-wife, both of whom he lost, a Russian luxury prostitute watching it on TV cries out: "Hey, I fucked that guy!"

The old-timer stars of the silver screen have entered the world of TV shows with a bang.