The old man is only in its second season and has unfortunately already passed its peak.

Despite a strong beginning, Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine’s FX adaptation of Thomas Perry’s novel lost momentum toward the end of its first season, and that decline continues at an even greater rate during the second season, which premieres Sept. 12. The story regularly sidelines breakout stars Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow in favor of less interesting supporting casts and dull conflicts that are far from what the series originally promised. The series is convoluted and turgid, making so many miscalculations that it proves to be a creaky shell of its former self.

They have agreed to work together to find their surrogate daughter (Alia Shawkat) – known to one as Emily, the other as Angela – and to do so they sneak into Afghanistan, where the kidnapped Emily (let’s stick with that name for now) is brought by her biological father Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban).

Decades earlier, Dan and Hamzad’s wife Belour (Leem Lubany) fled Afghanistan with Emily, whose real name was Parwana, and now Faraz wants her back. However, it turns out that once he has her, he does little more than speak cryptically about his pain and grief and refuses to ask the questions he wants to ask her. Emily, for her part, is stunned by this revelation of her true roots and almost instantly develops a deep emotional attachment to Faraz and her homeland.

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A large part The old manThe second episode of is devoted to Emily and Faraz’s tortured dynamic, and it’s a flaw that embodies the entire season. Although their reunion should be a time of searching for answers that could ease their torment, the two instead engage in endless, closed conversations, as do Emily and her Aunt Khadija (Jacqueline Antaramian), another minor character who takes on a hugely outsized role in all of this.

With a speed bordering on the ridiculous, Emily develops a deep affection for Faraz and his people, whom she considers her own – including Farouk, her cousin’s teenage son, whom Emily adopts as a surrogate child. So she doesn’t hesitate to defend them when it becomes clear that they are under serious threat from the Taliban, who Faraz resents and who are very interested (and displeased) that he now has an FBI agent.

The Taliban want to know more about Faraz’s mysterious prisoner because they believe she could be the key to weakening Faraz, who is protected from their authority thanks to his control of a lithium mine valuable to the US. These larger geopolitical issues are often at the forefront The old manand halted the dramatic momentum. Although she has long been trying to learn about her late mother (and her hometown), Emily’s sudden feelings of connection to Faraz and Afghanistan seem like an absurd ploy, and that impression is reinforced when she makes risky decisions to protect them at the expense of her own safety. At its core, though, the show’s fixation on Afghan politics means it’s no longer really the story of an old loner on the run from his past – a hugely disappointing transition.

This does not mean that Dan and Harold are not present in The old man; rather, they’re sidelined for extended periods of time, left to nag and bicker and, when circumstances warrant, spring into action. The chemistry between Bridges and Lithgow is as strong as ever, but it’s squandered in this chapter of the story, as the two are mostly asked to chat about Emily’s fractured identity and their own shifting roles as fathers. Their overseas mission is one of escape, reinvention and self-definition as they – and Emily’s third father, Faraz – struggle to figure out who they are, where home is and what their family looks like in this new post-truth reality. Listening to them ramble on about such things, though, is far less exciting than watching them get down to the tough-guy spy business that was the show’s hallmark at the start and is mostly forgotten this season.

In summary, The old man is buoyed by writerly dialogue that strives for sage profundity. Every other line sounds like it was polished before coming out of someone’s mouth, and the result is that the material becomes ponderous. Without the chase narrative structure that characterized the first seven episodes, the series plods along at a listless pace that, however fitting given the protagonists’ ages, robs it of urgency. The few times Bridges gets to show off his deadly skills in single combat, he shows he’s still capable (and convincing) as the fearsome daredevil once known as “baba-khorkhore” (i.e., the beast that ate everything). It’s frustrating, then, that these moments are few and far between, and fleeting and unsatisfying even when they do occur. Commercials or not, he’s mostly just along for the ride this time around.

Bryan Cohen/FX

Lithgow has even less to do, and as if that weren’t a huge mistake (and it is!), The old man mostly goes in circles when it returns, taking small steps forward for entire episodes. Halfway through, the series brings back a few veterans from the first season who are crucial to the ongoing themes, but their appearances do nothing to change the drama’s flagging energy. The series places an excessive emphasis on pretentious talk, losing sight of its best qualities and elements in the process. Although the final three episodes were not made available to press in advance, it’s hard to imagine an immediate course correction that would fix the mounting deficiencies.

Still, any remedy would inevitably begin by putting Bridges and Lithgow back in the spotlight, two outstanding stars whose presence is the main attraction of this whole affair. They are more than capable of The old man‘s cargo; why they are not called upon to do so in the second season is a mystery of epic proportions.