Douglas and Arkin in Chuck Lorre's Contribution to "Old Man Action Cinema"

With The Kominsky Method, Chuck Lorre has a couple of freedoms here not granted him on network TV: (1) to use R-rated profanity and other graphic aspects of adult life(though I've seen no nudity on the show yet; I'm a few episodes in) and (2) to zero in on the travails of maturity and, eventually, old age, and, eventually , death that come to us all.

There's a jokey bit in one of the early episodes when Elliott Gould, playing himself, pitches to agent Arkin the idea of Gould being in a " revenge movie like Liam Neeson makes", except about a grandpa saving his kids from terrorists at Disneyland. The theme here is that Hollywood is now filled with older actors and a huge AUDIENCE of older people is ready and eager to see their lives expressed. This can be in Liam Neeson and other guy's "old man action movies"; in love stories with a sexual component among actors such as Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Jane Fonda and Sissy Spacek; and in "old guy buddy movies." Or TV series. Like "The Kominsky Method."

Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin make a surprisingly great team. One sees the "product" that each man became over their respective long careers: Arkin's still the grouchy, complaining but essentially decent guy we know from as far back as "The In-Laws"; Douglas maintains a certain suaveness, famously "softened" from his father Kirk's macho but strong enough for leading manhood at any age.

Arkin is in his eighties and ten years older than Douglas, but it is Douglas whose face is shockingly wrinkled, long hair white, voice weaker -- a bad bout with throat cancer seems to have taken its toll and prematurely aged Douglas. And yet, his masculine suave side still shines through. He earned his movie stardom as much as his father earned his.

For the older male watcher, the series makes its tough point that for the aging male, its that source of power below the belt that starts to fail first...both in matters of sexual activity and urination. To see Michael Douglas -- the soft porn star of Basic Instinct -- to be worried about his sexual performance AND his bathroom performance, is to be smacked down a bit if you are of a certain age. But the character fights and wins on both fronts: modern medication saves the day. And he undertakes a pretty immediate dalliance with a beautiful woman(Nancy Allen) who, we learn, is about as old as he's willing to date(50-ish) but a better match than a 25 year old might be.

Arkin's character starts the series with his wife of 47 years dying on him, and is the sad soul of the show - the dying wife pushed Douglas on her deathbed to "take care" of her husband, and the friendship of the tale is born. I'm not through the 8 episodes of the first season yet, but I hope a delicate balance is provided for Arkin's character to find new romance while honoring his late wife.

We live in an age where movie stars don't have to fade out in their older age. Douglas was a major leading man in the 80's and 90s; Arkin has a character star presence going back a lot further(The Russians are Coming and Wait Until Dark way back in the 60's.) To see them together on a "TV series" isn't daunting at all, given that the TV venue is Netflix, which famously has billions of dollars to make movie stars feel right at home with their pay. In exchange, we the viewers here get two time-tested stars with all the history and charisma that comes naturally.

I'm liking "The Kominsky Method" enough for the story, but I'm loving it for the two stars.

PS. Broadcast TV certainly gets to push the envelope more these days; of Chuck Lorre's shows, I find The Kominsky Method to be closest in flavor to "Mom," with that show's lusty older mother figure and older woman friends. This is the male side of that street.