My husband and I heard about this series on NPR on Saturday morning. As there didn't seem to be anything we wanted to watch on TV (except--yet again!--"The Philadelphia Story" on 13), we watched five of the eight episodes of "The Kominsky Method."
Like any really good comedy, there are tears and mortality in the mix that is "The Kominsky Method," evidenced by good writing and superb acting. It's in the tradition of Preston Sturges's "screwball" classics of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as "The Philadelphia Story" (victory of "true love" and broken marriage repaired), "Grace and Frankie" (friendships through the years, aging, and mortality), and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (another broken marriage and a comedy routine as a cri-de-coeur).
It would appear that good writing and acting remain alive and well in this country. This series gets my accolade: a series for adults made by adults who can think...and laugh...and cry at the same time.
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Wait, Michael Douglas JUST received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018 but Donald Trump has had one since 2007?
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Now I have joined the ranks of my parents, as I approach 60. I saw his picture and thought "Gosh, he sure looks like his Dad!"
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Unmentioned in this article is his single best performance in
"Wonder Boys."
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@A. Stanton
He knocked it out of the park in Wall Street. The whole system seemed to change after that movie. Wall Street wannabees turned unashamedly into Gordon Gekkos overnight. His performance had that much influence - for better or worse.
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@Wally Wolf I never saw "Wall Street", but "Wonder Boys" is the only movie I liked enough to watch twice in a period of two days. I later read the book. It's not nearly as enjoyable as the movie for various reasons, including the absence of Michael Douglas's brilliant and hilarious performance.
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Whew, who suspected oldies could still have such interesting lives? (Besides us.)
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Binge watched this and it’s excellent. I didn’t know who played his friend , surprise, Alan Atkin. Watch this show , along with Grace & Frankie Netflix is putting out some terrific entertainment were the subject matter is aging gracefully (or not) and spinning it with comedy. Michel Douglas comes off as someone you’d want as your friend because he seems down to earth, and life has been good and bad to him like all of us, but he just happens to be handsome talented and successful. I hope to be watching him in the future, he has a good dozen years of acting yet, so, don’t retire Michael.
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I've always liked this guy and have not bothered to figure out why. It may be because he always seems to be either grinning or on the verge of grinning.
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I just got chills remembering his portrayal in "Falling Down."
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As a forty something nobody I bumped into Michael Douglas serendipitously and he could not have been more gracious. That says a lot about him.
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@SMGHad the same experience with his dad when Kirk parked his Rolls alongside me in downtown San Diego almost 50 years ago.
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There is a grace to the septuagenarian life that buoys the weight of approaching passing, or so it seems to me at 75 years. Because so much has been seen in those years, even a scanning glance can satisfactorily reveal so much about another. Seeing others through experienced eyes yields a pattern that connects one with all others, making us kins of consciousness. Aging can open the doors of perception to our unity beyond life and form, and gives meaning to the human potential for transcendence.
The most impactful acting signs human transcendence.
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Always loved Douglas and I still have every episode of Street of San Francisco on VHS (for some reason I can't throw them out).
I've never understood why people of great means have such dumpy looking homes. The picture of his living room is downright creepy and looks like the furniture came from my grandmothers old house.
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@Marc Jordan
If you don`t like his home as of picture in this article Marc, I kindly suggest you check out Mr. Douglas other homes and see if there is something to your liking.
@Marc Jordan - two thoughts came to mind simultaneously:
1) maybe he likes it.
2) if you don't like it, then don't live there.
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Mr. Douglas is an interesting subject, but this article is thin.
There is no discussion of the character parts he has taken on in recent years. No comments from directors involved like Curtis Hanson and Steven Soderbergh.
Michael Douglas has also been involved in films that are cultural touchstones....such as China Syndrome and Basic Instinct. Strong women's parts in those... considering the accusation and the times it might have been interesting to include comments from Jane Fonda or Sharon Stone.
And what of Romancing the Stone? No mention at all. Another interesting turn for Douglas.
Is "Falling Down" relevant again the Trump era? No political questions and answers from an actor who's always been tuned in.
And how does he see things in light of his Jewish roots?
Also, how is his son doing? Still in prison on a drug conviction but how does the family cope?
In short, a disappointing promotion for the new series, but not much else. Missed opportunity.
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@Baba
The main theme of the article (and I'm stating the obvious here, I know) was the show, not the state of Michael Douglas' personal life nor a complete encyclopedia of his body of work.
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Dear Mr Michael Douglas, I see you as one of my unflinching heros. I had oral cancer like you, and I hope by seeing you on the screen will become a testament to a healthy recovery from this god-awful disease
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Michael Douglas gets an ice cream cone for this.
I adore Michael Douglas, but the Wall Street thing is not what I associate him with. For me, it's his darker roles, Fatal Attraction, Falling Down, The Game, War of the Roses, A Perfect Crime and the like, that define him.
I hate to use the word genius, but.....at the very very least, Douglas is an incredibly skilled actor who dares to take on deeply ambiguous roles.
The man has substance.
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“Sandy Kominsky is hardly a man in the prime of his life.”
Says who?
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I applaud Netflix for making a series starring older actors and the subject matter. Would be nice to see a more serious,well written series starring the many fine "older" women actors that are in Hollywood (and not totally Hollywood plasticized) given equal time. "Grace and Frankie" might have its comedy moments but really, it's so simple and both characters are unreal as they get. Give me something with chops - well written and well acted by "real" women. I'm waiting...
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I am a long time fan of Michael Douglas. Years ago we shared the first class cabin of an Alitalia flight from Milan to LA. After 7 hours into the flight, we shared a brief pleasant conversation. He was perfect gentleman. As much as I fantasized about what could have happened - the mile high club to be specific - nothing happened. No one would have known. He was in between marriages. It would have been harmless fun. I am distressed that he was accused of sexual harassment. I don't believe it for a second.
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The only people who think Gordon Gekko defines Michael Douglas have not watched his other work. It is not all drama. Get a bowl of popcorn and watch The Wonder Boys. It flopped, but time will be kind to it.
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I hope Mr. Douglas lives to be a century old, as his father, and continue to entertain us in good health if he so wishes.
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Which career would one prefer? Kirk's, whose highlights are among the classics of cinema but did nothing that memorable after 1964, or Michael's, which has reached the same area code of his Dad's work a few times but has delivered more quality work over a longer period? The answer is "either" but if you're the one in the shadow, this seems to be the best way to have played out.
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I just adore the last lines regarding a typical conversation between Michael and his father. They’re both great!
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An interesting guy and an interesting life. Good to read about him. And I envy the apartment on Central Park West.
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Michael Douglas picks well. The critics should take another look at what he has done since 1997: The Game; A
Perfect Murder; The Wonder Boys; Traffic; Solitary Man; King of California and now The Kominsky Method.
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An American Treasure.
Thank You
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So apparently we have already reached that point in the MeToo movement when powerful people, men or women, accused of sexual harassment are briefly acknowledged as such in a profile such as this one, before returning to the celebrity worship for the rest of the article. The glowing comments among other readers in this Comments section also demonstrate that, in America, celebrity status trumps moral development when it comes to praise (did I say "trump"?). Michael Douglas is another under-qualified Hollywood scion who banked off his father's name and showed up in a handful of mediocre movies that appealed to an empty headed public desperate for thoughtless entertainment. Why not reserve copy in the NY Times for true artists, or for true altruists, and leave people like Michael Douglas to the pages of People Magazine so we can more effectively avoid reading about them.
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@tintin
Hey, I like Michael Douglas and admire his talent. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Just because someone says something doesn't automatically make it true.
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@tintin I agree that some of his movies aren't great, but attacking him for being a " Hollywood scion who banked off his father's name" may be too unkind. Many people go into the family business and we don't use that as a cudgel against them.
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@Wally Wolf In that case, just because someone denies an accusation doesn't make him innocent. "Innocent until proven guilty" only works if there is some effort to investigate the charge. If there is no effort to investigate the charge, if the charge is seen as nonsense the moment it is spoken, then I stand with the person who comes forward with it. As soon as people start taking such charges seriously, and actually following up on them, maybe then we will be able to treat the accused with some equanimity. Until then, always side with the least powerful person in the mix and you will do right.
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I don´t understand why the writer acts like this is the first series about aging. Hasn´t anyone seen Grace and Frankie?
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@Leola
Grace and Frankie deserves a lot more press.
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@cheryl
No it doesn’t.
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@Leola Good point.
If you're surprised by a vulnerable Michael Douglas, you've never seen "Wonder Boys."
If you want to delve the vulnerability of a man, ask whether he's ever been divorced (from Zeta-Jones).
Speaking as one among the same septagenarian cohort, I'd say that "life just didn’t turn out the way I anticipated" is a great time capsule message for the millennials and all their juniors.
It's just life, we're all human, so there's no shame in it, no matter how you make it from one end to another. Even if you are hit with a fashionably indignant #MeToo accusation.
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He is my age. I sure would like to have coffee with him.
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Wonderful and endearing interview and profile piece. I like the guy. I have no idea what to think about the accusations of him being inappropriate. Did it have to be included? That's up to how we see the writer and editor(s) .. brave or cowardly
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What's interesting is not only Douglas's shrug over Braudy's accusations, but also my own fatigue with the plethora of accusations in the news. Is there something wrong with me or us?
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@Renee Hack and isn't that the challenge? Credible accusations against a good-looking, talented man get a shrug. I imagine Braudy isn't shrugging, but rather having nightmares about the situation she was in and her lack of power to change the outcome.
Those shrugs seem to be repeated over and over. #metoo but no one really cares
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@Renee Hack
It’s us, not you. The “new normal” encompasses more than the trumpist dystopia. Sexual perfidy is also part of it.
@Kaitlin Barnes
Unless you're forcefully restrained you can indeed change the outcome. It's not that I don't believe these things happen, but what is it that prevents one from walking out the door? is this the one and only possible job? Or are you too enamored with your ambition to say Enough!
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Looks good.
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The one thing about life that is fair and you can count on is that everyone gets a chance to be young and, if they are lucky, a chance to be old. The old shouldn't envy the young because they had their turn and did what they could with it. Old age gives you a chance to reflect and cherish whatever time you have left on this earth. Michael Douglas has always been one of my all-time favorite actors and I have thoroughly enjoyed all the films he has made during the years. He had a certain sexy, confident, domineering presence in his early movies and I'm sure, now that he is older, will pull out a special performance to rock this series. I look forward to watching it and hope he lives to be 101 like his dad.
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Michael and Kirk were funny when they presented an Oscar together. I thought they should do a movie together. Maybe they already have and I'm just not aware. I remember how handsome Michael was back in the days of Streets of San Francisco.
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@Lynn in DC They were both in "It Runs in the Family" released in 2003.
@Lynn in DC
"It Runs in the Family" 2003
Also with Cameron Douglas
You have to wonder why such talent powerhouses as Michael Douglas depend on other's talents e.g. scriptwriters to express their own creativity.
And what if — IF — they somehow were able to be more self-dependent.
Douglas's work and his in-life persona is genuine, charming, confident and gracious. His inner constitution that shapes all of this, it seems could have been channelized to create other avenues of success and expression etc. (I have to say the green-couch picture shown in the article informs this view.)
But this of course is an unfair thing to say to him. The Darwinian strain would one day produce excellence of the type I am wondering about..
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Sounds like a wonderful series and the article was great, except for brushing off the shift in Chuck Lorre's career. This project fits perfectly for the producer of the often heartbreaking Mom and always endearing Young Sheldon. Yup, with maturity comes sensitivity and wisdom, even if you have Two and a Half Men on your resume!
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Netflix is to be praised for finding wonderful and worthwhile scripts and casting the most talented actors of our day. I am referring to Hugh Grant's recent role in A Very English Scandal, and now I can look forward to The Kominsky Method with Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin. All three of them make acting look easy!
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@Laura I agree wholeheartedly, but I believe “A Very English Scandal” is a BBC/Amazon Prime production.
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@Laura Isn't "A Very English Scandal" on Amazon rather than Netflix?
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