Too Old to Die Young: Seven Reasons to Watch Amazon Prime Series Created by Nicolas Winding Refn
Too Old to Die Young the first daring TV series created by Nicolas Winding Refn is a noir-tinged artistic masterpiece full of mysteries to be rediscovered. These days, with the release of Copenhagen Cowboy on Netflix, the media spotlight on the Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn has been turned back on. The ingenious and enigmatic TV series (of which you can find our Copenhagen Cowboy review here, and an analysis of the contents here), however, is not the Danish author’s first creation for the small screen. In 2019, on a Prime Video still in its infancy, Too Old to Die Young made its debut, a monumental 13-hour TV series divided into 10 episodes which, unfortunately, at the time did not receive the media attention it would have deserved.
Too Old to Die Young: Seven Reasons to Watch Amazon Prime Series
For anyone who has enjoyed Copenhagen Cowboy and wants to see something similar, and, more generally, for all lovers of TV series that mix noir, mystery and symbology, the time has certainly come to discover (or rediscover) this hidden treasure. I’m certainly not all here, but here are at least seven reasons to catch up on Too Old to Die Young on Amazon Prime as soon as possible.
1. It’s a Noir odyssey between Mexico and Los Angeles
Too Old to Die Young plunges us into the American criminal undergrowth and offers us a compelling story of blood and revenge in the name of noir, articulated in several autonomous narrative segments that separate and intertwine on several occasions. Martin is a young Los Angeles cop who finds himself dealing with the sudden killing of his partner and ends up working first as a hitman for the underworld, and then as an “angel of death”, dedicated to freeing America from abuse and pedophilia. His new vocation, however, puts him on a collision course with his department, as well as with his fiancée’s corrupt cocaine-addicted father.
As if that weren’t enough, a terrible threat looms over his life: Jesus, the criminal who killed his partner, is determined to avenge the unjust death of his mother Magdalena, and is climbing the top of the cartel across the Mexican border to go back to demanding a bloody showdown. Leading Martin’s moves is an extravagant New Age social worker and healer, Diana DeYoung, who dreams of healing the whole world from its ills, while alongside Jesus there is a young Mexican girl with mysterious origins, Yaritza, who calls herself “the High Priestess of Death”, and intends to sow death and destruction everywhere at any cost. In short, the series has all the ingredients to offer us a thrilling and breathtaking crime story…
2. It’s A Surreal and Mysterious Series, Worthy Of Twin Peaks
Too Old to Die, Young, however, does not stop at noir: throughout its ten episodes, the series immerses us in a surreal atmosphere, full of mystery and supernatural elements. It is certainly not a series for everyone – nor does it intend to be – but for this very reason, it could prove capable of rekindling the spark in the hearts of all those who, after the unsurpassed third season of Twin Peaks, were left orphans of the mystery, the absurd and of the long silences that characterized David Lynch’s television masterpiece. In Too Old to Die Young there really is everything, and there is not even the appearance of some elusive metaphysical entities that could remind us of those that crowd the Black Lodge.
More generally, Refn’s series is deeply imbued with mysticism, esotericism and spirituality, and draws heavily on the cinematic imagery of his mentor and friend Alejandro Jodorowsky: in particular, the tarot cards are the leitmotif, which appears on several occasions during the various episodes and are the title of the 10 episodes of the series. We are not going to reveal more to you, but the challenge is obviously to try to bring the underlying message of each episode back to the reference paper…
3. It’s A One-Of-Its-Kind Cinematic and Television Experience
From the point of view of the format, Too Old to Die Young is a unique product of its kind, even more, original and radical than the subsequent Copenhagen Cowboy, and almost all the other television series in circulation. Except for the last episode – which lasts just 30 minutes and represents a satisfying epilogue to the story – the episodes last on average for 90 minutes each, and represent real feature films in their own right, which can also be enjoyed in an independent. As proof of this peculiar characteristic, which places Too Old to Die Young in that thin border area between cinema and seriality, in 2019 Refn chose to offer a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, not the first two episodes, but the third and fourth.
However, this is not an anthological series: the various episodes are deeply interconnected, share the same characters and the same underlying narrative, and acquire an additional meaning when viewed in the correct sequence. If anything, Too Old to Die Young represents a drastic reaction to the (bad?) practice of binge-watching: with its deliberately hypertrophic duration, its long silences and its enormous quantity of details, hints and subtle allusions, the series invites us to enjoy every single episode thoroughly and autonomously and to take the time to observe it calmly and with the right attention. Each episode of Too Old to Die Young must be savored in conditions of tranquility, stretched out on the sofa, without tiredness and other distractions. With its hypnotic cadence, the series can offer us the feeling of a real meditation: seeing is believing!
4. It’s an Aesthetic Masterpiece
If it is true that the eye also wants its part, the vision of Too Old to Die Young represents an authentic feast for our pupils and, in full line with Refn’s distinctive style, offers us an unparalleled aesthetic masterpiece. The most typical signature of the Danish director is represented by the suggestive dark atmospheres intermittently illuminated by neon lights, but there are also other truly ambitious photographic solutions, which immortalize the landscape of the American desert and the city of Los Angeles with breathtaking color combinations and long shots memorable.
With his radical artistic choices, Refn creates a fluorescent, artificial, illusory and almost cyberpunk world, which perfectly reflects the themes he intends to tell us about on a narrative level. Taking advantage of the maximum creative freedom on the part of Amazon Prime, the director plays with light, color and camera, and goes far beyond what has already been seen in the cinema in Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon. There is no doubt: Too Old to Die Young deserves an opportunity even if only for its aesthetic perfection because it offers us truly breathtaking visual solutions, which will be very difficult to forget.
5. It Boasts a High-Quality Cast
Throughout its ten episodes, Too Old to Die Young offers us a huge maze of storylines and characters. However, it is still possible to keep all the threads together with relative ease thanks to the solidity of the acting skills of his interpreters, who descend with surprising ease into the archetypal roles conceived by Refn, giving incredible depth to the characters.
Among the most important figures who stand out are some well-known faces on the Hollywood scene, such as Miles Teller (Footloose, Whiplash, Divergent), Jena Malone and William Baldwin, who manage to capture our attention with truly iconic performances. Be careful, however, not to underestimate the outsiders: even the lesser-known Augusto Aguilera and Cristina Rodlo stand out for the excellent quality of their performances, and give life to two antagonists (or anti-heroes? The debate is open…) nothing short of superlatives.
6. It Is A Very Current Series, Which Intertwines Philosophy And Politics
We talked about noir, crime and violence, but also about mystery, esotericism and spirituality: if you look only at these watchwords, Too Old to Die Young might seem like a series light year away from our contemporary reality, and therefore too distant by the viewer who is looking for an authentic product linked to today’s world. Nothing further from the truth. Indeed, on balance, perhaps Too Old to Die Young is perhaps Nicolas Winding Refn’s most political work: throughout ten episodes, the author aims at Donald Trump’s America, police fanaticism, machismo exasperated, the commodification of the female body and the most dangerous drifts of contemporary society, now prey to the collective hysteria of sovereignty and the most radical authoritarian drifts.
Even the so-called “Nimby syndrome” (“not in my backyard”, i.e. more or less “anywhere as long as not in my garden”) is brutally stigmatized in the last episode with the appearance of a grotesque commentator puppet, Monkey Puppet, which is very reminiscent up close certain unfortunate characters who populate the televised debates. Ultimately, Too Old to Die Young is an authentic political manifesto, enriched by a fair number of prophetic-visionary elements. The series, however, goes even further, and also offers us a sort of “universal philosophy”, with its nostalgia for lost innocence, its spasmodic tension towards the absolute and its harsh criticism against superficiality and vulgarity rampant. In short, anyone looking for a TV series full of food for thought and political-themed provocations will not be disappointed at all!
7. It’s a Real Prequel to Copenhagen Cowboy
As confirmed by the Danish director himself on the sidelines of the screening of Copenhagen Cowboy during the last Venice International Film Festival, Too Old to Die Young is a real prequel to the new Netflix series. The characters, the geographical setting, and the events described in the two works are completely independent, but from a “cosmic” point of view, the two shows reflect a gradual evolution of a much broader narrative project, which seems to introduce a sort of “Nicolas Winding Refn Cinematic Universe” still under construction.
For those who have seen and appreciated Copenhagen Cowboy it, therefore, becomes almost mandatory to see or, why not, see again also Too Old to Die Young to grasp the important connections that link the two works, and allow us to re-read Miu’s adventures in a completely new optics. Given that the following article contains heavy spoilers on the ending of Too Old to Die Young, and therefore should be read only after the entire vision, you can further explore the matter by clicking here.
