“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” stars Samuel L. Jackson as Ptolemy Grey, an ailing man forgotten by his family, by his friends, and by even himself. Suddenly left without his trusted caretaker and on the brink of sinking even deeper into a lonely dementia, Ptolemy is assigned to the care of orphaned teenager Robyn, played by Dominique Fishback. When they learn about a treatment that can restore Ptolemy’s dementia-addled memories, it begins a journey toward shocking truths about the past, present and future.
The six-episode limited series is currently available in full on Apple TV+.
DEADLINE: How long has this been in the works?
JACKSON: For like 10 years or so. I met Walter Mosley at a couple of other places when he was doing some of his other novels or you know, just being around New York. But since we started trying to do this, we’ve been in contact with each other and trying to get this done for over 10 years. So yeah, we’ve known each other for a while. I’ve always liked his writing, so why not?
DEADLINE: Why did it take 10 years? Was it hard to find a buyer?
JACKSON: It was sitting in one place for a while, but they kept trying to figure out how to make it into a 90-minute, hour-and-45-minute movie. I was against it, so I never signed off on any of those. The scripts that we got left out too much. It’s a full story about somebody’s life. It’s hard to tell that in an hour and 45 minutes.
DEADLINE: It was such a beloved book. Were there any worries about doing it justice for the screen?
JACKSON: You never know. Novels, like I said, are dense. I was a little worried at first that even six episodes wouldn’t be enough, but we figured out a way to make that happen. I would’ve preferred eight in my mind. All the people watching it were very sad that it was coming to an end. There are parts that we had to lose or abbreviate in a way so we could make it work. But overall, I’m pleased with what we got.
MacDailyNews Take: We very highly recommend “The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey” and expect it to reap even more awards for Apple TV+.
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The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” is an outstanding limited series that deserves an armful of Emmy nominations. Sam Jackson gives a masterclass performance, and the chemistry between him and Fishback couldn’t be any sweeter. The entire ensemble is so talented. I can’t recall a weak link in the entire cast.
Jackson masters an interesting dialect that I’d never quite heard before and when I recently saw him on a talk show I had to laugh at my internal reaction.
“He’s so young!”
I credit my sister for suggesting I move this up in my streaming queues as it (along with Slow Horses, 1883 and The Man Who Fell to Earth) is one of the best limited series I’ve seen in a long time. It was so nuanced, the plot so intricate that it was hard not to stay up all night and watch the entire six episodes, forgoing sleep.
My sister and I now randomly call each other “Coy-Dog”
I know that there are a lot of us here who have been drinking the apple Kool-Aid for decades, and but with the background in television and film I can say the consistency and the quality of programming coming to Apple TV+ is mind-boggling. There is still not the quantity of material that the big media houses like Netflix, HBO, Disney, and others have, but the quality ratio is higher than any of them. There are very few dogs on Apple TV+.
Just some amazing Coy-Dogs.
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You had me at Walter Mosley. OUTSTANDING writer.
Moseley should definitely get an Emmy nomination for this as well and I feel badly for not mentioning him. Really outstanding work.
I think Samuel summed it up best-
“There is motherfuckin’ Last Days of Ptolemy Grey on this motherfuckin’ AppleTV”