''Too Old to Die Young'' is an American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

directed by

Nicolas Winding Refn Nicolas Winding Refn (; born 29 September 1970), also known as Jang, is a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for his collaborations with Mads Mikkelsen, Tom Hardy and Ryan Gosling. He gained great success early in ...

, written by Refn and

Ed Brubaker Ed Brubaker (; born November 17, 1966) is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and screenwriter who works primarily in the crime fiction genre. He began his career with the semi-autobiographical series '' Lowlife'' and a number of serials i ...

, and starring

Miles Teller Miles Teller (born February 20, 1987) is an American actor. He played a jazz drummer in '' Whiplash'' and a supporting pilot in '' Top Gun: Maverick''. Teller made his feature film debut in 2010 and gained recognition for his starring role in ...

and Augusto Aguilera. It premiered on

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

on June 14, 2019. The series received praise directed at Refn's signature style and Teller's performance but criticisms were raised regarding the depiction of sexual violence and the treatment of female characters. Amazon said in 2019 that they did not intend to produce a second season.

Premise

''Too Old to Die Young'' follows "a grieving police officer who, along with the man who shot his partner, finds himself in an underworld filled with working-class hit men, Yakuza soldiers, cartel assassins sent from Mexico, Russian mafia captains and gangs of teenage killers."

Cast and characters

Main

as Martin Jones * Augusto Aguilera as Jesus Rojas *

Cristina Rodlo Cristina Rodlo (born May 21, 1990) is a Mexican actress who appeared as Isabel Urrutia Zavaleta in 93 episodes of '' Vuelve Temprano'' (2016 – 2017) and 23 episodes of '' El Vato'' (2017). She has starred in feature films as Fabiana in '' Per ...

as Yaritza *

Nell Tiger Free Nell Tiger Free (born 13 October 1999) is a British actress. She is best known for her role as Leanne Grayson in the television series ''Servant'', and as Myrcella Baratheon in seasons 5 and 6 of the television series ''Game of Thrones,'' repl ...

as Janey Carter * John Hawkes as Viggo Larsen *

Jena Malone Jena Laine Malone (; born November 21, 1984) is an American actress, musician, and photographer. Known for her roles in both independent films and mainstream blockbuster features, she has received numerous accolades, including nominations for a ...

as Diana DeYoung

Recurring

Episodes

Production

Development

On February 8, 2017, it was announced that Amazon had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was slated to be written by

and

both of whom were also set to executive produce alongside Jeffrey Stott. Additionally, Refn was expected to direct every episode of the series and Rachel Dik and Alexander H. Gayner were set to serve as producers.

Casting

On March 27, 2017, it was announced that

had been cast in the series lead role of Martin, a character described as "a police officer entangled in the world of assassins." On November 21, 2017, the rest of the main cast was announced and included Billy Baldwin,

, John Hawkes, Cristina Rodlo, Augusto Aguilera,

Babs Olusanmokun Babs Olusanmokun (born September 18, 1984) is a Nigerian-American actor. In 2017, he appeared in " Black Museum", an episode of the anthology series ''Black Mirror''. He also appeared in the video game ''Max Payne 3'' as Serrano, for which he p ...

, and

Callie Hernandez Callie Marie Hernandez (born May 24, 1988) is an American actress known for her roles in the films '' Blair Witch'' (2016), ''La La Land'' (2016), '' The Endless'' (2017), and '' Alien: Covenant'' (2017). Early life Hernandez was born in Jacksonv ...

. On February 7, 2018, it was reported that

Hart Bochner Hart Matthew Bochner (born October 3, 1956) is a Canadian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer. He has appeared in films such as ''Breaking Away'' (1979), '' Terror Train'' (1980), '' Rich and Famous'' (1981), '' The Wild Life'' (1984) ...

had joined the series in a recurring capacity. On August 29, 2018, Refn announced through his official Twitter account that George Payne had been cast in the series.

Filming

On November 27, 2017, principal photography for the series began in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Filming for the first episode ended on January 17, 2018. On March 6, 2018, filming for an episode began in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and was expected to continue there through March before returning to Los Angeles. On August 11, 2018, principal photography for the series ended.

Soundtrack

Cliff Martinez Cliff Martinez (born February 5, 1954) is an American musician and composer. Early in his career, Martinez was known as a drummer notably with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart. Since the 1990s, he has worked primarily as a film sc ...

composed the score for the series, his fourth collaboration with Nicolas Winding Refn. Like previous works of Winding Refn, the series also features a variety of

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

and punk rock by bands like

Goldfrapp Goldfrapp are an English electronic music duo from London, formed in 1999. The duo consists of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals, synthesiser) and Will Gregory (synthesiser). Despite favourable reviews and a short-listing for the Mercury Prize, their ...

The Leather Nun The Leather Nun are a Swedish rock group. Careening from garage rock to goth and pop-rock, Leather Nun became cult heroes in their native land and wide abroad. History The Leather Nun (a.k.a. "Lädernunnan") was formed in 1978 in Gothenburg, ...

Frankie Miller Francis John Miller (born 2 November 1949) is a Scottish rock singer-songwriter and actor. Miller wrote for and performed with many recording artists and is best known for his 1977 album ''Full House'', the singles "Be Good To Yourself", " D ...

and Jimmie Angel. A soundtrack album featuring Martinez's score as well as pre-existing pop music featured in the show was released on June 14, 2019.

Release

Episodes four and five of the series premiered out of competition at the

2019 Cannes Film Festival The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president. The Palme d'Or went to the South Korean film ''Parasite'', directed by Bong Joon-ho; Bong became t ...

on May 18. The full series premiered on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

on June 14 of the same year.

Marketing

On February 28, 2018, a series of first look images from the series were released. On May 21, 2018, Refn released the first teaser trailer through his personal Twitter account.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series has an approval rating of 70% with an average score of 6.6 out of 10 based on 37 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, "Grim and graphic, ''Too Old to Die Young'' is stylish, but its languid story does little to justify its violent tendencies – though fans of Refn's may find enjoyment in its neon laden misery." Conversely, Eric Kohn of

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

offered praise of the series, writing: "there’s certainly some potential in ''Too Old to Die Young'', at least for audiences who can appreciate aspects of Refn’s dark style and punkish sensibility." Peter Bradshaw of

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

gave the episodes 4 out of a possible 5 stars, stating: "''Too Old To Die Young'' is macabre, and nauseating in many ways, but very well made and very watchable."

References

External links

* {{Amazon Video original series 2010s American drama television series 2010s American television series 2019 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings English-language television shows Amazon Prime Video original programming Television series by Amazon Studios Works about Mexican drug cartels Works about the Yakuza Works by Ed Brubaker Neo-Western television series