For a conspicuously busy superstar such as Samuel L. Jackson, the six-part Apple TV+ adaptation of Walter Mosley’s “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” demanded his largest, deepest commitment to a role in a long time. At some point, you either glide or you ask yourself “What’s in my wallet?” and risk a thing or two. What’s the point of money gigs and gold-plated franchises if not to reconnect with what sparked an actor’s ambitions in the first place?
Jackson serves as executive producer and star of “Ptolemy Grey,” which is based on the 2010 novel from the author made famous by the Easy Rawlins mysteries. There are mysteries aplenty in this story, and a legacy of murderous racism.
At heart, though, the present-day narrative is a wish fulfillment heartwarmer, stretched a bit and a little slack in the middle. A lot of what’s best about “Ptolemy Grey” is pretty simple and consistently rewarding: the interplay between Jackson and Dominique Fishback, who plays the teenage caregiver of the title character.
Alone with his addled thoughts and memory-impaired psyche, Grey (after a prologue) is introduced as he’s living day-to-day amid a blizzard of mementos, newspapers and fragments of his troubled past in a second-story Atlanta apartment.
He’s 91 in Mosley’s book, though certainly younger in the adaptation. Grandnephew Reggie (Omar Benson Miller) looks in on the man he calls “uncle.” He’s not long for the story, though, and tracking down Reggie’s killer is high on Grey’s to-do list, with the clock running.
Fishback, so good in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” among others, does wonders with a role that in lesser hands could come off as cardboard-saintly. She gets the old man’s life in order and acts as a skeptical sounding board as he decides whether to undergo a radically experimental drug treatment for dementia (Walton Goggins plays Dr. Rubin with a “waaaaait a minute” air that suggests the character should be named “Dr. Tuskegee”). Grey will get his memory back in full, for a while, but the probable trade-off is his dementia’s return.
There’d be no story if he didn’t take the chance, of course, and Grey has his reasons. They involve a long-buried, barely recalled treasure of sorts. Temporarily “cured,” Grey’s brain is flooded with images, often grisly and haunting, from his earlier years in the Deep South. Damon Gupton plays an old family friend and Grey’s sometime guardian, Coydog, in flashbacks and dream sequences.
“Ptolemy Grey” takes Jackson from 80ish to dashing, digitally realized early middle age, where we see how he and his tempestuous true love Sensia (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, excellent within limited demands) met and married. Much of Grey’s long life doesn’t make the cut here in limited series form. There are times when the episodes could actually benefit from an additional strand or two.
The acting buoys all. It’s well-directed, with Ramin Bahrani getting things off to a confident start in episode one, Debbie Allen handling episode two; Hanelle Culpepper taking care of episodes three and six; and Guillermo Navarro, four and five.
Mosley took on much of the adaptation chores, and the scenes come to life when the characters — especially the ones at the center, played so vividly by Jackson and Fishback — converse and reflect in ways transcending functional dialogue. At its best “Ptolemy Grey” lets the audience know it’s listening to a writer with a singular ear for vernacular, and dramatic poetry. See it for Jackson and Fishback, in particular, and for what they can accomplish when plot takes a back seat to character.
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‘THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY’
3 stars (out of 4)
Rating: TV-MA (violence, language)
Running time: Six episodes, approximately 5.5 hours total
Where to watch: First two episodes premiere March 11 on Apple TV+
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