“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.
Robert Lloyd for The Los Angeles Times:
The series, premiering Friday on Apple TV+, is a not-always-easy mix of sentimental relationship story, detective story and late-life retrospective drama, with a central narrative device that qualifies as science fiction… But there is much to recommend it; for all its dark elements, it is, more than anything, sweet.
Jackson manages to make Ptolemy feel whole, continuous, in his abrupt shifts of body and mind, whether being taken care of or caretaking — caretaking being the story’s overarching theme. (I’m not sure I buy him as a person in his 90s but, then again, I don’t buy Jackson himself as 73, and he is.) One senses too that the actor, like the character, is enjoying himself.