‘A Man on the Inside’ is a sweet, intergenerational comedy
If you like American television shows, you’ve probably seen Ted Danson. He’s tall and thin, with classic Hollywood good looks. He rose to fame playing the character Sam Malone on the sitcom Cheers. “Cheers” was the name of the show, and the name of a fictional Boston bar “where everybody knows your name.”
After the show Cheers ended its long run, Danson went on to star in many other shows, where he played a wide variety of character types. He played a grumpy doctor in the comedy Becker. He was the supervisor of a forensics team on CSI, a crime show. He played a fictionalized, exaggerated version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and he’s had plenty of other smaller roles.
Danson won over a new generation of fans on The Good Place. That was a comedy about what happens after you die. He played Michael, a cheerful guide who welcomes people into the afterlife, into a place that looks like paradise, at least at first.
Now, an older, wiser-looking Ted Danson is back with a new series on Netflix called, A Man on the Inside.
A Man on the Inside is a comedy. But it’s not the kind of comedy that will make you laugh nonstop for thirty minutes. Instead, it uses light, funny moments sparingly. But it traps you in a pretty clever detective storyline.
The show has won praise in The Guardian, The New York Times, the New Yorker, and it has a 94 percent positive rating on the review site, Rotten Tomatoes. One reviewer called it “as gentle and mild as baby soap.” But that was meant as a compliment: not every show needs to be controversial.
The first season was loosely based on a Chilean documentary called The Mole Agent. The Mole Agent detailed a real-life investigation in a nursing home. A private investigator checked into the nursing home, pretending to be a patient. While there, he investigated allegations of elder abuse.
A Man on the Inside borrows the premise, but dials down the stakes. Danson plays Charles, a retired university professor who recently lost his wife. Without a job, and living alone in the house, he spends his days doing the crossword puzzle and thinking about his past. He looks old and lonely. His grown daughter is worried about him, so she encourages him to find a hobby, to get out of the house, to get some more social contact—not with her, but, you know, with other people.
So Charles responds to an ad in a newspaper: he applies to become a private investigator. A local agency wants an elderly person to investigate a stolen necklace in a retirement community. Charles gets the job, and he checks into the retirement community, pretending to be a new resident.
While there, he clearly enjoys his new role as an undercover investigator, interrogating suspects, peeking around corners, chasing down leads, and treating every small detail like it could be the one that breaks open the case.
The first season came to a nice tidy conclusion—no cliffhangers in A Man on the Inside. But it came back for a second season, this time with a new plot twist.
The setting of Season 2 is the fictional Wheeler College. A rich (and very controversial) graduate wants to give the college a lot of money, but almost everyone is against the donation. The college hires Charles’s agency to investigate acts of vandalism and theft related to this controversial donation.
So Charles goes undercover again, this time posing as guest lecturer—a kind of temporary professor.
In both seasons, the comedy provides the pacing; it keeps the story moving. But the reason we watch is for the warm moments. The show gently explores deeper emotional themes in a lighthearted way. The meaningful moments invite us to think, but the goofy plot gives us permission not to think too hard.
Unusually for a hit show, A Man on the Inside features a lot of older characters—as you might expect for a show set at a retirement community.
We see seniors flirting with one another. We see younger people glued to their video games. We see frazzled parents trying to hold it all together. We see university students struggling to pay for their high-cost education; we see their professors lament the loss of funding to their classical departments.
The deepest moments invite us to think about how we change as we get older. One patient at the retirement community, says, “I miss my old personality.” The older characters can get into fights and arguments. But they don’t hold grudges for long: they know they don’t have enough time left for that.
Danson, himself now age 77, plays a warmer, wiser, gentler character than he did in Becker and Cheers. In this way, A Man on the Inside is a fitting capstone to a forty-plus year career.
In season two, Danson gets to play alongside his real-life wife, Mary Steenburgen. She plays Mona, a free-spirited music professor, the perfect counterpart for Charles, the analytical engineer with a tidy life. Of course, the two fall for each other, proving that opposites attract.
One of the most touching episodes is the Thanksgiving dinner that Charles and Mona host together. Charles imagines the evening as a calm dinner with friends and good conversation, while Mona…let’s just say, she takes control and steers things in a different direction. The episode shows what it means to blend a family—how you have to step out of your comfort zone and make room for someone else’s traditions.
A Man on the Inside is streaming on Netflix; the first two seasons have eight episodes each.
Jeff’s take
It’s Netflix, so of course the scenery is beautiful. Season two is filmed on the campus of a real university in California. San Francisco is at its best—every day is sunny, every street is tree-lined with picture-perfect homes. Every character of course has exquisite taste in interior design.
Charles has perfect hair—it is Ted Danson after all—and he wears smart, tailored suites and stylish glasses.
There are some well-known actors who play small parts. Sally Struthers plays one of the residents at the retirement community. Gary Cole plays an excellent villain—the rich but controversial donor in season two.
I liked it. It’s a good show—if you want it to be a comedy, it can be a comedy. If you want it to be more than that, it can be more than that.
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