From the get-go, A Man on the Inside tugs at various heartstrings — a wedding speech that’ll make you cry, a recruitment process that’ll make you laugh, a child-parent dynamic that’ll feel eerily relatable.
The show’s inciting incident comes when Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) challenges her retired professor father, Charles (Ted Danson), to find a project or a hobby that will bring some purpose and excitement into his stagnant life. Charles sees a classified ad seeking an “investigative assistant” who’s “aged 75–85,” and so begins his professional search for a jewelry thief.
Evan’s (Marc Evan Jackson) mother is a resident at Pacific View. When her necklace, a family heirloom, is stolen, Evan hires Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), a private investigator, who in turn employs Charles to infiltrate the retirement residence and sniff out the thief. His snooping proves thought-provoking — touching on grief, complex family relationships, and debilitating diseases.
Creator Mike Schur (The Good Place) based the series on the Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent. He tells Tudum his favorite scene is in Episode 5, when Charles and fellow resident Elliott (John Getz) talk about Gladys (Susan Ruttan), a woman suffering from memory problems similar to those Charles’ late wife experienced when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Charles is upset, but Elliott is unfazed, stating that he’s “seen countless people die” — that it simply “becomes part of the background of your life.”
“Elliott says, ‘This is where we are, Charles. This is a fact of life,’ ” Schur explains. “And essentially, there’s no sense in beating yourself up about it. It’s just a fact of our lives.”
Schur points to that sentiment when the series addresses sensitive subject matters such as Alzheimer’s or aging. “That was the starting point for every difficult thing we talked about in the show. What the writing staff and I talked about all the time was, ‘We’re just going to present it. We’re not going to shy away from it. We’re not going to make it into a bigger deal than it is, and we’re not going to pretend it’s a smaller deal than what it is. We’re just going to do it.’ ”
Charles struggles to keep a low profile but reconnects with his daughter, makes friends with other residents, including Calbert (Stephen McKinley Henderson), and ultimately learns that, despite being 75, he has plenty more life to live to the fullest.
For Danson, Charles is relatable. Charles’ daughter has an active household, raising children. “I can feel that around my kids, who love and adore me,” the actor says. “They have very busy lives, and I get great joy out of being around them. When they’re too busy or don’t respond to a question or a text or a phone call, I can feel like my seat on the bus has gotten further and further back. I think that’s what happens a little bit with aging. All of a sudden, you have to find relevancy within, because you don’t always get it from without.”
Still, Charles develops connections in his investigative duties, which conclude in a way that audiences might not see coming.
In Episode 8, Charles realizes that Gladys, a former costume designer now experiencing memory problems, has been taking items from other residents. While the case is solved, Didi (Stephanie Beatriz), the managing director at Pacific View, is furious to learn about Charles’ undercover status, ordering him to leave the premises. Julie defends him, but Didi remains upset, as does Calbert, who feels Charles faked their entire friendship.
Didi is so upset that she plans to quit, but Charles convinces her to stay, an act that helps Calbert see that Charles was a genuine friend even while undercover. When Charles gives a guest lecture to college students, Calbert shows up after, and the two reconcile.
Between his sleuthing gig, and feeling that his visiting lecture could spell a return to teaching, Charles is left with a renewed sense of purpose, something Schur believes society doesn’t often encourage. “I think America is obsessed with youth,” he says. “It always has been. The new thing, the next thing. Revolutions. How do we get rid of the old guard quickly and bring in the new guard? People over the age of 49 are nonentities, traditionally speaking. That’s stupid and self-defeating. One of the things you miss out on if you are youth-obsessed is just honest, straightforward depictions of all the parts of humanity as we get older. The happiness, the sadness, the joy, the pain, the misery, the adventure.
“A lot of other cultures and countries do it better than we do, in my opinion. My uncle married an Irish woman, and she said, ‘Why do women in America lie about their age?’ I said, ‘Well, because there’s a premium on youth in America,’ and blah, blah, blah. She goes, ‘No, I understand that. I’m saying, why do they lie the wrong way? In Ireland, we all lie up. I’m 46. I tell people I’m 55. And they say, you look amazing for 55.’ I was like, that’s such a better way to do it, right?”
In the show's final scene, Julie gets a fresh case for which Charles would be the perfect mole. When she calls to tell him, Charles says, “Whatever it is, I’m in.”
Check back with Tudum for future updates on A Man on the Inside, but for now, enjoy Season 1 of A Man on the Inside and its many takeaways. “I hope and believe it will be cathartic, or at least people will see themselves in those stories,” Schur says. “Who hasn't been affected by [Alzheimer’s] at this point? Even if it’s your friend's grandmother or your great-uncle, everyone has been through some version of that. I hope that they see themselves in that story.”
Danson eloquently sums up the series’ overarching message. “We tell our children, ‘You can do anything you want,’ when they’re growing up. ‘You can be anything. You can do anything. You’re magnificent.’ Why do we stop saying that to ourselves? All of a sudden, we buy into this shelf-life thing. Don’t. Keep your foot on the pedal. Don’t prepare for the end of your life. It’ll come. Just go as fast as you can.”
A Man on the Inside is streaming on Netflix.
