“A Man on the Inside” is a new comedy television series created by Michael Schur starring Ted Danson as a retired engineer-turned-amateur sleuth. We learn that this story is based on Maite Alberdi’s 2020 documentary “The Mole Agent.”
At first I thought I might skip this, and go right to that “Mole Agent,” but when I looked at the cast of these aging familiar comic women, most of whom you will recognize, I changed my mind. Then a familiar name popped up: Rebecca Asher, who co wrote ”Knocked Up.” I loved that movie and I thought I should ride this out.
I should warn you. It’s kind of silly, and not for Gen Z. More like for Baby Boomers. It did get a 97 on Rotten Tomatoes if that counts with Baby Boomers.
Danson has had more lives than a house fly. Here he is as Charles Nieuwendyk, a retired engineer/college professor recently widowed.
It opens with an overhead shot of Danson, I mean Charles, still awake in a splendid, expensive bedroom with a well-made empty space next to him. Nice shot. What does it mean? Did he murder his girlfriend?
We watch this guy eat breakfast in a spacious sunlit kitchen. He is clearly a man of strict daily habits, and it’s Ted Danson. Is he a bachelor? A divorcee? No, he’s a nice looking widower. Okay, that’s sad, and it’s hard to start a comedy with a guy who just lost his wife. But give it a try. This is a Ted Danson comedy.
Bouncing around his Southern California background is his lovely blonde middle-aged daughter Emily, her husband Joel Piñero, and their three teenage sons, all Asian boys. What’s that all about?
Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) spends a lot of time on the phone trying to get Daddy Charles to find a new job, or plant a garden, or take up line dancing to make new friends and grow old with dignity. Ted Danson with dignity? This isn’t “Cheers.”
After a few slow moves, Charles checks out the Pacific View Retirement Community in San Francisco, where he competes with a few others for a job. Now we’re moving. Here he meets Julie Kovalenko (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), a beautiful (of course) private investigator who heads “Kovalenko Investigations.” After brief semi-comic spins with other applicants, she quickly gets our lead guy, Danson (I mean Charles) to move into the home as an “undercover,” mind you a handsome retired widower “undercover,” to catch a burglar who just stole an expensive piece of jewelry. That happens fast of course because it isn’t a movie, it’s a series, so there’s a lot I can’t expose you to. You just have to jump in and buckle up. C’mon, it’s Ted Danson, what do you have to lose?
For me, the selling point is personal: The hungry old rich ladies in what looks like a seaside resort for the super rich.
“A Man on the Inside” is streaming now on Netflix.
J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.
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