‘A Man on the Inside’ Review: Ted Danson in Another Good Place
Created by Michael Schur and starring Danson, this Netflix sitcom synthesizes the most gutting realities of life and death into cozy, low-stakes comedy.“A Man on the Inside,” created by Michael Schur and starring Ted Danson, synthesizes the most gutting realities of life and death into a cozy, low-stakes comedy populated by well-intentioned sweethearts. The show is as gentle and mild as baby soap, though it could hardly promise no tears.Danson stars as Charles, whose wife died a year earlier from complications of Alzheimer’s. He is a retired professor and a San Francisco booster who wrote a book about the Golden Gate Bridge; he has a warm but arm’s-length relationship with his daughter, Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), who encourages him find a project or hobby. So he responds to an ad in a newspaper and finds himself working for a private investigator, going semi-undercover in a Bay Area retirement community.The show is loosely based on “The Mole Agent,” a Chilean documentary from 2020, though the stakes here have been dialed way down: While the figures in the film were investigating potential abuse in an elder-care facility, here the narrative clothesline is a missing necklace. The only person truly aggrieved by its absence is the necklace owner’s son (Marc Evan Jackson), who icily describes his mother moving back in with him as “suboptimal.”Under the weakly exasperated guidance of Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), the investigator, Charles moves into Pacific View. Virginia (Sally Struthers), an aggressive flirt, and Florence (Margaret Avery), an energetic poet, take an immediate liking to him, which bothers Virginia’s on-again-off-again lover, Elliott (John Getz), who declares Charles his “sexual rival.” Calbert (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and Charles develop the rom-com-y friendship that would be doomed by Charles’s duplicity were the show not defined by its characters’ deep wells of forgiveness. Didi (Stephanie Beatriz) is the devoted administrator running the facility, cheery and capable. Mostly, Pacific View is like a resort, with parties and companionship and dignified care. According to Didi, loneliness is as detrimental to seniors as any aspect of aging.Perhaps it is merciful not to dwell in the self-dissolving agony of dementia, for death to be peaceful, hygienic and offscreen. A subplot about a declining woman named Gladys (Susan Ruttan) is central to the story and handled gracefully — shallowly. Better to discuss a fancy watch that costs $10,000, which the characters do, often, or run up an $800 Uber tab. Elliott, the most ornery and cynical resident, can’t stay mad long, and he encourages Charles to simply become inured to his peers losing themselves.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
