In one of A Man on the Inside creator Michael Schur’s previous series—The Good Place—there’s a moment when one character explains that, as humans, we all know that we will someday die. That means we all walk around a little sad, even during our happiest moments. That kind of melancholic joy is where his newest series dwells. It’s a show with lots of laughs, excellent characters, and the pervasive knowledge that there is an end somewhere out on the horizon.
For most of A Man on the Inside’s characters, that end feels close indeed. That’s because the action primarily focuses on a Senior Living facility in San Francisco, Pacific View Retirement Community. That’s where private investigator Julie Kavalenko (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) sends her newest hire, Charles Nieuwendyk (Ted Danson). The mission is simple enough. Someone stole a necklace from Evan Cubbler’s (Marc Evan Jackson, doing WASP with a side of withering contempt as only he can) mother Helen (Danielle Kennedy). He wants it back and the thief hauled in. Charles, lost in many ways after the death of his wife, sees it as an opportunity to honor his daughter Emily’s (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) request he finds something to spark his passion. Julie thinks she can’t find anyone his age nearly as spry or capable of using a phone.
In other hands, this could be an invitation to a bunch of jokes about how older adults are weird and/or gross and/or dumb. Thankfully, Schur and his collaborators Emalee Burditt and Morgan Sackett are not other hands. While there are some “this person/these people are weird” bits, they’re personality, not age-based. The show doesn’t pretend the bulk of the cast isn’t seniors but they don’t use that to other anyone. That’s not surprising given Schur plays in the same kind of “humane, but hilarious” sandbox as Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Shrinking), although Schur typically trends gentler and less ribald.
Unsurprisingly, Danson is wonderfully cast as Charles. He still possesses an ageless quality despite his shock of white hair, which makes him believable as the kind of man who could still work as an undercover investigator and make sense as a resident in a Senior Living home. Additionally, he seems to have chemistry with every resident, from the anxious to couple Virginia (Sally Struthers in the first live-action role worthy of her since…Maron? Gilmore Girls?), to the silence valuing Calbert Graham (Stephen McKinley Henderson). He even pops with the antagonistic Elliott (John Getz), the home’s self-appointed alpha, who insists on calling Charles his “sexual rival.” Danson also brings out the best in his younger colleagues, including a wonderfully warm Stephanie Beatriz as the facility director, Didi. He proves there are few better to build a show around.
There are so many other talented performers that it is difficult to rattle them all off. Schur favorite Eugene Cordero is wonderfully low-key and supportive as Charles’ son-in-law Joel. Kerry O’Malley does great work with few scenes and even fewer lines as Megan, Julie’s tart and ultra-competent administrative assistant. Susan Ruttan is heartbreaking as Gladys, the former costume designer and consistent critic of (the nattily dressed to my eyes anyway) Charles’s outfits. One could go down the cast list and do this with damn near every speaking role. Excellent casting top to bottom.
A Man on the Inside isn’t acidic, but doesn’t succumb to schmaltz either. It is always heartfelt, certainly. However, that doesn’t hold it back from telling great jokes. More impressively, it deals with death—and the painful diseases that lead to it—with a remarkable sense of acceptance. It doesn’t dwell in the darkness of it, but it also doesn’t dress it up in platitudes. Henderson has a great bit about everyone living their life in denial as they feel their joints ache and never heal or lose their words more and more often. Still, the show isn’t running from the realities that go with Senior Living. To paraphrase Elliott, in a rare moment of non-posturing, it’s part of their lives now.
Despite the occasional thrown punch, there’s nothing in A Man on the Inside that’s as sharp as previous Schur creations like Eleanor Shellstrop (The Good Place) or most of the Parks and Recreation characters’ nonstop ribbing of Jerry. This is a sweeter, softer show. Thus, the laughs come a little slower and a little lighter. Those coming for tonal sequels to those shows may, therefore, feel slightly underwhelmed. For everyone simply searching for great half-hour comedy television, though, few 2024 offerings deliver as well as this.
A Man on the Inside infiltrates Netflix on November 21.