A Man On The Inside (Series 1) - Review

Rating: 5 out of 5

BALANCING gentle comedy with poignant observations on dementia and loss requires a deft hand - but with his latest offering, Parks & Recreation’s Michael Schur does so with genuinely charming results.

Inspired by the Oscar nominated documentary The Mole Agent, A Man On The Inside builds on the true story of a grieving widower who is hired by a private investigator to look into a theft at a retirement community.

The widower in question is Charles (Ted Danson), a former engineer, now retired, who is still mourning the loss of his beloved wife Dorothy, who passed following a battle with dementia.

Answering an advert placed by PI Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), Charles subsequently enters the Pacific View assisted living facility, to be the ‘man on the inside’ and discover who stole a family heirloom from one of the residents.

He keeps his new role ‘secret’ from his daughter Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), thereby allowing Julie to double in that capacity, and the two work hard to avoid arousing the suspicions of the home’s manager Didi (Stephanie Beatriz), while ingratiating himself with some of its residents, including - most notably - a loner named Calbert (Stephen McKinley Henderson).

Rather than pay too close attention to the crime itself, Schur’s comedy-drama is more interested in its characters, giving them plenty of room to develop and endear.

And while the comedy is more chucklesome than laugh out loud, this also works to its advantage, thriving on its ability to make both pointed and poignant observations about life, love, friendship and loss.

In doing do, it can also be strikingly heart-breaking, often catching you off-guard with some hefty emotional swings that feel earned rather than contrived.

But then Schur is a past master at switching tempos, having combined optimistic comedy and disarming drama in both Parks and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, while also wrong footing viewers completely with The Good Place (his first venture with Danson).

His decision to reunite with Danson also reaps big rewards, given the goodwill and likeability the actor has amassed over his prolific career. Here, his comedy timing remains as razor-sharp and impeccable, as ever. But it’s tempered by a sadness borne from the tragedy he is still trying to get over.

During the course of the series, we get to fully appreciate Danson’s performance for its willingness to be as sophisticated and charismatic as it is self-deprecating and melancholy.

The relationships he also builds are beautifully constructed, especially those with Emily (his real daughter) and - best of all - Calbert. It may be more easily described as a late life bro-nance but the friendship between Danson and Henderson culminates in one of the standout TV episodes I’ve seen in a long time, as the former takes the latter on a tour of San Francisco and both open up to each other.

It’s both a love letter to the US city and to friendship - and it’s a genuinely disarming, even poignant episode.

But even the finale delivers: both as an intelligent and nuanced unveiling of the thief and as a dissection of the repercussions of Danson’s deception.

A last act season 2 primer also lands playfully without feeling contrived, putting a smile on your face at the very welcome prospect of this show’s return.