A Man on the Inside: Season One Review

The reason I knew she was the one for me is the second I met her, I had a thought. It was persistent, this thought. Wouldn't leave my head. "This is the person I want to grow old with."

Season description: “Charles, a retired man, gets a new lease on life when he answers an ad from a private investigator and becomes a mole in a secret investigation in a nursing home.”

For once, my review is relatively spoiler free!

Charles Nieuwendyk is a retired professor of engineering; he has been a widower for about a year, after his wife, Victoria, died from Alzheimer’s. Charles was her primary caregiver. He’s about 75, which means he is getting up there, but he’s healthy and in good shape. His daughter Emily, who is about two hours away in Sacramento (Charles lives in the Bay Area) urges him to find something to do in order to keep busy. Being retired and widowed leaves two enormous empty spots in his life, so he does need to attack that problem.

In the meantime, Julie Kovalenko, head of a little detective agency, has been approached by a potential client who wants her to find out who stole his mother’s necklace in her retirement facility. At first Julie says no, because she doesn’t see how she can get in, but then the idea of hiring a mole – a man on the inside – occurs to her. She puts an ad in a newspaper, and Charles responds.

The set-up is reasonably well done. A good retirement facility will be guarded to protect the residents. It's also true that thefts often get little investigation from the police, so the son of the resident whose necklace was stolen would want to hire private investigators.

Let’s consider, for a moment, on what this series is not. Although there’s plenty of comedy, the series avoids the crude jokes with respect to sex and farts featured in too many shows. And although this is a detective story, A Man on the Inside also avoids the bloody corpses and the terror of so many detective shows.

It’s a real break, therefore from the usual fare. It's a chance for some much needed escapism. Both Julie and Emily almost wish they could live in this retirement center.

Now, some aspects are idealized. We also have to assume that the Pacific View Retirement Center is expensive, so most of the residents are well-heeled (this may not be true of the staff). Although this is a retirement facility, nearly everyone in the show, even though they are old, looks pretty good. Still, it is a place for old people, which means that death, and the ds that often come before – decay, dementia, disease – are present. Nearly everyone is aware that time is running out, but the series treats the issues with real sensitivity.

Ted Danson, who carries the show, is charming as Charles Niewendyk. The actor engages in gentle self-deprecation with respect to his outfits (they look fine to me) and his tendency, as an engineer, to talk too long about facts. He also goes through his own character arc throughout the season.

Title musings. The title of the series, “A Man on the Inside,” refers to a guy who has access to information not readily available to outsiders. The title was used for a self-published book that came out in 2023, but there have been movies with the phrase “Inside Man” in them.

But the creators had lots of fun with the titles of the episodes, basing them all on detective stories (many were also turned into movies). As I love bad puns, I appreciated them:

• Episode 1: "Tinker Tailor Older Spy" (play on John LeCarré’s novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Charles is seen reading one of his books in the first episode)
• Episode 2: "The Man Who Knew Too Much About Bridges" (The Man Who Knew Too Much, collection of stories by GK Chesterton, and also a couple of Alfred Hitchcock films)
• Episode 3: "The Emily Always Rings Twice" (The Postman Always Rings Twice, novel by James M Cain, also at least one movie)
• Episode 4: "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Painting Class" (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
• Episode 5: "Presents and Clear Danger" (Clear and Present Danger, Tom Clancy novel)
• Episode 6: "Our Man in Sacramento" (Variants of this title has been riffed so often that I can’t be quite sure, but I think the first was a Graham Greene novel, Our Man in Havana)
• Episode 7: "From Russian Hill with Love" (From Russia, with Love, Ian Fleming)
• Episode 8: "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" (same title, John LeCarré)

The titles are fun!

Bits and pieces:

This series pays homage to earlier series in Ted Danson’s career. In episode two, Charles somehow ends up tending bar, which of course Ted Danson did in the many episodes of Cheers. Then, in the Pacific View retirement center, there’s a closed-off section for those with dementia. In honor of The Good Place, this section is known as The Neighborhood. I’m sure I’m missing some, perhaps many other homages.

Michael Schur uses actors from his previous series. Stephanie Beatriz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the competent and caring director of the facility (so different from the rough and tough Rosa Diaz). We also see Mark Evan Jackson, who was in both Brooklyn Nine-Nine and in The Good Place, and Eugene Cordero (he was Pillboi in The Good Place). Even D’Arcy Carden (Janet from The Good Place) makes an appearance. And I’m sure I’m missing many because I have not watched all of Schur’s shows.

I have not been to too many assisted living facilities / nursing homes. Those that I have seen were pretty good, but I have read about scandals, both with respect to care and corruption.

My father had dementia. That’s one reason I appreciated the show.

The opening scene with a very young Ted Danson at his wedding was very realistic. I’m guessing they used AI to do this, but I don’t know for sure. Danson has been around for so long, there might have been some old footage that could have been adapted.

Quotes

Young Charles Nieuwendyk at his wedding many years ago: The question many of you have asked me the last three months is this. "How did you know?" "How did you know this woman was the one for you?" "You're nothing alike," you said. "You're an engineer, and she's an artist," you said. "You're uptight, and she's cool," you said. To which I replied, "Jeez, Mom. Give me a break."

Julie: I don't want to take your money unless there's a decent shot I can solve this case, and I just don't think there is.
Mr. Cubbler: Why not? Isn't this exactly what a PI does?
Julie: In theory, but this retirement community is a closed ecosystem. I have no access. You're honestly better off going to the police.
Mr. Cubbler: No. The police will just launch some half-assed investigation into the staff, solve nothing, turn the place against my mother, and she'd have to live with me. Which would be -- suboptimal.

Megan: Why does it have to be a man?
Julie: Women outnumber men six to one in this place, so a man makes a bigger splash.
Megan: Oh. A wrinkly little honeypot. I like it.

Virginia: I don’t do yoga. I’m naturally flexible.

Didi: This is our memory care unit. We call it The Neighborhood.

Dennis: You want to hear a weird one?
Didi: Why not?
Dennis: We're out of saltshakers.
Didi: Like, not salt, but...?
Dennis: The thingies. The actual shakers, yeah. We have like ten left.

Emily: I'm bad at it. You know? Talking to him about – emotional stuff. I'm just – I'm bad at it.
Joel: Jesus, hon. No one's good at it. It's impossible. It's just – either you're a person who does it, or you're a person who doesn't do it. And you're just trying to be a person who does it. And that's awesome.

Julie: Look, I was just doing my job.
Didi: You lied to get into my building. You accused my staff of a serious crime. My staff puts up with more shit in one day than you do in a month of tailing adulterers and tax cheats.
Julie: Okay, I am way too old for lectures. Listen, some stuff was missing, and now it's not. You didn't find it, my guy did. You're welcome.

Charles: For a while, in those last months, there were good days, and there were bad days. You remember.
Emily: Yeah.
Charles: Eventually, there were only bad days. I was in over my head.

Charles: Hi, Julie. It's Charles Nieuwendyk. I'm calling in my favor.

Overall rating:

This has become my go-to comfort show, and who does not need a comfortable place for hearts and minds? Three and a half out of four missing saltshakers.

Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.