Charles Nieuwendyk goes undercover to find out who is sabotaging the donation of $400 million to a needy college.
In the second season of A Man on the Inside, Charles is no longer in the deep depression he was at the beginning of season one. He still misses his late wife Victoria (great name), but he is once more living a full life. His man on the inside position, a lecturer at Wheeler College, is a perfect fit as he is a retired professor of engineering. Also, it happens to be Wheeler College, where fortunately, fortuitously, or rather by the design of the show creators, is where his daughter Emily and her husband Joel met on their freshman trip.
Last season explored the challenges of dealing with dementia and the loneliness of old age. This season tackles other issues. Charles is ready to try romance again, and they give him a partner, Mona, played by Ted Danson’s real-life wife, Mary Steenburgen. I’m always skeptical about how a real-life couple, married for decades, will do with a romance that is supposed to be played as new. I thought they did okay. Not the best I’ve seen but certainly not the worst. And I don’t think Ted Danson has to act at all to look at Mary Steenburgen with admiration.
The fact that Charles is more grounded emotionally gives A Man on the Inside the space to develop other characters. Julie has a mother! Jace, the eldest son of Emily, gets to play a real role this time (and proves he has inherited some sleuthing abilities from his mother and grandfather).
This season also brings in some of our favorite characters from season one. Flo, alas, died in the first season, but they bring back Ginny, Elliot, Calbert and Didi for some of the episodes. I adore Didi!
They address, too, the problem of honesty. Charles, as a private investigator, is searching for the truth, but going undercover means he has to lie. He gets some good advice from Calbert on the matter.
The main focus, however, is on Wheeler College and the issue of economic pressures on colleges and universities (A Man on the Inside certainly takes a stand). I really appreciated this; the chase of money has distorted the process of learning. Maybe that has always been true to some degree, but it seems even truer today.
Title musings. With respect to the title of the series, A Man on the Inside, the phrase 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.
The creators base all this season’s episode titles on things associated with the college experience:
- Episode 1: Orientation
- Episode 2: Major Declaration
- Episode 3: Family Weekend
- Episode 4: Spirit Week
- Episode 5: Thanksgiving Break
- Episode 6: Extracurriculars
- Episode 7: Group Project
- Episode 8: Final Exam
Bits and pieces:
The morsel about Brad Vinick’s plane flying back and forth between San Francisco and Colorado in order to join up Vinick’s dog and dogwalker was amusing, but also highlights the fact that a lot of the pollution being caused by air traffic is due to private jets.
Chita Rivera was an actress who died in 2024, who sang and danced and acted (plenty of film and TV but mostly on stage). And yes, Stephanie Beatriz resembles her.
There is no actual Wheeler College, although there are some Texas Wheeler educational institutions, and there was a Wheeler dormitory at my college. The creators must have done their due diligence to make sure they avoided the name of any actual college.
I loved the stones of the Garden of Wisdom. Makes me want to go to Wheeler!
Quotes
Mistress: Aren't you a little old for me?
Charles: I am indeed, but I'm not buying you a drink to hit on you.
Charles: I want a real PI case. Something I can sink my teeth into. Something juicy like – like Pacific View.
Julie: Okay. First of all, you're not a real PI. You're an unlicensed trainee. Second, these cases, the ones that you've been assisting on, this is the job. Most PI work isn't juicy. It's dull. Pacific View was one in a million.
President Beringer: This is our provost, Holly Bodgemark.
Charles: Provost is basically vice president.
Julie: I was gonna google it after they left.
Julie: Okay, we should start by reviewing any camera footage that you have along with geolocation data from the swipe cards.
Holly: We should start that way, but we can't because our cameras broke years ago, and we can't afford to get them fixed.
Emily: We were on the freshman orientation camping trip.
Joel: Literally, day one.
Emily: And I looked at him, and he looked at me. And I said, "Do you know anything about camping?"
Joel: And I said, "Not one thing."
Emily: And then we smiled at each other, and I felt like I got struck by lightning.
Didi: Julie. That is the most delusional rant I have ever heard, and I work in elder care. Two of the residents think I'm Chita Rivera.
Julie: Then why did you hire me?
Didi: I needed background checks. You're the only PI I know.
Julie; That's what you would say if you were trying to take me down.
Didi: All right. Okay. Just listen. This level of mistrust and paranoia is what we in the medical and psychological community refer to as cuckoo bananas. Maybe you should go to therapy and try to figure out what happened to you to make you like this.
Mona: My point is people our age have this whole complicated life behind us. And we have God knows what ahead of us. Let's just be here now.
Charles: I'm Charles, by the way.
Apollo: Ah. Hey, Apollo Lambrakis. I live here, sexually.
Calbert: You cannot be in a relationship with someone you're lying to.
Charles: Get it together, Nieuwendyk. It's just a naked woman. You've seen hundreds of them. Does the actual math. You've seen four of them.
Julie: You're not supposed to show up unannounced.
Vanessa: I know. But you ignored all my calls.
Julie: That's what people do when they don't want to talk to other people.
Holly: Aw, man.
Julie: What? Bad news?
Holly: Yeah. There was an asteroid with a 2% chance of destroying Earth, and now they say it's not gonna happen. Can't catch a break.
Vinick: You're right. This is boring. Some righteous dipshit torches my painting. Whatever. At least it's an opportunity to try something new. (snaps fingers) A statue. I could be, um, on a horse, like Teddy Roosevelt. Or I'm racing against a horse, and I'm winning. But just by a little, so it's realistic.
Charles: Well, nobody likes that guy, huh?
Claire: Literally no. He became president like right before I got here, and I was supposed to go on this camping retreat for incoming first years, and he cut the program at the last second.
Professor Benjamin Cole: The reason I don’t like you very much is that recently, to save money, Wheeler College has resorted to hiring visiting lecturers, like you, instead of tenured professors. Now, the least you can do in your short time here is attempt to understand why those of us who have devoted our lives to this school care so deeply.
Emily: And yes, what happened to you is real, and it… sucks. It’s so unfair, and you have every right to be so angry, but… You only get one mom. And I miss mine every day. So if there is a one-in-a-billion chance that you can repair your relationship with her, I think you should take it.
Charles: I mean, just two totally different philosophies of life. I look both ways before I cross the street. She does cartwheels into traffic.
Overall rating:
This has become my go-to comfort show, and who does not need a comfortable place for hearts and minds? Three out of four stones in the Garden of Wisdom.
Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
Thank you for your lovely review, Victoria. :) I enjoyed season one a lot, but I thought season two was even better. They did such a great job meshing both seasons' characters, as well as having Charles learn and grow and have new experiences. I couldn't find fault with anything. I especially liked what they did with Mona, because it made sense.
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