Like The Good Place, A Man on the Inside comes from series creator Michael Schur. Building on an idea from his producing partner Morgan Sackett, he created the show specifically for Ted Danson to star in. Danson plays Charles Nieuwendyk, a retired professor in the listless aftermath of his wife's death from Alzheimer's. Prodded by his daughter to find more activities, he takes an unusual job offered by a private detective: go undercover in a retirement community to investigate a theft. He throws himself fully into the role, but finds himself making new friends along the way.
If you're thinking that doesn't sound much like a comedy, you're catching onto one of the interesting things about A Man on the Inside that took me a little time to adjust to. You wouldn't be off-base expecting something like The Good Place going into this show: something that is fundamentally a laugh-filled half-hour sitcom, but that slyly slips in more thoughtful and dramatic content between the jokes. But where The Good Place ultimately had 53 episodes to pace its philosophical treasures more carefully, A Man on the Inside aims to tell a complete story in just eight. It has no time to tiptoe around the weightier themes it wants to engage with.
Consequently, while A Man on the Inside is partly a comedy (and adheres to the half-hour format), it's equally a drama. The show has a lot to say about aging, especially the loneliness of being separated from loved ones -- be it by distance, behavior, or death. There are moments of A Man on the Inside that are quite sad. Moving, and not at all treacly, but profoundly sad. And the show's essential "half and half" balance of comedy and drama is not deployed evenly in each episode. Some episodes are indeed a blend, but at least one is almost "before a live studio audience" in the degree to which it plays for laughs, and other episodes are nearly devoid of jokes in pursuit of the larger themes. Where The Good Place was a healthy pill pocketed inside a tasty treat, A Man on the Inside is an eight-course meal best considered as a whole.
In that holistic light, the sad moments of the show take on greater meaning. A Man on the Inside is a fundamentally uplifting show, because it's ultimately about healing -- healing yourself, healing relationships, and demonstrating that there is light at the end of any tunnel. But yes, it also has funny moments.
Ted Danson is as perfect as you'd expect in a role crafted for him, deft at both the comedic moments of his character's cluelessness and the heavier moments where he confronts the big issues. Another strong presence is another past Michael Schur collaborator, Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Didi, director of the retirement community.
But the real standouts in the cast are those on the deep bench of older actors who populate that community. These are faces you've seen countless times... but perhaps not any time recently. Hollywood tends to have maybe one role for someone like this in maybe every fifth or tenth project. But here in a single project, there are roles for Sally Struthers, Margaret Avery, John Getz, Susan Ruttan, Veronica Cartwright, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and many, many more.
As I mentioned, the eight episodes of A Man on the Inside tell a complete story. They jokingly tee up the possibility of another season without ending things on anything like a cliffhanger. And yet... shortly after Netflix dropped the entire run (like they do), a second season was announced. Having watched The Good Place, I remember well the feeling that "there's no way they could get another season out of this," and then being stunned when the story morphed quite naturally into something new and equally great. If anybody could spin another good story out of the premise of A Man on the Inside, it would be Michael Schur and his team of writers.
But for now, I can close the book and enjoy the story I've just been told. No, it's not as great as The Good Place -- an impossible standard this shouldn't be held to. But I'd still rate A Man on the Inside a strong, rewarding B+.
No comments:
Post a Comment