A Man on the Inside explores grief and growing older as Ted Danson goes undercover

After tackling the afterlife as the architect of Hell in The Good Place and becoming the unexpected mayor of Los Angeles as a wealthy businessman in Mr. Mayor, there was only one thing left for Ted Danson to do: retire. That's kind of what the veteran comedy actor does in his new Netflix original comedy series A Man on the Inside, which comes from his Good Place boss Michael Schur.

Danson plays Charles Nieuwendyk, a recent widower with a lot of time on his hands. When his daughter suggests giving a new hobby a shot, she didn't necessarily mean to push the engineering professor to accept an advertisement to go undercover, but that's what Charles does. He works with a private investigator to be her "man on the inside" at a San Francisco retirement home.

The new series, released Nov. 21 on Netflix, finds Charles looking into the curious case of a stolen necklace. While it's an effective sleuth comedy, it's also a Trojan horse of much deeper themes that you might not have been expecting. Grief, mortality, family, and friendship are much more successfully at the forefront of A Man on the Inside than spies undercover.

A Man on the Inside review

Don't get me wrong, the mystery at the center of A Man on the Inside is plenty captivating. Who stole the necklace, and who's been swiping other goods from around the Pacific View retirement home? It's not the heart-pounding mystery you'd find in your average spy thriller series, but played for comic effect, it'll keep you guessing for all eight episodes from beginning to end.

Surrounding Danson in supporting roles are Lilah Richcreek Estrada as no-nonsense private investigator Julie and Stephanie Beatriz as dedicated retirement home manager Didi. Both actresses deliver captivating performances that perfectly bookend the mystery aspect of the series. Julie attempts to keep Charles in line, while Didi slowly becomes suspicious of his antics.

But the beating heart of A Man on the Inside lies in the themes that have nothing to do with the show's title, which references his undercover work. (You could argue that there's a deeper double meaning to the title following Charles rediscovering himself and finding a new lease on life, but personally, I think that would be a stretch. The show was previously titled A Classic Spy.)

Mary Elizabeth Ellis charms in each of her limited appearances as Charles' daughter Emily, a busy wife and mother of three apathetic teenage gamer sons. Since the death of her mother, Emily and her father have been struggling to repair their relationship. The series' excavation of their shared grief and how it ruptured their bond might be some of its most delicately balanced writing.

Taking place in a retirement home and featuring a quirky ensemble of elderly characters, A Man on the Inside faces the realities of mortality and growing older head on. Charles' wife passed away from Alzheimer's complications, which he's forced to encounter again at Pacific View. Many of the characters are searching for what's next while reconciling that "what's next" might not be time.

Even though it's under false pretenses, Charles makes meaningful friendships while undercover at the retirement home, and these new relationships change both him and his new buddies. When A Man on the Inside moves away from its nagging responsibility to fulfill its spy promise and sits in the quieter moments, like Charles spending a day with Calbert (Stephen McKinley Henderson), it's at its absolute strongest.

Is A Man on the Inside worth watching?

As someone who's watched much of Schur's past series, he bites off quite a bit thematically here than he might have ever before — and that's saying something with both The Good Place and Rutherford Falls on his résumé. You could say all of the themes and character work wouldn't have a place without the spy aspect of the story, which is based on the documentary The Mole Agent, but oftentimes the spy aspect feels secondary.

It's fun, sure, to watch Danson be a bumbling newbie at speaking field notes into a voice recorder and not blowing his cover, but A Man on the Inside is special in a way that's so similar to The Good Place. The criminally underrated NBC fantasy-philosophy sitcom drilled down on the human condition and asked challenging questions, unafraid to mix silly jokes with gut-punching pathos.

If you're clicking on A Man on the Inside on Netflix expecting a straightforward spy comedy not unlike Melissa McCarthy's 2015 movie Spy, that's not entirely what you will be getting. Actually, you're in for a dramedy, maybe even a tragicomedy if we're being dramatic. Although mostly lighthearted, the show can get heavy and inspire ugly cries if any of these stories hit home.

For a complicated insight into what it's like to grow older and face fears you never imagined would catch up with you, A Man on the Inside is a must-watch. Schur's fans and Danson's fans will find lots to love in this breezy binge, but don't expect the comedic accessibility of Parks or Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The Netflix series skews to an older demographic, but maybe younger viewers will learn important life lessons from Charles Nieuwendyk.

Watch A Man on the Inside only on Netflix.