A Man On The Inside has more heart than hilarity

Some people think of Ted Lasso as kicking off an era of television where kindness is king, the sort in which a Kansan with a folksy drawl can hand out some books, tape up a “Believe” sign, and bring a rag-tag team together. But as a showrunner, Michael Schur has been at this game from the jump, concocting series after series that sweetly investigates the human condition. First, he took on local government and feel-good coworker camaraderie with Parks And Recreation. Next, he delved into morality and explored its philosophical underpinnings with The Good Place. (And he further dug into these concepts with his book How To Be Perfect.) Then, he brought his themes of community and connectedness to law enforcement with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. With his latest series and first for Netflix, A Man On The Inside, Schur examines the loneliness epidemic through its most vulnerable population: the elderly. Despite the limitations of a season with eight 30-minute episodes can impose on a sitcom, AMOTI is a sweet show with more heart than hilarious punchlines—and a winning cast too boot. And it will probably make you cry.  

Based on Maite Alberdi’s 2020 documentary The Mole Agent, AMOTI follows a retiree as he becomes installed as a spy to investigate a high-dollar theft at a local assisted living facility. It’s a setup that’s well served by Ted Danson, who plays Charles Nieuwendyk, a kindly former engineer in San Francisco with a whole lot of nothing to do following his wife’s passing from Alzheimer’s. His busy daughter, Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia), lives with her husband and three teenage sons more an hour away in Sacramento, and Charles spends his days scouring the newspaper for interesting articles to clip out and send her. Encouraged by Emily to get a hobby, he responds to a Kovalenko Investigations print ad he spots in the paper, and in few moves, he’s welcomed into Pacific View Retirement Community as a new resident.

Of course, the very charming Charles makes friends with everyone at the facility in pretty short order (this is a Mike Schur show, after all), even though his instructions before entering the place were to lay low. This choice for Charles to disregard the demand to remain impersonal seems like one Schur himself often makes in his writing. Whereas the commonly held advice is to allow bad things to happen to your characters, to put them through hell, Schur seems determined to maintain a softer touch. Even when he literally lands people on TGP in “the bad place,” they find support and a found family there to rise above their circumstances. He keeps meanness to a minimum, focusing on his characters’ goodness instead—even when they are kind of jerks. For example, Parks And Rec‘s Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) went from bad boyfriend to desperate pit-dweller to City Hall shoe-shiner to half of one of the most celebrated couples in the Pawnee-verse when he courted April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), bringing out her silly side in the process.

But beyond celebrating the utility and redeeming qualities of its characters, AMOTI highlights the value of experiences in life. And it’s a safe bet that the residents denying themselves the joy of a big, luxurious purchase are going to bust out those debit cards to make their dreams come true. But this isn’t some “live, laugh, love,” “feel the rain on your skin,” escapist bullshit: This show reminds its audience that memory is fallible and life itself is fleeting. Which is kind of the perfect sentiment for a sitcom that takes place in a retirement facility.