A Man on the Inside Season Two Review: The Pinnacle of 'Mid TV'
The second season of A Man on the Inside has arrived on Netflix, and it stands as a perfect example of what critics are calling 'mid TV'. This cosy, lighthearted whodunnit features the venerable Ted Danson as Charles, a retired professor who finds a new lease on life as a private investigator. While the premise sounds charming, the execution represents everything that is currently wrong with streaming-era television.
What Makes This Show So Insidiously Bland?
On the surface, A Man on the Inside appears to commit only minor crimes: it's a little too schmaltzy, a little too pleased with its own wisecracks in that classic American comedy style. Yet it's precisely this inoffensiveness that makes this strain of television so problematic. The series unites an unusual number of modern TV's most cynical methods, beginning with its blatant trading on past glories.
The show features the headline creator-actor combo of showrunner Michael Schur, whose CV includes Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, and the legendary Ted Danson, who starred in the latter. Then there's the IP groundwork - the first season was loosely based on a 2020 documentary called The Mole Agent, though this version is far too anodyne to entertain the original's darker themes of care home abuse.
A Plot Stretched Thin Across Eight Episodes
In this new season, we reunite with Charles, who is craving another undercover challenge after his wife's death. His private investigation work now mainly involves exposing the affairs of married men, but he yearns for something more substantial. The plot kicks into gear when a college president arrives with a story about a stolen laptop and a protest against a billionaire alumnus who has agreed to make a substantial donation to the school.
Charles naturally becomes the perfect candidate to pose as a harmless visiting professor and uncover the culprit. The central mystery, which involves the stolen laptop, is resolved in a manner that's hardly jaw-dropping. Like many streamer comedy-dramas, the pace is glacial and the plot both predictable and loudly spoon-fed to viewers, making it perfect for second-screen viewing while scrolling on a phone.
The Cast and That 'Risk-Averse Humour'
Loath to waste any audience investment from the first season, the show shoehorns in characters from the retirement community who have zero connection to the new case. More plausibly, Charles's daughter and her family return, and we're introduced to Julie's estranged ex-con mother and her eccentric boyfriend Apollo, played by Schur favourite Jason Mantzoukas, who provides the season's only properly funny moments.
Meanwhile, Charles gets some romance of his own courtesy of a freewheeling music professor played by Danson's actual wife, Mary Steenburgen. The series frequently recalls Disney+'s Only Murders in the Building, yet whereas that show delivers jokes ranging from ingeniously clever to thrillingly edgy, A Man on the Inside limits itself to risk-averse humour that fails to properly probe or subvert its weighty themes of old age and isolation.
Ultimately, you wouldn't watch A Man on the Inside for the mystery or the comedy. You'd watch it for the background noise - something to fill the silence while you look at something more interesting on your phone. It's television seemingly designed to be played ambiently, a symptom of our current tech hell where content siphons off our time through merely OK entertainment.
