'A Man on the Inside' Season One Review: A delicate comedy on the lives of the elderly

There's a slight increase in boomer series at the moment, featuring the stars of yester-century like Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Ted Danson. I'm quite a fan of Ted Danson's work, and I find he's quite a charismatic actor that has managed to find quite a sweet spot within the film industry in this chaotic modern era. After all, most actors reach a certain age and just struggle to find work at all, leading to career stagnation around the age of 50 where they get stuck into a genre and find themselves fighting for the scraps that generally just bait audiences with big names. It has been nice to see a few manage to maintain the audience's attention over the years. I really enjoyed the show Only Murders in the Building which has been a fun spin on the detective genre featuring elderly people. And now we have Danson's A Man on the Inside which is a similar story in that an elderly man is thrown into the world of the young as a detective attempting to solve some sort of crime. These are actually really fun shows, and I definitely recommend checking them both out if you're into comedy series that have a fun spin on the murder/mystery genres. It's hard to not compare the two, however. And there are a lot of similarities in some ways, despite being so different in how they present their narratives and characters.

Only Murders in the Building sees elderly actors and a young woman be thrown into life and success after feeling that their best days were behind them, now facing the thrills of solving murders that keep taking place in their building in New York City. Creating a podcast around it to document their experiences. A Man on the Inside sees a lonely retired engineer take up the job of a detective infiltrating an old people's home for a private detective, after someone hires them to find a relative's stolen jewellery in the building. Danson is a man of moderate success, but has also suffered his fair share of heartbreak with the loss of his wife a few years prior, now living alone and with a poor relationship with his daughter. He's often spending his days inside, with a boring routine that finds him just eating, reading through the newspaper over coffee, cooking something and then going to bed only to repeat the day again. One thing that surprised me with the show was how much it paid attention to the humanity towards elders, something that is often overlooked as younger people generally just find old people annoyingly boring and 'in the way'. The show doesn't take a direct approach to this sort of thing, but it handles it nicely by weaving it into character development and aspects of its narrative with follow-up characters that get introduced.

Danson's character moves into a relatively luxurious old people's home in San Fransico where he's expected to infiltrate and find out the truth as to who is stealing there. His time there leads to making a lot of new friends and realising his loneliness while also reliving some of his own personal traumas. Reminded of the loss of his wife, watching as her health deteriorated. Seeing how elders are often abandoned and in need of someone to just be there next to them sometimes. His character goes from rogue detective old man to one of sympathy and realisation of the importance of simplicities like friendship and family. It leads to character development that sees him rekindle his relationship with his daughter, whereas others in the home have their own struggles: the sudden loss of friends. Jealousy and love. The fear want to find something more to life in their old age. The realisation of the things that are closest to them as something of great importance. I really enjoyed the different characters that the show introduced, and how they became both rivals and friends to each other in various ways, still coming to their senses in the end. For some, it was the rivalry that gave them some life again. For others it was having someone to just sit and play board games with and go to the odd baseball game. It showed the fun of life in such simple moments and connections, how we may even take them for granted in our youth. Though this isn't said to us directly, it's more observed for the audience.

There's still some humour poked at the elderly, but I'd say it's done in good taste. It's a humour that focuses more on putting them into unexpected scenarios, or having them act more like teenagers than old people. Not in any overly obnoxious eye-rolling manner, but one that generates the odd chuckle. It gave the show a nice blend of laughs and drama, giving you something to feel for as it pulled on the heart strings, while also ensuring it left you with moments to smile at to mix things up. Danson is of course a great strength in the show, but the other actors and actresses manage to really carry their own weight, aside from the actress that plays his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Ellis. Her performance felt a little flat, showing more anger and general frustration rather than a diverse range of emotions that showed a character in need of connection with their ageing father. I think she was slightly miscast here, but that's pretty much the only negative I can think of for the show.

I do think that Only Murders in the Building is the slightly more engaging show when comparing the two. There's a bit more life to that one, but A Man on the Inside does decide to go in a slightly different direction with the pursuit of a bit more drama. It's a little bit more of an emotional roller coaster. I don't think that's a negative at all, it just does something a bit more different. Though I still recommend the two. Fortunately a second season has been green lit. I'm curious as to where the second will go after the events of the first season. Somewhat hoping the previous characters remain rather than a fresh start going into season two.