A Man on the Inside
Netflix
There are not all that many Netflix series you can recommend to pretty much anyone of all interests, of all ages, but I think this is one of them. Now, A Man on the Inside has returned for season 2, and it’s scoring nearly as well on Rotten Tomatoes as the much-beloved first season.
As it stands, A Man on the Inside has a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, compared to the 96% of season 1 (and a 90% from audiences). That’s excellent for a comedy, as you don’t see all that many reach that high on Netflix, and definitely not over the course of two seasons.
A Man on the Inside stars Ted Danson as a retiree turned quasi-spy, and it’s created by Michael Schur, who, and brace yourself, wrote on and produced The Office, co-created Parks and Recreation, created Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place, the last of which also starred Danson. That is a wild list of comedic accomplishments, and it’s no surprise that A Man on the Inside is yet another big hit. Though this time it’s on streaming, not airing on broadcast TV. Netflix was smart to snatch him up.
A Man on the Inside
Netflix
Here’s the initial premise for A Man on the Inside season 2, as the first season was set up to give Danson’s Charles another case to assist with:
“When a college president’s secrets fall into the wrong hands, Charles poses as a visiting lecturer on campus to sniff out an anonymous blackmailer.”
So no, Charles is not heading to a different retirement home, as the show wants to expand its horizons a bit. I did not know that A Man on the Inside was based on an actual documentary, 2020’s The Mole Agent, which was about the nursing home storyline. Now, Schur has to make up new cases. From these reviews, however, it seems like it has gone well.
A Man on the Inside season 2 has arrived at #3 on Netflix’s top 10 list, with The Beast in Me staying at #1, and Absentia, a 2017 series, at #2 with three seasons to watch. The strangest licensed things get popular on Netflix, I swear.
I don’t know if I would hold A Man on the Inside in as much high esteem as that long list of Schur comedies, but it is really good, and it did take shows like The Office and Parks and Rec some time to find themselves. But I think A Man on the Inside is ahead of the game with a solid season 1, and I am curious to see how season 2 goes here. Pretty well, it would seem, based on these reviews.
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