A Man on the Inside: Season 2 TV Review: Ted Danson goes back to college for a silly, smart, and ultimately endearing mystery
Plot: Charles Newendyke (Ted Danson) attempts to solve his most significant case to date when a laptop containing sensitive information about a business deal at Wheeler College goes missing.
Review: Hold onto your Werther’s Original, folks, because Charles and Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) are heading to college for the duo’s latest case. After solving his first case at the Pacific View Retirement Community, Charles quickly discovers that petty thieves and libertines make up the majority of his new clientele. Desperate for another thrilling case, Charles insists on investigating Wheeler College, where a stolen laptop threatens to shake the school’s future to its foundation. Wheeler is not as cozy a setup as Pacific View, but there’s still plenty of sleuthing to do.
It’s at Wheeler where Charles meets Mona (Mary Steenburgen), a firecracker of a music professor with a wild child still running rampant inside her. Charles and Mona quickly hit it off, and thus, we enter a romantic arc for Charles. The relationship allows Danson to delve deep into Charles’s emotions, his enduring devotion to his late wife, and what change and unpredictability can mean for a man who’s starting to love life again. It also helps that Mona is played lovingly by Mary Steenburgen, who often steals the show as Mona, a free-spirited spitfire of a woman whose storied past is the stuff of legend. She’s the opposite of Charles in many ways, but as we all know, thanks to Paula Abdul, opposites attract.
While the case of the stolen laptop and Charles’s quickly evolving relationship with Mona take center stage, Season 2 gives Estrada’s Julie more screentime by positioning her to mend fences with someone from her past; her mother. The struggle to make a meaningful and honest connection highlights Julie’s neurosis in a way that almost makes her feel inhuman, but forgiveness can sometimes be an elusive goal. There’s something about Julie that puts me off, but that’s part of the point. She’s neurotypical, a workaholic, eats childhood trauma for breakfast, and works alongside Charles, who pushes her buttons daily. It’s no wonder she’s often unapproachable or prone to backlash. Estrada plays Julie with uncanny awkwardness and frustration. It’s a fascinating mix.
Season 2 contains a handful of other stand-out performances, including Gary Cole’s Brad Vinick, a wealthy donor and Grade A, top-choice asshole in every sense of the word. Vinick oozes misogyny and cruelty. He reached the top by taking advantage of people and is in desperate need of a punch to the face every hour of every day. Then there’s Max Greenfield as Jack Beringer, President of Wheeler College, also known as a smarmy weasel wearing a skin suit. Jack is another fun character you love to hate, and Greenfield understands the assignment. He milks every moment of his performance, and there’s a moment inside a men’s bathroom that had me cackling. He’s that guy. You’ll know it when you see it.
Jason Mantzoukas pops in to play Apollo, the eccentric boyfriend of Julie’s mom, Vanessa (Constance Marie). Have you seen Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Apollo might as well be Adrian Pimento’s crunchy cousin, whose antics are nearly as confounding as his ideas and idiosyncrasies. Mantzoukas makes the most of his character’s drop-in/drop-out participation, but you won’t forget a moment spent with Apollo. Let’s say that Vanessa does the heavy-lifting for both her and Apollo.
Despite there being a fun case to solve, I couldn’t help but miss the halls of Pacific View, where the support cast and close-quarters nature of the locale lent to a more interesting yarn to pull. One holdover from Charles’s Pacific View days is Stephen McKinley Henderson’s Calbert Graham, Charles’s best friend, and my favorite character in the show. Of all the relationships in the show, Charles and Calbert’s is my favorite to watch evolve. When they’re together, it’s like watching two old souls connect, even when polite ribbing is their M.O. Graham plays Calbert with as much warmth, pith, and vinegar as he did in the first season, and you can always count on him to deliver a heart-tugging moment or two.
If you had told me two years ago that A Man on the Inside, a show starring Cheers and The Good Place alum Ted Danson, would become one of my favorite comfort shows, I’m not sure I would have believed you. Then again, I become more sentimental with each day, a sign of getting older. A Man on the Inside is targeting people like me. I might have a bullseye on my back. Then again, it’s good to get in your feelings for a bit, and surprisingly, A Man on the Inside is more than capable of giving you an excuse to get something in your eye.
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