Streaming is the best and worst thing that’s happened to the live-action network sitcoms of the early-21st century. Twenty-two-minute multicamera shows have found a second life with viewers who are too young to remember having to “tune in” to watch a program. Shows like Community and Arrested Development, which had a cult audience during their initial release windows, have been appreciated by more keyed-in viewers, who’ve taken the time to break down their layers on in-jokes and obscure references. On the flipside, shows that were already at the peak of the cultural zeitgeist have held a grip on streaming audiences so strong that it’s been difficult to replace them with contemporary works.
It’s this conundrum that’s made A Man on the Inside such an interesting endeavor for Mike Schur, the creator behind The Office, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place. The bright, feel-good perspective that’s defined Schur’s work has made it catnip for millennials that seek an optimistic sense of wholesomeness, a hook made more indelible given that none of his shows are in short supply. The worst consequence of the streaming era is that television shows no longer exist on a regular yearly schedule, and it might take several years to get a small fraction of the episodes guaranteed within a broadcast season. Although there have been terrific comedy shows that’ve aired within the streaming generation, new endeavors like Abbott Elementary or Only Murders in the Building will take years before they approach an episode sum comparable to a quarter of what Schur achieved.
With A Man on the Inside, Schur developed his first original show for Netflix, which was the service that helped shoot The Office and The Good Place into popularity. Even if A Man on the Inside has an eight-episode count, its old-fashioned approach to multi-cam comedy is in line with Schur’s earlier work. To gamble on this style is surprisingly bold, given that many of the year’s best comedies (such as The Chair Company and The Studio) are deliberately crafted with cinematic qualities that never would’ve flown on a network budget. What’s more interesting is that A Man on the Inside is also serialized, meaning that it does not have the “drop in” appeal that came with Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Parks and Recreation.
A Man on the Inside is loosely based on the Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent, which told the amusing true story of a retired man who became an undercover operative within an investigation to identify a thief in a retirement community. The barest outline of that premise was expanded into a season of television in which the retired engineering professor Charles Nieuwendyk (Ted Danson) was hired by the private investigator Julie Kovalenko (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) to solve a similar case, albeit one that involved much more hijinks and sleuthing than The Mole Agent. There’s no trace of the original source material in the second season, in which Charles is given the opportunity to return to his old stomping grounds of secondary education. Jack Beringer (Max Greenfield), President of Wheeler College, has hired him to trace a series of threats made against the haughty billionaire Brad Vinick (Gary Cole), who has a primary stake in the university.
The success of the first season of A Man on the Inside presented a few challenges to its successor. First, there’s the matter of expectations; there’s more pressure to succeed after a well-received first season, especially how many all-time great comedy shows (Seinfeld, 30 Rock, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) are nearly unwatchable in their first years. Second, A Man on the Inside wrapped up its case completely within the first eight episodes, and so a second season had to start from scratch. Schur has maneuvered those impediments with the decision to treat each season as a complete entity. Given that it's conceivable most audiences will watch the new season of A Man on the Inside in its entirety over one or two nights, the show’s able to develop a more nuanced mystery that wouldn’t have been easy to follow had viewers been waiting a week between episodes.
Schur’s shows have oddly been reframed as more saccharine than they are; while the heartfelt moments between Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) are often highlighted by millennial fans of The Office, these instances of sentiment represent a small fraction of a show that was fairly unsparing in its satire. The first season of A Man on the Inside made a more deliberate attempt to pull on the heartstrings, given that its focus on care homes lead to thoughtful expiration on the lonely lives of widows, widowers, and other elderly individuals who rarely see their families. Although Danson’s affable, vulnerable performance is able to produce a few of these moments, the second season’s decision to enter the world of college politics helped it tell a sharper, more satirical story.
The solution to the mystery may come down to a series of accidents and contrivances, but A Man on the Inside does find prudent ways to examine the crisis that has inundated America’s schools. All the anger directed at university funding, curriculum, and expenses are often unfairly directed at the teachers, which has allowed for ignorant, shadowy figures like Vinick to operate without fear of consequences. The most subversive aspect of A Man on the Inside’s second season is the lack of empathy for the potential victim; while any harm suffered by Vinick could result in bad PR for Wheelman, none of the staffers that Charles has interacted with have any sympathy for the pretentious CEO.
The conventionality of the seasonal arc is redeemed by the great ensemble, which is composed of Schur veterans and established stars in subversive roles. While Jason Mantzoukas is given another eccentric comic relief role after his similar parts on previous Schur sitcoms, A Man on the Inside also has a moving performance by David Strathairn as Dr. Benjamin Cole, a literature professor depressed by the lack of respect students have for the classics.
Those familiar with Strathairn’s work might be able to identify his appearance as part of a comeback year following his excellent performance in this summer’s family drama A Little Prayer. However, those who only look to A Man on the Inside as a “comfort watch” (which is likely a majority of its audience) may find that Strathairn’s approach is representative of what Schur has consistently done right within his entire filmography; injecting a little bit more specificity within seemingly derivative characters and premises can make all the difference.