Ted Dansonwould like to sneak inside your heart again. I dare you to let him.
America's favorite "Cheers" bartender reunited with his "The Good Place" collaboratorMike Schurin 2024 for Netflix's"A Man on the Inside,"a whodunnit set inside a retirement home that found Danson's goofy retiree Charles going undercover to find out who stole precious jewelry. And now he's back in spy mode in Season 2, and this time the series will charm you with its sweetness, not choke you on saccharine mush.
When "Inside" premiered, it had all the ingredients of an addictive, enthralling show like "Good Place," which ran on NBC for four seasons and developed legions of devoted fans and accolades from critics. But there was something about the sappy "Inside" thatjust didn't quite add up to compelling television. The mystery and the characters were oddly shallow, the vibes distinctly unfinished and slight. The series was aggressively mawkish, and that sentimentality felt like it got in the way of Schur andDansontelling a heftier story. "Inside" was like the best meal you ever had at a chain restaurant: Predictable, artificial and good on paper, but nothing like the decadent dish you'd get at a neighborhood hole-in-the-wall that surprises and delights your senses.
"Inside" Season 2 (now streaming, ★★★ out of four) in some moments still feels like a facsimile of a better show, but those moments are happily few and far between. In the new episodes there's a deepening of the characters, story and themes, so that most of the season actually feels like a show that you can sink your teeth into. Importantly, "Inside" still retains its sense of whimsy, joy and schmaltz. This time around all that ooey-gooey sweetness just feels genuine and welcome.
Maybe it's because of the additions to the cast, which include Danson's wife Mary Steenburgen as his new love interest (yes, it's adorable), "New Girl" alum Max Greenfield as a sleazy college president, thespian David Strathairn as a snobby English literature professor and Gary Cole as a clueless, narcissistic billionaire.
Maybe it's the college-campus setting, which allows for a bit more complexity and pep in the plot. Maybe it's the scripts, which finally seem to realize the mystery isn't particularly important to the series, but simply an elaborate deus ex machina to get Charles and private investigator Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) into absurd situations. Maybe it's that, in 2025, unabashed sentimentality feels like the mood we all desperately need to embrace.
Charles, now an official apprentice to Julie in her PI business, is trying to discover who is blackmailing the president of Wheeler College (Greenfield) into turning down a $400 million donation from its uber-rich alum Brad Vinick (Cole). The esteemed faculty are all suspects, so former engineering professor Charles pretends to be one of them, trying to figure out who hates the tech bro billionaire enough to deny the struggling university a huge payday. His investigation is somewhat hampered by the fact that he instantly falls head over heels for Mona (Steenburgen), a whimsical professor of music and former rock star. The pair have great chemistry, who would have figured.
Meanwhile Julie is dealing with some personal mommy issues, Charles' daughter Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) is figuring out her next life steps and erudite Professor Benjamin Cole (Strathairn) is insulting Charles' intelligence every chance he gets. Unlike in Season 1, these subplots feel much more integrated into the main story, and they all come to a head at a fateful Thanksgiving episode that will surely make you feel better about any drama at your family table.
While there are a few little twists and turns, and one flaming portrait of Cole, Schur has wisely discovered that "Inside" is a show about feelings rather than a daring detective drama. There's love, loss, grief, anger and hope all wrapped up in Charles' life. It's cathartic to watch him go through it all. It's an afterthought to figure out who was behind the blackmail scheme all along.
"Inside" often seems to take place in a slightly fantastical version of reality, where things usually work out for the good guys and they everyday worries of woes of modern life don't matter that much. It's a place to explore and experiment, where people wear their hearts on their sleeves and subtext is all text.
It is a comforting place to spend your time, like a hot bowl of potato soup on a chilly November day. There is a time and place for the serious darkness of prestige television like "Breaking Bad" or "Stranger Things." "Inside" is for the days when simplicity, fun and freedom win out.
Who doesn't want to escape to that kind of world every once in a while?
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:'A Man on the Inside' Season 2 finally makes its sentimentality work
