"Yet it's exactly that inoffensiveness that makes this strain of television so insidious. When the New York Times critic James Poniewozik coined the term mid TV to describe the current profusion of well-cast, sleekly produced competence that has come to dominate our screens, it wasn't so much a vicious takedown as a shrug at the blah-ness of it all. The tech giants have pummelled us into submission by siphoning off our time via OK entertainment."
"In this case, the headline creator-actor combo of showrunner Michael Schur, whose CV includes Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, and the venerable Ted Danson, who happened to star in the latter. Then to hedge bets even further there's the IP groundwork. The first season of A Man on the Inside was based on a 2020 documentary called The Mole Agent, about a man who infiltrates a care home to investigate accusations of abuse."
A Man on the Inside is a cosy, lighthearted whodunnit about a retired professor who becomes a private investigator. The series leans into schmaltz and wisecrack-filled American comedy, offering inoffensive, heartwarming beats rather than sharp risk or darkness. The programme exemplifies a broader streaming trend of well-cast, sleekly produced competence that yields bland, unchallenging entertainment. The show trades on familiar names and IP, pairing showrunner Michael Schur with Ted Danson and adapting a documentary premise while avoiding its harsher themes. Plotwise, Danson's Charles goes undercover in a retirement community to solve a jewellery theft and rediscovers connection and friendship.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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