Netflix viewers have admitted they’ve been left breaking down in tears watching a new series starring Ted Danson.
Based on the 2020 Chilean documentary The Mole Agent, which was nominated for an Oscar, the comedy series A Man on the Inside was released this week.
Created by The Good Place’s Mike Schur, the eight-episode series follows Charles (Cheers star Danson) a widower and retired engineering college professor who is challenged by his daughter to pursue a project or hobby that can bring some purpose back into his life.
After seeing a classified ad searching for an ‘investigative assistant’ aged between 75-85 he decides to give it a go.
He is then tasked with the job to go undercover at a retirement home in San Franscisco and determine the whereabouts of a missing ruby necklace.
The series has been praised by critics and audiences alike and already boasts a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘Ted Danson is brilliant in this masterpiece of holiday comedy. This is funny, poignant, edge of your seat and heart breaking all at the same time,’ Scott posted on the review site.
‘What starts as a quirky comedy/mystery series slowly grabs you by the throat and forces you to feel what the elderly feel—the loneliness, the ennui, the missing friends, and the looming end,’ Luc shared.
‘But it also highlights the possible heartwarming moments of that life stage: making new friends, discovering new things, and still striving to be better people—a defiant cry against the coming dark, proclaiming that no, their time is not yet up,’ he added.
‘It is a lovely show. Full of warmth. I binged the entire season. Ted Danson is great,’ Melinda added.
Another viewer called it ‘beautiful and eye opening’, while someone else said it had left them ‘ugly crying’.
The series also stars Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Emily, Charles’ daughter, Lilah Richcreek Estrada as Julie, a private investigator from Kovalenko Investigations who hires Charles and Stephanie Beatriz as Didi, the managing director of Pacific View Retirement Community.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the series, the 76-year-old Danson spoke about the message that could be taken from this story.
‘Mary always says that we tell our children, “You can do anything, you can be anything”. And then there’s a period in life when we stop telling that to ourselves. All of a sudden, we think there’s an age limit or something, a shelf life to our being creative and productive and giving in life.
‘And there isn’t, shouldn’t be, and it’s up to people my age to keep going. And what I was going to say is, it’s a good message to younger people too, to your children, that there’s no shelf life to your creativity, your productivity, and to your contribution to the world.
‘So, keep going. Look, here I am in my 70s, and I’m still going. It is a good message to younger people too.’
He went on to add that ‘we think that life sort of starts to end at a certain age, but it doesn’t end until it ends, and we should be celebratory from birth to death’.
A Man on the Inside is streaming on Netflix.
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