A Man on the Inside Season 2 Review

A Man on the Inside (2024-)

Season 2 - 8 episodes (2025 November 20)
Watch A Man on the Inside on Netflix
Created by: Michael Schur
Based on: The Mole Agent by Maite Alberdi
Starring: Ted Danson, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Lilah Richcreek Estrada, Mary Steenburgen, Stephanie Beatriz, Gary Cole, Max Greenfield, David Strathairn, Michaela Conlin
Rated: TV-14
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Plot
Charles, a retired professor, gets a new purpose in life when he answers an ad from a private investigator and goes undercover as part of an investigation.

Verdict
While it treads similar ground as the first season, an undercover case and family dynamics, it's still just as sweet, humorous, and emotional. This expands past parent and child relationships to friendships and romances. Charles has a love interest, and the parent relationship is explored through Julie and her mother. It's a light and easy show with a surprising amount of depth, though this season covers a lot of the same ground as season one, and I like the first one more due to additional depth.
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Review
In season one Charles (Ted Danson) posed as a new resident at a retirement home to catch a thief. In doing so, he has to confront his feelings of grief and guilt surrounding his deceased wife. While he searches for information, he makes friends, finding what his life had been missing. It was drama and comedy in equal measure as Charles isn't adept at acting his part and his fastidiousness often annoys the private investigator. He and his daughter also have to manage their changing relationshiop as Charles has to confront growing older.

This wastes no time with Charles getting a new assignment to pose as a guest lecturer at a local college due to a missing laptop. Someone doesn't want Wheeler College to take wealthy donor Brad Vinick's (Gary Cole) money. The question is who is it and to what lengths will they go? In just a few minutes we've seen most of the old cast as Didi (Stephanie Beatriz) asks Julie (Lilah Richcreek) to do background checks.

Mary Steenburgen, Ted Danson play Mona, Charles

Charles still hangs out at the retirement home, maintaining the friendships he formed in the first season. While undercover at the college, Charles quickly falls for Mona (Mary Steenburgen). She's a free spirit artist that's a near opposite of Charles. He can't help but admit to her that he's a spy, which causes Julie to enter the campus and investigate. She's suspicious of Mona in part because Charles is adamant it can't be her

This season expands the story to the difficult relationship between Julie and her mother. They're estranged. Julie remains distant while her mother Vanessa (Constance Marie) would love to put the past behind them.

In episode five everyone is at Charles's house for Thanksgiving.  This season continues to balance comedy and emotion. While the case at Wheeler College provides plenty of drama and comedy, Charles balances his fake job as a professor with a budding relationship. While the parent relationship is more about Julia and Vanessa, that overlaps with Charles and his daughter Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) as well. Didi and Julie were at odds in the first season, but they find common ground this season.

Stephanie Beatriz, Lilah Richcreek play Didi, Julie

Through a few leads that turn up little, Charles and Julie get a big break when they find a plot to destroy the school. Vinick wants to reshape the school so Charles recruits his friends from the retirement home to steal Vinick's phone in an attempt to figure out details.

In the final episode Charles thinks he has the case solved, only to discover he doesn't. It's basically an Agatha Christie type reveal. The series can be so overwhelmingly sweet, and that's a good thing. It's humorous and entertaining while exploring relationship dynamics. That's not just parents and children. Charles also has to grapple with his and Mona's evolving relationship and what they want it to be.

This season doesn't have as much depth as the first season where Charles and his daughter explored their relationship as well as Charles dealing with getting older and how he's isolated himself. With this season, Charles only has to worry about his romantic relationship. The turmoil between Julia and Vanessa doesn't have the depth that Charles had in the first season. The romances just seem more generic.