A surprisingly charming new TV show from Netflix reunites TV powerhouse producer Michael Schur with The Good Place star Ted Danson: A Man on the Inside.
A Man on the Inside tells the story of Charles (Ted Danson), a retiree who gets a new lease on life when he's hired by a private investigator to be the "man on the inside" during an investigation into a care home.
While it's predominantly a comedy series, A Man on the Inside does have a crime plot that we need to follow, as well as some character details that you may have missed.
That's why this A Man on the Inside episode 1 recap will walk you through what happened in the first episode of the series. Spoilers ensue!
A man on the outside
We begin the series with some aged footage, showing a younger Charles giving a speech about how he knew he wanted to marry a woman called Victoria, who is his wife. Then in the present day Charles wakes up in bed alone, and you can probably guess what this implies. He spends his whole day alone, doing crosswords and posting letters.
Then we jump to San Francisco, where private investigator Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) is investigating a care home. She tells her client that she can't get in, and is about to turn down the case, before she has an idea. She tells her assistant to put out a newspaper ad, looking for an old man to infiltrate the home.
One of the letters that Charles sent out reaches his daughter Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), her husband Joel (Eugene Cordero) and their three children, from whom the parents are struggling to get any information about school. Emily opens the letter and it's a newspaper clipping from Charles, who apparently sends a lot over. She worries about him being in his shell since Victoria died, and they decide to visit him.
Emily takes her children to visit Charles. She asks him about going back to work, but he refuses because he's retired. Then she asks him to promise to do one interesting thing with his time, a challenge which he accepts. Later he sees the advert that Julie placed.
Julie conducts interviews for her man on the inside, and most people fail her first task: she wants them simply to text her, however, the aging contenders all struggle with mobiles. That's different with Charles, so she hires him for the role. We hear what the case is: a woman's necklace has been stolen from the care home, and her son thinks the staff at the home stole it. Charles needs to spend a month at the home to gather evidence.
Learning to spy
Julie and Charles conduct a series of training exercises. First, she gives him an observation test at a coffee shop, but he gets all her questions wrong and admits that he was simply guessing. Next, he tries to do covert photography but is noticed by the couple he's meant to snap and they end up offering to take pictures of him. Finally, he is given spy glasses by Julie but acts strangely when wearing them, and ends up buying loads of peaches that he doesn't want.
Then, Charles and Julie go to the care home to meet its director Didi (Stephanie Beatriz). They conduct a tour of the home and see, amongst other things, The Neighborhood, a memory ward. This upsets Charles which Julie later confronts him on, and we learn that his late wife had Alzheimer's. However, after reflection, Charles agrees to undertake the job.
The next day Charles moves into the care home, and Julie helps him move in. Once they're done he calls Emily because he found a picture she made, and she's surprised when he mentions his wife. He almost tells her that he's become a spy, but pulls out, instead making up a lie about a class he's undertaking at the retirement home.
Finally, Charles suits up and is ready to begin
