A Man on the Inside review: Ted Danson comedy is warm and emotional, but light on laughs

However, the premise isn't all it's being sold on. It's also being sold on its talent, with the show being led by beloved actor Ted Danson, alongside acclaimed stars including Stephanie Beatriz and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

It also comes from Michael Schur, a producer and writer on the US version of The Office, and creator of Parks and Recreation, The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Now, you've got a potential hit on your hands.

So, does A Man on the Inside live up to its pedigree? In many ways, it does - it's a light yet often deeply emotional series, which effectively tugs at the heartstrings, wraps you up in its characters' lives and leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling at the end. It's just that, for a comedy, it's unfortunately not very funny.

In the eight-part series, Danson plays Charles, a retired professor still adjusting to the loss of his late wife. He routinely sends his daughter Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) cuttings from newspapers, but struggles to connect with her in any meaningful sense about how their lives have changed.

When she suggests he get a job to keep his mind occupied, Charles happens upon an ad posted by a private investigator, Julie, who is looking to hire an older gentleman to assist her with a case.

Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) hires Charles to go undercover in a retirement home, Pacific View, to search for a family heirloom on behalf of one of the resident's sons.

It's gone missing, and the son suspects foul play, even if Pacific View's manager Didi (Stephanie Beatriz) has repeatedly downplayed this as a possibility.

As we follows Charles's exploits in the home, we see him make friends with the residents and learn about their lives, becoming fully enmeshed within the community - while haphazardly also attempting to gain intel vital to the case and avoid detection.

There's lots to admire about the series. Its runtime (four hours in total) makes it highly watchable, perfect for a Netflix binge watch over one of those dark November nights.

It also features winning performances across the board, with the likes of Beatriz, Ellis, Estrada and Stephen McKinley Henderson all providing superbly nuanced turns that also bring in some light laughs when needed.

Of course, the main attraction is Danson, and he does not disappoint. He brings a gravitas to every scene, as well as his excellent comic timing and talent for drawing out pathos. His Charles is an utterly charming character, not so inept as to cause irritation, but not so proficient at his newfound role that he becomes overbearing or difficult to root for.

Charles's first job in the home is to insert himself into the residents' lives and get to know them, to build trust. It's through this, and through later revelations about his own life, that the series touches on universal themes around ageing, grief, dementia and purpose. It's also here that the series really excels.

There are scenes and discussions that are profoundly moving, and not in a way that is schmaltzy, saccharine or fake. There are well-placed moments of silence to land messages effectively, and enough subtlety so as not to alienate those simply looking for a light comedy series.

With actors this good, those moments are an easy sell, but it's also a credit to the scripts that they stay in the mind after the episodes have ended.

Given all this, it's therefore just unfortunate that the comedy is so lacking. When everything else works so well, you can't help but feel a sense of loss at what this series could have been.

One might argue you could overlook this omission, but laughs really are a crucial element of any comedy series, and A Man on the Inside provides few of them. It's not that the series is cringey or tough to watch or features a lot of jokes that don't land - not at all.

Instead, it's simply the case that there really aren't that many moments that seem to be aiming for comedy, or if they are they're aiming for a chuckle at best. In setting the show's sights on a lightness of touch, it seems Schur and the team may have overdone it - or, more accurately, underdone it.

It's still nice simply to spend time in the company of these richly developed, likeable characters, but it does mean that whenever the show isn't aiming for an emotional gut-punch, everything else does feel just that little bit flat, like there's an ingredient missing, a sense of purpose which has been forgotten.

The mystery itself is not in any way compelling, which is of no real consequence. It seems unlikely any viewers will be going into this series hoping to get caught up in a twisty, turny detective case. If you were, consider yourself primed - this is not a story element that will hook you, and even if it does you're likely to be thoroughly underwhelmed by the outcome.

All in all, A Man on the Inside is a mixed bag. A highly watchable show that will help to while away a few hours, and could even produce a tear or two, but which won't be close to the most memorable thing you watch this year, and might slightly test viewers' patience at times as they wait for it to really kick into gear comedically.

This is easy watching of the highest order, which is elevated by some supremely talented performers - with Danson as the obvious MVP.

Without giving away any spoilers, the series ends in a way which could certainly lend itself to a follow-up. Who knows whether that will ever come to pass, given the state of current streaming commissions, and the TV industry more widely.

However, if it does, here's hoping Schur and his team find their funny bones again. With just a dash of the comic sensibility of Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Parks and Rec added in, A Man on the Inside could become a truly winning formula.

A Man on the Inside is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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